Everyone at GPFF would like to offer all our friends and readers heartfelt greetings of the season and wish everyone a happy 2011! GPFF had a very busy year as we made major steps forward and enjoyed a stellar 2010.

Our year-end newsletter features the Global Peace Convention 2010 and International Youth Leadership Summit held in Nairobi, Kenya last November. With Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki serving as patron of the GPC 2010 and the participation of Prime Minister Odinga and Vice President Musyoka, this represented a new level of successful public-private partnership.

It also includes a report on another important public-private partnership initiative, the Strengthening Families and Communities Coalition Summit, in Atlanta, Georgia earlier in December, that brought together 45 different partnering groups.

These projects are the fruit of yearlong grassroots efforts by community organizations and many volunteers. They were part of a global outreach that also saw regional Global Peace Festivals and Global Peace Leadership Conferences in Kathmandu, Nepal for South Asia, in Jakarta, Indonesia for the Asia-Pacific region, and in Asuncion, Paraguay for Latin America during the month of October, as well as an important Global Peace Leadership Conference in Korea.

All of these events took place in the context of ongoing projects focusing on service, environmental cleanup, character education, and strengthening families.

As we prepare and plan to build on the achievements of the past year in 2011, we want to thank you for your continued support for the work of building peace and realizing the vision of One Family under God, one person, one family, one community at a time.

The GPFF Staff

November 18, 2010

Commending the efforts of the Global Peace Festival Foundation in promoting peace, Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki officially opened the Global Peace Convention 2010 at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi Thursday morning.

"The Global Peace Convention is relevant to us as a a nation," the President said. "It comes at a time when we are still addressing post-election challenges." Kenya was torn by violence in the wake of the disputed 2007 election. An estimated 1,300 Kenyans were killed and several hundred thousand displaced from their homes.

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