Stella A. Attakpah

Ms. Stella A. Attakpah our Obaahema of the month was awarded the distinction of Ambassador for Peace by The Inter religious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP ) in August 2003. The IIFWP is a worldwide active public organization, which is dedicated to Peace Building through education programs, workshops, conferences and publications. It has been holding conferences in all UN member nations to inform them about the concern for the creation of an inter religious council in the UN referred to as Peace UN. 150 people met on 30 August 2003, in Vienna to discuss the topic "The World in an Upheaval - New Ways towards Lasting Peace". Among them were Ambassadors and other professionals from the diplomatic service, religious representatives and responsible people from different fields. The conference offered a mixture of spiritual reflection, academic lectures and cultural programs. Dr. Bimal Kundu, leader of the first Hindu temple in Vienna, Prof. Dr. Josef Frickel, a Roman Catholic Theologian, Peter Jurkowitsch representing the Buddhist faith, P. Avedis Sahakyan from Armenian Apostolic Church and Maher El-Attar representing the Islamic religion opened the meeting with prayers and texts from their religious traditions. An empty chair represented all other religions that could not make to this ceremony. She also attended a seminar on "Living and working for the sake of others" in Bergen aan Zee in the Netherlands, from 18-21 March 2004, where representatives of all the religious faiths were brought together to see how best they could work towards promoting and facilitating the works of the United Nations Religious Council. It is her belief that only religions can unite peoples of the world and bring peace to the world. Currently a staff member of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, Ms. Attakpah is the first of 4 children born to Francis and Peace Attakpah. Born and raised in Ghana, she has lived in Egypt, France, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Guinea-Conakry, Togo and Senegal. Ms. Attakpah's exposure to the rich diversity of African, Arab and European cultural traditions fueled her fascination with other cultures. She is particularly keen in promoting the Ghanaian culture through fashion and art in Vienna where she resides. It is her believe that only by trying to understand other cultures through cultural exchange programs will the peoples of the world get to tolerate each other and accept to live in peace and harmony on earth. Ms. Attakpah's creative skills and boundless energy is often the driving force behind charity events to raise money for needy children in Africa and African refugees in Vienna. The clear focus of Ms. Attakpah's charity work is children and women. She has organized among others, a collection, through the IAEA staff council, for the children of the victims of the Accra Sports Stadium disaster in Ghana. Ms. Attakpah is currently engaged in supporting the "Tongu Youth and Children Evangel (ToYACE)"to help school drop-outs and girls who have been released from religious servitude known as troxovi (Trokosi), in the Tongu district of the Volta Region in Ghana, to resettle and start life afresh. troxovi is centuries' old Ewe religious practice which needs to be abolished because of its harmful effects on the life of young children especially girls. Ms. Attakpah, adoptive mother of three (2 boys of 17 and 15 and a girl of 8), also contributes to the inter-generational exchange of cultural traditions by offering African dance courses and theatre lessons cost free to children and youth of African origin living in Vienna between the ages of 8 and 16 years. It is hoped that through such African cultural activities organized in Vienna, a better understanding, tolerance and acceptance of each other's cultures may be achieved in order to promote the spirit of unity in diversity among children in the Austrian schools. As Ambassador of Peace, Ms. Attakpah hopes that this opportunity will open new doors for her to help plant the seed of peace in the hearts and minds of the children she is engaged with who would grow into peaceful and peace loving adults and will hopefully spread the word in order to help make a peaceful world.