Dr Susan Moody, a famed American homeopathist, arrived in Tihrán. She and four Persian Bahá'í doctors started the Sehat Hospital. Because the hospital was only accessible to the wealthy she established a private practice that was open to all women regardless of their ability to pay. [BFA2:359-360]
• She spent two days in 'Akká en route to Persia and 'Abdu'l-Bahá conferred upon her the title Amatu'l-'Alí (Handmaid of the Most High). [BFA2:358]
• Dr Sarah A. Clock arrived from Seattle in 1911 to assist her followed by Miss Elizabeth Stewart (nurse). [BFA2:361]
• In 1925-1926, after the murder of Robert Imbrie, she travelled the United States from the east to the west coast, raising awareness of the needs of the work in Iran.
• Dr Sarah Clock sailed from New York for Iran on 8 December 1910. She served the Bahá'í community of Iran with great sacrifice for years. While her main task was treatment of the sick, she never ceased educating the youth. She was an energetic tolerant and contented woman. Very often needy people were not only exempted from paying her meagre honoraria, but also received medicaments for free. She was highly respected by the Bahá'í community and non-Bahá'í alike. Finally after twelve years of devoted service, she died of pneumonia in Tehran. [OLOMp43-44]

Within a year of her arrival in Persia, Dr. Susan Moody opened the Tarbíyat School for Girls in Tihrán. [BBD221–2; BFA2:360–1]

Some of those serving at the school were: Susan Moody, Sydney Sprague, Lillian Kappas, Sarah Clock and Elizabeth Stewart. [GPB261]

• Miss Lillian Kappes of Hoboken, New Jersey arrived in December of 1911 to serve as a teacher. She stopped in Thonon to visit 'Abdu'l-Bahá on the way. [SoW Vol 2 No 17 Jan 19. 1912 p2] She died on the 1st of December, 1920 of typhus and was buried there.
• She was replaced by Genevieve Coy, a qualified psychologist, a Ph.D. in 1922 who was followed by Adelaide Sharp in 1929. Her mother, Clara Sharp joined her in 1931. [BFA2p361, AY233]
• Elizabeth Stewart who served as a nurse at the school accompanied Lillian Kappes on her arrival. Miss Stewart served until 1924 when she returned to Philadelphia where she died in 1926. [ABF43]
• Munírih Khánum Ayádí, the mother of Dr Karím Ayádí (later famed as the Shah's much-trusted doctor) was Persia's first official Director of the Tarbíyat School for Girls. She was widely recognized as exceptional, at a time when Persia's Bahá'í women were only gradually emerging from their earlier state under Islam. Much respected by the men, her attitude toward them was one of total equality. Her greatness was in herself, her devotion to the Faith absolute, and she was made a member of such advanced committees as the Bahá'í Women's Committee. Her views were moderated by her sense of humour, which included self-deprecation so that she never subjected you to her piety. One day during the Bahá'í Fast, she asked Marzieh Gall: 'Do you think God would notice if I ducked into that room and sneaked a few puffs of tobacco?' [AY333]
• She was appointed as a government school inspector in Tehran. See Senn McGlinn's provisional translation of 'Abdu’l-Baha’s letter to Munireh Ayadi, School Inspector.

Talk at Earl Hall, Columbia University, New York. [PUP29; Mahmúd's Diary p47-48]
• 'Abdu'l-Bahá visited The Bowery Mission accompanied by Edward Getsinger and Juliet Thompson as noted in her unpublished Diary. They arrived with two heavy bags of quarters to distribute to the poor and spoke with hundreds of impoverished men. [OPOP165-168, PUP32]
• He invited Mary William, a rare female journalist who wrote under the name of "Kate Carew". Her signature style was one of scepticism.

Turkey entered the war on the side of the Central Powers.
• Palestine was blockaded and Haifa was bombarded. [GPB304]
• `Abdu'l-Bahá sent the Bahá'ís to the Druze village of Abú-Sinán for asylum. [AB411; DH124; GPB304, BWNS1297]
• For `Abdu'l-Bahá in wartime see CH188–228.
• `Abdu'l-Bahá had grown and stored corn in the years leading up to the war and was now able to feed not only local people but the British army. [AB415, 418; CH210; GPB304, 306]
• Properties in the villages of Asfíyá and Dálíyá near Haifa were purchased by `Abdu'l-Bahá, and, at the request of Bahá'u'lláh, bestowed upon Díyá'u'lláh and Bahí'u'lláh. Land was also acquired in the villages of Samirih, Nughayb and 'Adasíyyih situated near the Jordan river. 'Adasíyyah was the village occupied by Bahá'ís of Zoroastrian heritage that produced corn for the Master's household. The village of Nughayb is where the relatives of the Holy Family lived. [CH209-210]
  • See the book "Adasiyyih: The Story of 'Abdu’l-Baha's Model Farming Community" by Paul Hanley (2024).
  • See also 'Adasiyyah: A Study in Agriculture and Rural Development by Iraj Poostchi. This village was purchased by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1901. He paid 400 Turkish gold lira for 920 hectares and then gifted 1/24th of the total area to the family from whom He had made the purchase.
  • Under the guidance of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi this village became a model of agriculture and Bahá'í life. The Bahá'ís lost ownership after 1962 when Jordan implemented land reforms.
  • 'Adasiyyah is mentioned in the film Exemplar (17:40-18:50).
• See as well `Abdu'l-Baha in Abu-Sinan: September 1914 by Ahang Rabbani.
• See Senn McGlinn's Abdu'l-Baha's British knighthood for more background.

`Abdu'l-Bahá was invested with the insignia of the Knighthood of the British Empire as Sir Abbas Effendi in a ceremony in Haifa. [AB443; BBRXXX, 343-5; CH214; DH149; GPB306; The Glorious Journey by Craig Weaver and Helen Bond p19]
• For the document recommending `Abdu'l-Bahá for knighthood, see BBR344.
• The knighthood was in recognition of `Abdu'l-Bahá's humanitarian work during the war for famine relief. [AB443]
• He accepted the honour as a gift from a `just king'. [AB443]
• He did not use the title. [AB443]
• For Lady Blomfield's account see AB443-4 and CH214-15.
• See SoW vol 13 No 11 p298.
• See Senn McGlinn's Abdu'l-Baha's British knighthood.

The Tarbíyat Bahá'í Schools in Tihrán and all other Bahá'í schools across the country were closed by order of the Minister of Education (headed by 'Ali-Asghar-i-Hikmat, a well-known Azali) when they failed to open on a holy day. [BBD221–2; BW18:389; CB312; GPB363; PP308; RoB4p313; BN No 97 January 1936 p1]
• In spite of (or because of) their high standards of education, the Bahá'í schools, which attracted ordinary people as well as a number of rich, famous and influential families to send their children as pupils, faced harsh opposition, mainly from the more traditional and conservative elements in the society, and specifically from the Shi'i clerics. This was hardly surprising, given the strong animosity towards the Bahá'ís in Shi'i Iran. According to Shoghi Effendi, while the 'ulama' headed the opposition to the Bábis and Bahá'ís, it was the Qajar kings and governors who willingly became the means through which this opposition was translated into action, as a way to obtain the clerics' support and backing for their own policies. But as far as Nasir al-Din Shah was concerned, he had his own reasons for persecuting Bábis and Bahá'ís (between whom he did not appear to differentiate) . In 1852 an inept attempt had been made on his life. [The Forgotten Schools: The Baha'is and Modern Education in Iran, 1899–1934 p97]
• For Western accounts of the episode see BBR475–9.

The passing of Urbain Joseph Ledoux (b. August 13, 1874 in Ste Hélène de Bagot, Quebec). He was buried in Saint Joseph's Cemetery Biddeford, Maine.
• He is believed to be the third French-Canadian to become a Bahá'í outside of Canada. [OCBB94]
• He gave an address to the National Convention at the Hotel McAlpine on the 28th of April, 1919 entitled The Oneness of the World of Humanity. [SoW Vol 10 May 17, 1919 No 4 p58] "This talk 'sounded so French-Canadian' that later francophone believers could still be moved to tears in reading its text." [OCBB94]
• He received widespread publicity for his opening of bread lines in New York (The Stepping Stone) in 1919, and for "auctions" of the jobless to employers in New York and Boston during the Depression of 1921. He was received by President Warren Harding shortly after arriving in Washington, D.C. in September 1921. Ledoux spent a little over three months in Washington, D.C. 1921-22 campaigning for a public works program funded by a tax on companies that made excessive war profits during World War I. His tactics included setting up a hotel housing the unemployed on Pennsylvania Avenue, an auction of the jobless, speaking before the unemployment conference, calling for the arrest of international arms conference delegates. He walked around the city carrying a white umbrella, a lighted lantern and a Bible or a copy of the Sermon on the Mount saying he was like Diogenes searching for an honest man.
• Urbain Ledoux is shown in Boston in 1921 auctioning off an unemployed man. He conducted these auctions in New York and Boston in order to garner publicity for the plight of the unemployed and to find work for the jobless. He called himself "Mr. Zero" because he said he didn't want any publicity for himself.
• "Mr. Zero" returned to Washington in 1932 with the Bonus Expeditionary Force, leading an unauthorized march on the White House July 16, 1932 that resulted in his arrest along with two others. The march frightened President Herbert Hoover who set in motion the eviction of the bonus marchers from the city — a move that backfired on Hoover and helped to cement his reputation as someone uncaring about the plight of the nation's unemployed. Photos. [Wikipedia]
• Find a grave.
• His obituary in the New York Times April 10th 1941.
• He is reported to have "rescued" 85 year-old Sarah Farmer in Portsmouth where she was being held in a sanatorium against her will. [Boston Post 4 August 1916]
• See a story from Ephemeral New York.
• There is a short description of Urbain LeDoux in He Loved and Served: The Story of Curtis Kelsey p 33-34.

Initially founded as a hostel for Bahá'í children with sixteen children, what was the New Era High School and Senior Secondary had grown to become a leading international co-educational institution with many hundreds of students.
• Founded as a separate institution in 1987, the New Era Development Institute had its beginnings as a service project for students in the 1970s and 1980s when the school set up programmes to assist the poor and underdeveloped villages in the region. [New Era High School and Senior Secondary website, Wikipedia, BBD171; BBRSM153]
• For the history of the school see BW16:320–6.

The Bahá'ís of Iran launched a Forty-five Month Plan, the Persian 45 Month Plan ( 11 October 1946 to 9 July 1950, The Centenary of the Martyrdom of the Báb). Every province had specific assignments. [BBRSM158; CB316] The objectives of the plan included;

1. Consolidation of all local Bahá'í communities.

2. Reestablishment of 62 dissolved Assemblies. (93 LSAs formed)

3. Formation of 22 groups. (37 established)

4. Creation of 13 new centres. (24 localities established)

5. Development of Assemblies from groups in three adjoining countries, namely in Kabul, Afghanistan, Mecca, Arabia and Bahrein Island, Persian Gulf.

6. The formation of groups in four localities on the Arabian Peninsula.

7. The sending pioneers to India and 'Iráq to assist in the formation of new groups.

The Bahá'ís of Tehran were called upon to send out 50 families into the pioneer field. (160 arose) Every individual Bahá'í was included in the operation of the Plan-as a volunteer, by deputizing a pioneer, by contributing funds, by circuit teaching or by providing hospitality to students whose parents had become pioneers. [BW4p34-35; BW11p34-36]

• Concurrent with the Forty-Five Month Plan the Bahá'ís of Iran made a concerted effort to remove Bahá'í women from the traditional shackles of a lack of education and an inability to participate in public affairs. Women's conferences were held, educational opportunities were created, equality of opportunity, right and privilege was declared to be an essential. [BW11p36].

A property was acquired outside of Gwalior, India, for a teaching institute. [DM192]
• The institute was later converted into a boarding hostel solely for Indian children and still later into the 'Rabbani School', now an accredited agricultural school. [DM192–3; VV82]

The Comunicación Intercambio y Radiodifusión Bahá'í para America Latina y el Caribe (CIRBAL) was established by the Universal House of Justice to promote the development of Bahá'í radio and mass media activities in Latin America. [BW19:59]
• The special Committee for Service to the Blind, located in the United Kingdom, was a clearing house and production and distribution centre for materials both on tape and in Braille; and CIRBAL (Centro para Intercambio Radiofonico Baha'i de America Latins), among its other functions, serves as a clearing house for tapes, videotapes, script and other materials suitable for use via radio and television. Its mandated area is South and Central America and the Caribbean. [BW18p115, 117]

The Office of Social and Economic Development was opened at the Bahá'í World Centre. [AWH8; BBD70; BBRSM154; BW19:58; VV78]
• See BW19:351–5 for a survey of Bahá'í social and economic projects.

The establishment of the Office of Social and Economic Development.

 In a message to the Bahá'í world the Universal House of Justice called on individuals and Bahá'í communities to apply the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh systematically to the problems of their societies. This seminal statement pointed to the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh as a source of order in the world, asserted the coherence of the spiritual and the material dimensions of human life, praised the social and economic progress achieved by the Bahá'í community of Iran, announced the establishment of the Office of Social and Economic Development at the World Centre and defined the role of various Bahá'í agencies in fostering development. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 20 October, 1983, Mess63-86p602-603,AWH6–10; BW19:153, BW92-93pg229-245]

• For the response of the Bahá'í world to the letter see BW19:112–13.
• See also Social and Economic Development: The Bahá'í Contribution, a paper prepared for the United Nations Department of Public Information Annual Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations ("New Approaches to Development: Building a Just World") held in New York 5 September 1984.
• The document Bahá'í Social and Economic Development: Prospects for the Future, prepared at the World Centre was approved for publication by the Universal House of Justice on the 16th of September 1993, for use by the Office of Social and Economic Development (OSED) in orienting and guiding the work in this area. Most central to this vision was the question of capacity building. That activity should start on a modest scale and only grow in complexity in keeping with available human resources was a concept that gradually came to influence development thought and practice. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 26 November, 2012]
• See also The Evolution of Institutional Capacity for Social and Economic Development by the Office of Social and Economic Development dated 28 August, 1994. It described two types of organizational arrangements that emerged in the Bahá'í world capable of undertaking increasingly complex development efforts - training institutes and Bahá'í-inspired agencies.
• A related document, The Prosperity of Humankind, was issued by the Bahá'í International Community's Office of Public Information and disseminated at the United Nations' 1995 World Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen, Denmark. It offered a vision of social and economic development based on Bahá'í concepts. The document was first released on 23 January 1995.
• A Clarification of Some Issues Concerning Social and Economic Development in Local and National Communities was prepared by the Office of Social and Economic Development in November of 1999 to respond to a number of questions that had arisen over the previous few years. It touched on such issues as degrees of complexity in development activity, the relationship between teaching and development, and participation in development projects.
• See also Social Action by Office of Social and Economic Development dated 26 November, 2012.
• See also For the Betterment of the World:The Worldwide Bahá'í Community's Approach to Social and Economic Development by Office of Social and Economic Development released on the 27th of April, 2018, updating publications of 2003 and 2008.
• See also Vick, Social and Economic Development: A Bahá'í Approach.
• The Office of Social and Economic Development was succeeded by the Bahá'í International Development Organization on 9 November 2018.

Mottahedeh Development Services was established by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States as a non-profit agency to promote social and economic development to benefit individuals of any race, creed, or nationality. The agency name honours more than fifty years of dedicated service by Mildred and Rafi Mottahedeh, two pioneers in social and economic development.
• Mottahedeh Development Services was organized as a charitable organization under US law. [MDS]

The Bahá'í Vocational Institute for Rural Women, a non-profit education project based in Indore, India, was one of 74 individuals and institutions presented with the United Nations Environment Programme 'Global 500' award in Rio de Janeiro. [BINS272:5; BW92–3:125; VV110]
• For picture see BW92–3:183.

The Universal House of Justice announced its decision to establish an Office for the Advancement of Women at the headquarters of the Bahá'í International Community in New York. Support for UN efforts to improve the status of women, which had been carried out for twenty years by the United Nations Office, continued uninterrupted under the auspices of this new office. At annual sessions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, statements addressed appropriate topics on the agenda, such as partnership between women and men, the status of girl children, the participation of women in decision making, partnership for development, and the human rights of women. [VV29; 54; BIC Document #: 95-0228; BW92–3:136]
• The Office for the Advancement of Women officially opened its doors on the 26th of May, 1993. [BINS296:2; BW93–4:83–9; VV29] For pictures see BW93–4:83, 86.

The establishment of the Labranza Training Institute to complement the work of all the socio-economic development projects owned and operated by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Chile.
• Located about 680 kms. south of Santiago, in the heart of the agricultural belt of the country, its main purpose was to serve the needs of the rural Mapuche population.
• The operational costs were covered by a mix of contributions from individual Bahá'ís and Bahá'í institutions as well as the rental of its facilities for academic and vocational training to government agencies and Non Government Organizations (NGOs). Its staff were Bahá'í volunteers offering their services for determined periods of time.
• The Bahá'í programs were focused on capacity building of the Mapuche population in order to allow for self-administration at the grass roots level, which included practical as well as spiritual content. It has often been used for government training programs in the areas of health, drug prevention, agriculture and rural education.

Humanity has done well to articulate material indicators of development, and even to achieve a number of them. But focusing only on that which is quantifiable has obscured the critical importance of factors related to higher aspects of the human spirit, such as the value of relationships, the quality of one's character, and the coherence between principles and deeds. The need to bring such factors to the centre of the development discourse was outlined in The Prosperity of Humankind, which made clear that ideals require the force of spiritual commitment to cement them. The statement laid out an ambitious vision of humanity's capacity to take charge of the course of its development, and addressed a set of principles and concepts indispensable to the task, from reimagining collective decision-making to rearranging economic priorities. It called for "unconditioned recognition of the oneness of humankind" and "a commitment to the establishment of justice as the organizing principle of society". [BIC 3 March 2020]

The Bahá'í International Community and Bahá'ís from many countries participated in the United Nations World Summit for Social Development and the parallel Forum '95 for non-governmental organizations in Copenhagen. The delegation from the Bahá'í International Community focused on concepts of world citizenship and global prosperity as a means of suggesting how the Conference's main concerns about social integration and the alleviation of poverty could be creatively addressed. [BINS337:1–2; SBBR14p250-251]
• For a report of the Bahá'í involvement in the Summit see BW94–5:37–6.
• For the text of The Prosperity of Humankind the Bahá'í International Community statement released at the Summit, see BW94–5 273–96.
• For pictures see BW94–5:39, 43, 45.
• A Summary Report on the World Summit for Social Development (PDF).

A conference was held Sidcot, Avon, United Kingdom, hosted jointly by the International Environmental Forum with the Bahá'í Agency for Social and Economic Development - UK. It brought together 44 participants from 13 countries on 5 continents, as well as internet connection with an additional 70 "electronic" conference participants in 29 countries, for a total of 114 participants from 38 countries, including 8 in Africa. [International Environment Forum web site]
• See the website for a list of papers presented.

The United Nations Millennium Forum was held at United Nations Headquarters in New York. It attracted 1,350 participants from more than 106 countries and many others participated remotely via Internet. The purpose was to give organizations of civil society an opportunity to formulate views and recommendations on global issues to be taken up at the subsequent Millennium Summit in September to be attended by heads of state and government. Convened by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Forum's overarching theme - "The United Nations for the 21st Century" - encompassed six main sub-themes in its declaration titled We the Peoples Millennium Forum Declaration and Agenda for Action (2000):

1) Peace, security and disarmament;

2) Eradication of poverty, including debt cancellation and social development;

3) Human rights;

4) Sustainable development and environment;

5) Facing the challenges of globalization: achieving equity, justice and diversity; and,

6) Strengthening and democratizing the United Nations and international organizations.

The document was divided into three main areas: recommendations for governmental action; proposals for the United Nations; and actions to be undertaken by civil society itself.

The Bahá'í International Community as an NGO representing a cross-section of humankind acted as a unifying agent in major discussions. Our principal representative at the United Nations, Techeste Ahderrom, was appointed to cochair a committee of non-governmental organizations. Lawrence Arturo and Diane 'Alá'í represented the Bahá'í International Community. [BW00-01p87-89, Letter from the Universal House of Justice dated 24 September 2000]

• See The United Nations for the 21st Century: From Reaction to Prevention: Towards an Effective and Efficient International Regime for Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding by Detlev Wolter.

The General Assembly Millennium Summit was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and was attended by leaders of more than 150 nations. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented a report entitled, "We The Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century". In which was presented an overview of the challenges facing humankind and suggested practical solutions. Some of the key themes addressed include health, environment, human rights and other social issues, international law, peace and rejuvenating the United Nations. It is striking that called upon by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to address so historic a gathering was Mr. Techeste Ahderom, the principal representative of the Bahá'í International Community to the United Nations, addressed the gathering as the spokesman of civil society. He was accorded this honour because he had presided as cochair at the earlier United Nations Millennium Forum. After all the national leaders had spoken and before the Summit had adopted its declaration on 8 September, Mr. Ahderom made a speech in which he conveyed to that unprecedented assemblage a report of the Forum. The text of his speech is enclosed herewith. On the last day a declaration was unanimously adopted that began by asserting: "We, Heads of State and Government, have gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 6 to 8 September 2000, at the dawn of a new Millennium, to reaffirm our faith in the Organization and its Charter as indispensable foundations of a more peaceful, prosperous and just world." [BW00-01p91-93, Letter from the Universal House of Justice dated 24 September 2000]
• The text of Mr. Ahderom's speech can be found on the BIC's website and at BW00-01p243-247.
• Millennium Declaration (in all UN working languages)
• The Millennium Development Goals are to: (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; (2) achieve universal primary education; (3) promote gender equality and empower women; (4) reduce child mortality; (5) improve maternal health; (6) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; (7) ensure environmental sustainability; and (8) develop a global partnership for development.
• UN website.

The 2005 World Summit was a follow-up summit meeting to the United Nations' 2000 Millennium Summit, which led to the Millennium Declaration of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Representatives (including many leaders) of the then 191 (later 193) member states met in New York City for what the United Nations described as "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take bold decisions in the areas of development, security, human rights and reform of the United Nations." [THE 2005 WORLD SUMMIT: AN OVERVIEW]
• 2005 World Summit Outcome
• Millennium Development Goals
  1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  2. To achieve universal primary education
  3. To promote gender equality and empower women
  4. To reduce child mortality
  5. To improve maternal health
  6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
  7. To ensure environmental sustainability
  8. To develop a global partnership for development

The publication of For the Betterment of the World: The Worldwide Bahá'í Community's Approach to Social and Economic Development by Office of Social and Economic Development. It contained essays, photographs, and overviews of local projects around the world illustrating how Bahá'í principles of social and economic development were being carried out in practice.
• See 2018-04-27 for an updated version.

The first World Humanitarian Summit was held in Istanbul, Turkey. The summit, organized by the United Nations, called on government leaders as well as those from business, aid agencies, civil society and faith-based organizations to consult on the question of disaster relief.
• A statement released by the Bahá'í International Community for the occasion, titled "Rising Together: Building the Capacity to Recover from Within" is available at their website.

The announcement of the election of the 12th Universal House of Justice. Those elected were Paul Lample, Chuungu Malitonga, Payman Mohajer, Shahriar Razavi, Stephen Hall, Ayman Rouhani, Stephen Birkland, Juan Francisco Mora, and Praveen Mallik. [BWNS1258]
• The twelfth International Bahá'í Convention was held from the 29th of April until the 2nd of May. In the election of the Universal House of Justice over 1,300 ballots were cast by representatives of 160 national communities. [BWNS1256, BWNS1257, BWNS1259, BWNS1261]
• See Vimeo for a short film of the International Convention by Farideh Baki-Nasseri.
• The film A Widening Embrace was screened at the Convention, enriching the consultations of the delegates. It is a documentary film about the community-building efforts of the Bahá'í world. Many of the themes discussed over the days of the Convention were highlighted in the practical examples presented in the documentary which tells the story of the transformation of communities unfolding throughout the world by featuring the process in 24 communities representing different realities and contexts. The 77-minute film, which was commissioned by the Universal House of Justice, was made available in English, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, and Persian. [BWNS1260] .

The Universal House of Justice announced that the Office of Social and Economic Development would be succeeded by the Bahá'í International Development Organization with a five-member board of directors to serve a five year term of service with appointment to be made on the Day of the Covenant.
• In addition a new fund, the Bahá'í Development Fund, was inaugurated which will be supported by the Universal House of Justice, individuals and institutions. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 9 November, 2018]
• Three days later the Universal House of Justice announced the appointment of the members of the Board of Directors for the Bahá'í International Development Organization for the five-year term beginning 26 November 2018: Elisa Caney, Maame Brodwemaba Nketsiah, Lori McLaughlin Noguchi, Sina Rahmanian, and George Soraya.
• See also BWNS1308.