The day was cold, gray and wet. Welcome to Copenhagen the central hub of the world for nine days. Nine days, in which thousands of people from over 161 countries met to discuss the badly damaged fabric of society. The Summit was divided into two parallel events. The Heads of State and Government, Ministers, Ambassadors and experts including senior U.N. officials and NGO's met at the Bella Center to discuss the "Copenhagen Declaration" and to address the General Assembly. Members of the civil society gathered together at the Holmen Center to discuss, dialogue and give expression to their concerns through numerous creative manifestations. On the final day of both these events it was estimated that 130,000 people would have participated at some level.

At the Holmen Centre, The Brahma Kumaris had a display booth with a beautiful backdrop in pastel blue featuring the theme "Values of a Better World". This booth, which was designed and staffed by the Brahma Kumaris of the Copenhagen Center, attracted a lot of attention and was visited by delegates, forum participants and local visitors. There was a lot of media coverage and Brahma Kumaris hosted a workshop every day. These workshops were listed in the official catalogue of the Forum activities and were facilitated to accommodate the areas of concern of the Summit such as values in work, education, commitment and the general quality of live. The overall spirit of the Forum was a genuine desire to know more about each one’s expertise but more importantly a clamour to work together for the common good of humanity.

At the Bella Centre, the atmosphere was highly political as delegates grappled with the Copenhagen Declaration. In the midst of such an environment the Brahma Kumaris’ silent presence had a resounding echo in the corridors and conference rooms in just one word ‘Values’. Being a member of the Values Caucus to the Summit provided a very good opportunity to share in a way which was very universal. The international community has begun to examine concepts such as compassion, love, tolerance, justice, peace, harmony, beauty and unity from a spiritual, moral and ethical basis. This time it was not our job to convince others of the importance of spiritual values but rather they were calling out for such values, almost as if they were clutching on to the last straw. Our written statement "A World in Transition" was a comprehensive one dealing with individual worth and human dignity. This statement was distributed widely both at the Summit and the Forum. We must have distributed more than 800 statements at the Bella Center alone. The Values Poster which was specially prepared for the Summit and featured the Global Vision Statement and artwork from the Visions of a Better World book and contained a messge from Amb. Juan Somavia, Chairperson of the Summit. The posters were so popular that hundreds would disappear before our very eyes as soon as they were made available to the participants.

As at all U.N. conferences, it was an opportunity for international networking. The Visions of a Better World book and "The World in Transition" Statement were presented to a number of prominent individuals who included: Mrs. Hillary Clinton (USA); Queen Noor (Jordan); Nayla Moawad (former First Lady of Lebanon); Minister of Human Resources, Literacy and Education (India); Prime Ministers/Presidents of Bosnia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Guyana, Norway, Sweden, Nigeria, Costa Rica. Close contact was also made with Dr. Yunus of Bangladesh, the person who has revolutionized the word of banking with his experiment of giving loans to the poor.

After nine days in a political pressure cooker we left Copenhagen with a completely new outlook in preparing for Beijing. We felt as if a major milestone had been reached in our association with the United Nations; and that for the first time the words "spiritual values" have been included in the official Summit Declaration. Now that spiritual values have penetrated the walls of bureaucracy and lodged itself into the documents of the United Nations, the real work of the Brahma Kumaris has begun.