Programme Honouring African Ambassadors, Co-hosted by UN Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari

During the evening, the Friends of the Children of Angola offered Sri Chinmoy an award for his humanitarian aid, provided to the country at the request of Professor Gambari in his capacity as Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Africa.

Professor Gambari and Maria Milucha Abrantes, Chairperson of the Friends of the Children of Angola, present an award to Sri Chinmoy, which reads: “Friends of the Children of Angola Award is most gratefully presented to Sri Chinmoy for your unprecedented humanitarian service to the children of Angola and to the needy people of Africa and the entire world; and for your golden friendship with humanity by lifting up the children of Mother Earth and by filling us all with hope and goodness. Presented by Maria Milucha Abrantes, Chairperson, Friends of the Children of Angola – October 28th, 2004, New York.”

Maria Milucha Abrantes: I would like to let you know that Sri Chinmoy and his students sent to Angola over one million dollars in medical equipment, medicines, baby foods, books and toys. And the mentor was Professor Ibrahim Gambari.

Sri Chinmoy (accepting the award): I wish to thank you both from the very depths of my heart. This award I shall treasure precisely because it deals with children. Children are the true dreamers of God’s Peace. Children are our true future. They embody God’s Dream. They reveal God’s Dream. They manifest God’s Dream. We are all in a sense God’s children, no matter how old we are according to the earthly calendar. But we all can become children and act like children if we live in the heart. If we live in the heart, we can feel the real children inside our heart. They are all the time dreaming and dreaming for a better world. So let us all feel that we are all true children of God. To love God and to serve God we came into the world.

I am so happy that we are able to offer our service to the soul, heart and life of Angola. I bow to the soul of Angola for accepting our humble services.

Professor Ibrahim Gambari, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa: With what words can I say thanks to my highly esteemed Brother and Friend Sri Chinmoy! I certainly cannot say better than Nelson Mandela did, Archbishop Tutu, former President Gorbachev or U Thant, but at least in these very humble words, I accept, dear Friend and Brother – because in Africa we say you can choose your friend, but you cannot choose your brother. What I can choose is my friend. What I cannot choose is my brother. So I am very doubly pleased that you are my friend and you are my brother.

Sri Chinmoy: I shall try my very best to be worthy of you.

Professor Gambari: Absolutely! You are already. This is the third time that I have had the honour and privilege to be lifted. I accept on behalf of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and myself. On behalf of all my friends and brothers and sisters here, I want to thank you because you have not just lifted our bodies – which is an enormous feat – but you have above all lifted our spirits. You are a man of love. You are a man of compassion. You are a man of peace. This you have demonstrated among all our brothers and sisters and friends, because that is what you are.

We also want to thank you for those wonderful songs that you have sung each time we were lifted. But above all, with great humility I have to accept the songs which were composed for me by my Friend and Brother, Sri Chinmoy.

On behalf of all of us, thank you very much.

Please consider us forever as your friends and your brothers, because we share with you peace, love and brotherhood. Once again, Sri Chinmoy, dear Friend and Brother, thank you very much for welcoming us and receiving us so warmly.