"It Is Impossible to Respect Another's Homeland Without Having Learned to Love Your Own": Ambassadors of Traditional Values Unite the World at the Second World Public Assembly
The Round Table "Forming a Community of Ambassadors for Peace of Traditional Values" was held on September 18, 2026, at the World Trade Center. The event was part of the Second World Public Assembly "New World: Values That Unite," held in Moscow on September 18 - 19.
The meeting was dedicated to forming the concept of an international community uniting educators, public figures, representatives of culture, and leaders of people's diplomacy. At the center of the agenda was the search for practical ways to strengthen friendly ties through educational, youth, and cultural projects.
The initiative already has a foundation — the community of the international competition "Tell the World About Your Homeland." Over nine years, more than 31,500 people from 96 countries have taken part in it. Behind these figures are stories about native cities, family traditions, national culture, and people whose lives help one understand another country better than official reference books.
The next step is to turn the connections that have arisen around the competition into a sustainable network of cooperation. The Round Table was organized as a platform for exchanging experience and discussing mechanisms for developing the community.
Alla Shelyapina, editor-in-chief of the portal "Vezde Nashi," publicist, and public figure moderated the meeting. One of the opening questions of the discussion was how the new association differs from existing international organizations: what independent task it will address and what it can offer its participants.
— We have gathered today to unite the efforts of people who want the younger generation throughout the world to grow up in a space of traditional values and, through their actions, to make the world better and cleaner. Right now, the most important thing is to move from words to deeds: to define the concrete goal of the ambassadors' community, its practical tasks, and the projects that we will be able to implement together, — Alla Shelyapina stated.
The experience of the competitions "Tell the World About Your Homeland" and "Russia — A Country of Traditional Values" was presented by their organizer, Ekaterina Averkieva, president of the Innovation Center for the Development and Upbringing of Children and Youth. According to her, the competitions invite children and young people not simply to formulate the values that are important to them, but also to reveal them through their own story. A story about family, one's native language, a memorable place, or a national tradition becomes simultaneously a way to reflect on one's roots and an invitation to a conversation with peers abroad.
It is precisely this format that is laid as the foundation of the future community: to introduce people not to an abstract image of a country, but to its living culture through personal experience, creativity, and joint work.
— Over the years of implementing our projects, children, parents, educators, and public leaders from 96 countries have already united around them. We want to turn one-time participation in competitions into a permanently operating community where people of goodwill can support one another and together move from values to concrete actions, — Ekaterina Averkieva shared.
The international composition of the Round Table made it possible to consider the initiative from the standpoint of different cultures and social practices. Mikhos Filaniotis, chairman of the Cyprus — Russia Friendship Society, head of the Cypriot branch of the International Russophile Movement, and leader of the "Friends of Great Russia" movement, spoke about the fact that the initiative presupposes a search for points of contact without erasing national differences. Love for one's homeland, care for family, respect for elders, and responsibility before the next generation can be expressed in different ways while preserving a human meaning understandable to people from different countries.
— We face the task of creating an international community of people who consider family a value, respect their parents, are not ashamed of their culture, know the history of their country, and understand that patriotism does not mean hostility toward other peoples. The new community must not compete with already existing organizations, but rather unite and coordinate their efforts, creating joint educational, cultural, and youth projects. Its mission is to strengthen friendship and mutual respect between peoples while preserving cultural diversity and traditional values, — the speaker clarified.
A special place in the Round Table's agenda was occupied by the issue of how to cultivate love for one's homeland simultaneously with respect for other cultures. International competitions, pedagogical partnerships, and creative projects make it possible to combine these tasks: to better understand one's own heritage and to learn to see the value of another's.
— It is impossible to respect another's homeland without having learned to love your own. When a child tells someone about his village, his native city, his grandmother and grandfather, he understands for the first time: he has something to be proud of. And when such stories are heard from the lips of children from different countries, a genuine friendship of peoples is born — not on paper, but in hearts. This competition forms a reliable immunity against hatred and xenophobia, — emphasized Anicet Gabriel Kofocha, former Ambassador of Benin to the Russian Federation and laureate of the First International Bridge Awards in the nomination "Public Activity and Charity."
The concept of the initiative combines international scale with personal participation. An ambassador, in this understanding, is a person who is capable of telling about his country, hearing another, and finding an opportunity for cooperation.
The discussion was also attended by:
Natalia Soldatova — Deputy Minister of Education of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, online;
Abdelhad Al-Breizat — member of the Parliament of Jordan, head of the Jordan — Russia Friendship Committee;
Lyubov Demidova — chairperson of the board of the Association "Strategic Agency for the Development of Relations with African Countries";
Olga Morozova — deputy head of the international relations department of Moscow Pedagogical State University (MPGU);
Meerim Subanbekova — president of the "Meerim Shoolasy" foundation;
Valeria Filippova — vice-president of the Center for Social Architecture "Sfera";
Tatiana Ananyina — deputy director of the Center for Film Pedagogy and Media Culture of MPGU, curator of the competitions on the part of MPGU;
Elena Avgust — head of media resources at IOT University, author of the "Code Russia" project;
Irina Penina — founder of the "IgraMedia" Limited Liability Company, chairman of the board of the Autonomous Non-Profit Organization of Additional Professional Education "Center for Education and Research";
Kirill Podyachev — leading research fellow at the Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
Oleg Sorokin — deputy director of the "Higher School of Modern Social Sciences" of Lomonosov Moscow State University.
The Round Table marked a transition from many years of competition experience to a discussion of a new form of international interaction. Its prospect is to preserve the connections that have already arisen between participants from different countries and to give them continuation in joint educational, cultural, and public work.
Additional information is available on the official website of the World Peoples Assembly and at media@world-assembly.org.