WFWP Vienna Focuses on Education for Peace in the Summer of 2025 — Women's Federation For World Peace International

The Women’s Federation for World Peace Vienna organized the Quality Education for All Conference in Cierna Voda, a village just outside Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia on June 28 and 29, 2025 which touched on Education for Peace, Character Education, and Environmental Education.

Eighty-three participants from Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Czech attended the conference. Co-organizers included Allatra, Creative Society, Filipino community EnFID and the International Association of Youth and Students for Peace.

The presenters were experts in the fields of education, psychology, and medicine, and leaders of UN organizations.

Parent counselor Maria Nuerberger Schmidt, from Austria, said that the duty of the leader of the nation is to be a peacemaker. Shifting to education in the family, Schmidt said that parents need to be trained on responsibility for raising children with a sense of control when the children are young and gradually shift to giving them freedom as the children grow older, with considerable guidance and open communication.

Two teams of high school students presented pure water and sanitation projects called Gems of Water. They joined the International Commission for the Protection of Danube River (ICPDR) in a Joint Danube Survey.

WFWP Vienna also hosted a conference "Sustainable Peace starts now - with Education" August 7, 2025, in cooperation with UNODC, and the embassies of Mexico, Philippines, and Burkina Fasso.

Renate Amesbauer, President of WFWP Austria, opened the meeting and Dr. Maria Riehl, Director WFWPI UN Vienna Office, introduced the "Bridge of Peace" ceremony, the signature peace project of WFWP with a four-step process of taking responsibility, stopping enmity cycles, embracing others, and holding collaborative projects.

The conference was highlighted by the Debate for Peace with young Palestinian and Israeli leaders – Snir Eltzur and Yousef Abd El Ghany from Palestine and Yair Ziv-Av and Emily Shalbi from Israel.

Eltzur said that peace education is a way to teach youth to initiate peace and not to wait for others to do it for them. Having the mindset of breaking barriers and giving it a try were shared by all speakers as the first step to reach out and begin peace processes.