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On May 10, the “SGI Action for Peace” website was launched to share the activities of the SGI (Soka Gakkai International) as an NGO in consultative status with the UN. As well as sharing SGI’s engagement in the areas of peace, disarmament, sustainability and climate change, human rights education, gender equality and women’s empowerment, and humanitarian relief, the website also includes information about activities by Soka Gakkai constituent organizations around the world in these areas. This replaces the previous SGI Office for UN Affairs website and is available in English.

To celebrate May 3, Soka Gakkai Day, meetings were held around the world. Soka Gakkai Day commemorates the inaugurations of Josei Toda as second president of the Soka Gakkai on May 3, 1951, and Daisaku Ikeda as third president on May 3, 1960. It is also Soka Gakkai Mother’s Day. On May 1, members in Kenya gathered in Nairobi, connecting online with venues across the country. On the same day, meetings were also held in Hong Kong, Thailand, Chile, Austria and Portugal.

On April 23, the Toda Peace Institute, an affiliate of the Soka Gakkai, hosted the first in a series of online peace seminars. Toda Peace Institute Director Kevin Clements gave a talk on the situation in Ukraine. The talk was titled “Peace by Peaceful Means: Dealing with Aggression Creatively and Non-violently.” He introduced case studies of successful nonviolent civil resistance and stressed the importance of the resolve and solidarity of ordinary citizens in building peace.