January 2nd, 2020 marked the first Anniversary of the Afghanistan Youth Empowerment and Peace-building Organization (AYEPO). We (the AYEPO Family) celebrated the day with the presence of our guests, team, members, volunteers and beneficiaries. The event was not only in celebration of our establishment but also to cherish and reflect upon our service and milestones achieved over the past year.
The year (2019) was filled with so much joy, happiness and love as we worked and rendered our services to young people in Kabul & beyond. During the celebration we had many activities including poetry recitals and viewings of short clips prepared by our very own program participants, circus performances, games and other fun activities. A special thank you was extended to our guests and speakers who helped us in our trainings. The AYEPO Team as well as its beneficiaries took time to share their experiences and reflect on the past year.
In his speech, AYEPO Founder-Director, Ahmad Shah Karimi spoke about the numerous programs held by AYEPO during 2019, and their outcomes and impacts on individual and community levels. Mr. Karimi highlighted the Art Competition “Paint for Peace”, which brought together students from various schools, who expressed through painting what Peace meant to them. He further reflected on AYEPO’s Peace Forum, which was held on the Eve of International Peace Day. Both programs promoted peace, friendship and social harmony among schools and students who came together from different parts of Kabul city.
The Vision and Mission of AYEPO and reasons why the organization exists as a Youth Empowerment and Peace-building Organization was discussed. Outlining AYEPO’s prospective (works)/future projects, Mr. Karimi spoke about extending these initiatives to other provinces with the purpose of mobilizing youth to work together and promote peace, social harmony and unity in their homes, communities and society as a whole.
“During the year, we have come a little distance in pursuit of our mission – and nothing would have been possible without the commitment, hard work, passion and selfless service of our amazing team, the support of some wonderful people (Mr. Tom Valenti & Meena Waghry, Janielle Beh) and United Religions Initiative and others who have encouraged, inspired and assisted us along the way,” he said.
Ahmad Shah thanked and lauded our team for all they have made possible and encouraged them to maintain their energy, commitment and hard-work as we began another year of service and healing and peace-building.
