On October 6, 2010, Rowaida Mroue stood up in front of the United Nations General Assembly in New York to talk about the ongoing conflict in Western Sahara and human rights violations in its refugee camps. Rowaida, a 24-year old Shi’a Muslim from Lebanon, is a URI Youth Ambassador and founder of a new International Training & Conflict Resolution Center that grew out of her participation in the program. Piloted in 2010, the Youth Ambassador Program provided 15 dedicated young leaders from around the world with mentorship, leadership training and a social action toolkit to get a community-based service project off the ground. In just one year, their combined actions have reached more than 20,000 people. In Kenya, Nyambura Mundia ran an interfaith blood drive commemorating the victims of the August 7th U.S. Embassy bombing; in Morocco, Naoufal El Hammoumi organized interfaith youth workshops and micro-enterprise projects, and provided IT services to other NGOs in the region; in Australia, Freeman Trebilcock organized an interfaith clothing drive for two charities in Chile and one in Melbourne; and so much more. This is the future of URI. Join us!
