By Our Correspondent
As the 9th anniversary of the September 18th World Peace Summit, hosted by HWPL, is set to commence from the 18th, a volunteer from HWPL’s airport reception service is welcoming Marcilio Franca Filho, an alternate arbitrator of the South American Common Market Court, who arrived at Incheon International Airport on the morning of the 17th. Photo provided by | HWPL.
Personnel from overseas began to arrive in earnest on the 16th, two days ahead of the 9th anniversary of the September 18th World Peace Summit.
Under the theme “Implementation of Multidimensional Strategies for Institutional Peace” about 800 people, including more than 40 top-level officials such as current and former heads of state and ministers, enter Korea for this event.
Staff from Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL)’s Personnel Management Department and Airport Reception Department have been preparing to welcome these personnel since early morning on the 16th.
Despite of far distance, their busy appearance signaled that personnel arrivals were imminent. The airport reception staff crisscrossed the airport. They were focused on checking both reception preparations and whether foreign personnel had arrived amidst constant radio chatter.
The Airport Reception Department is responsible for everything from issuing visas to ticketing during the event period, helping ensure a safe and orderly entry and exit for these individuals.
In addition, they are prepared to deal with unexpected situations such as cancellations or delays in departure or connecting flights among foreign personnel. They coordinate smoothly with protocol · interpretation departments and vehicle services to ensure that tired overseas personnel can feel more comfortable without any jet lag.
At the same time, it is part of their job to ensure that citizens using airports do not feel inconvenient. As they are responsible for both beginning and end of events, they pledged to focus on ‘safety and order.’
Chanmi Lee, head of airport reception department said “There are about 800 overseas visitors coming this time around with many influential former/current state guests among them. We’ve prepared protocols fitting their stature.” She added “It feels like our consistent online communication with them during COVID-19 is finally paying off.”
Indeed, there was an unexpected situation – one overseas personnel injured his leg at a transit point. Although he could have returned home due to injury, he chose Korea to attend HWPL’s September 18th World Peace Summit’s anniversary ceremony.
The airport reception staff did not hesitate in preparing a wheelchair for this personnel’s mobility needs while arranging medical treatment at a hospital.
It was a moment when it was confirmed that interpreters assigned to personnel were closely connected with those from airport receptions.
The staff in charge of interpreting for the personnel immediately informed the volunteers in Korea about the personnel’s determination to ‘attend World Peace Summit, even if injured’. The airport reception department prepared a wheelchair right away to ensure that the personnel would stay as comfortable as possible in Korea.
The 9th anniversary of the September 18th World Peace Summit, hosted by HWPL, is set to commence from the 18th. On the 16th, volunteers from HWPL’s Personnel Management Department were seen organizing promotional materials.
At the corner of Hotel where event will be held, around twenty volunteers were making kits containing gifts commemorating attendance at World Peace Summit as well as guidebooks about peace events – all waiting in shopping bags.
They had to prepare total of about 2,400 kits including domestic and international personnel as well as managers’. Soon after Jaeyoon Ko, the manager of material from Personnel Management Department, checked inventory lists over again.
Christopher Lusambo, [Sep 26, 2023 at 5:48 PM]
He said “We’re preparing so there won’t be anything missing during this World Peace Summit where over twenty sessions are prepared but we’re worried because there’s so much stuff that it might be too heavy to carry.”
One volunteer who is in charge of one session said “Everyone who comes here travels long distances out of sincere wish for peace – we hope small things we’ve prepared can move them every moment throughout this event.”
Seeing the staff meticulously arranging chairs and tables for over 2000 people, as well as neatly placing bottled water, pens, paper, and peace textbooks on top of them, gave a sense of how this event was prepared and how it would be conducted.
In this way the 9th anniversary of September 18th World Peace Summit seems to bring peace one step closer by the sight of staff quietly sweating in their efforts to provide customized protocols to domestic and international personnel under the keyword ‘safety and order’.
Reporter Kim, Tae Hyun [email protected]
