Yaoundé, Cameroon - An estimated crowd of 120 peace lovers jammed the main conference hall of the Hotel des Députés in downtown Yaoundé on September 21 to celebrate the 2008 United Nations International Day of Peace co-sponsored by UPF and the UN office in Cameroon.

The program started at 9:30 am with the National Anthem and a word of prayer from Rev. Pastor Pepin Bedel Ihongui. Mrs. Anne Nsang, representing the UN Information Center in Cameroon, educated the audience on how the United Nations has been working to create and maintain peace worldwide. She then read the United Nations Declaration of Peace. Professor Hubert Mono Ndjana, Professor of Philosophy at Cameroon University, read the UPF Declaration of Peace.

Mrs. Lau Asong, the National Leader of UPF, then described how peace was destroyed and how it will be rebuilt based on true families. After that, she read a speech by Dr. Banda Chemuta, a Cameroon Ambassador for Peace and member of UPF's Global Peace Council who could not attend the event because he was away from Yaoundé on mission.

After a group photo, the participants were transported by buses to the Rehabilitation Center for Handicapped People in nearby Etoug Ebe. People were moved to see university professors and religious leaders mopping the floors and reaching out in heart to the sick people.

To read UPF's Peace Declaration and reports of observances in other nations, click here.