Dear Global Youth peace warriors,
Recently I participated in an inspiring gathering of youth leaders in the mountains of Colorado - with the intention of together building a movement called Generation Waking Up (shout out to Joshua Gorman and fellow Imaginal Soul Tribe members!) - to ignite a generation of young people to bring forth a thriving, just and sustainable world. We went through a very transformative experience, sharing our personal stories of why we have come to be involved in this work and diving into the deep realms of healing around social justice, diversity and environmental devastation, open to the immense pain of the world, the pain of the Earth, but also with a strong back, open front, ready to take on the challenges that face us with love and courage (which literally means to go forth with heart).
Having been out of range of any phone contact and for quite a few days without access to the Internet, I came back to a world blistering from recent pain, hearing all at once of the bombings in Kampala, Uganda by Al Shabab that personally affected friends and colleagues in URI, the killing of Christians in Pakistan who were friends of URI colleagues there, and the threatening of moderate Muslim peacebuilders in Palestine who were seen to be "collaborating with the enemy" for entering into the house of an Israeli peacebuilder. I also heard startling news of the arrest of a lone gunman who was armed with rifles and guns and body armor and who had been planning an attack on the Tides Foundation, a non-profit organization that shares the same building as URI in San Francisco, housed in a consortium of non-profits that are dedicated to environmental and social justice.
Perhaps it is not a coincidence that as we are igniting a movement of lightworkers, peacebuilders, young people with enormous heart and incredible dedication and determination to face and heal the rifts within our Earth community together, we are also facing fierce backlash from forces that wish to see our efforts fail.
In that respect, I was so heartened to receive this email this week from one of our Youth Ambassadors, Annirene Nyambura Mundia, from Kenya, who is organizing a national interfaith blood drive for her project as a URI Ambassador that will take place on August 7th in Nairobi. She is partnering on this initiative with the National Blood Transfusion Center, Hope Worldwide Kenya and dozens of local faith communities and youth groups. She writes, "I have had meetings with the heads of different youth groups, in different houses of worship...The idea has potential, 'Blood For Peace Initiative' and both stakeholders believe it can be made an annual event, that gives me more time to prepare for the next one... and yes,so far so good, I hope to create lasting contacts, so that the youth forum continues...even after the project. Oh, yes, we have found free airtime in two faith based radio stations,to talk about our program so yaay its wonderful!!!"
I also received an amazing project report this week from one of our other Youth Ambassadors Shazia Wahid and her colleague Irfan Ali in Pakistan about a series of recent workshops they have held in Balochistan, in the volatile region at the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where NGOs have been threatened by extremist forces and some actually forced to close their doors. In the midst of this, I receive this brave account of these organizers who brought together 135 youth participants to give wings to the FIRST EVER National Youth Peace Campaign in Pakistan. Here is a small excerpt of their report,
"The project is designed to involve youth who make up 60% of the population whose voices are ignored and whose existence is excluded , who today are facing so many lethal challenges, like extremism, unemployment, anarchy and terrorism, who do not have any access to workshops and seminars due to financial constraints and who really deserve to be listened to, provided for, and educated about the need of a tolerant, peaceful society and respect for others, their rights and responsibilities in a peaceful and terror-free Pakistan. The Youth Peace Campaign has Three segments . First was the orientation segment in which we introduced the project, and discussed the Youth’s role and participation in building peace in terror free Pakistan. The Second was a two-day workshop in which Youths were introduced and involved with the thematic ideas of Individual and Society, My Identity (Attributes, Values and issues - The resources in identity section were borrowed with respect from Facing History and Ourselves), Group Work on 'Youth and Extremism', What is PEACE, What are challenges in peace making, What are the resources for promoting peace, Dialogue between Muslim and Non-Muslim (Christian, Hindu etc) on Religion as an instrument of PEACE . The participants listened to each other, realized their goals, analyzed, discussed and came to understand the cause and remedies of extremism. The participants learned and pledged to implement the knowledge further with other Peers:
- to become aware of knowledge, skills and attitude of an active citizen
- to understand better their own identity and culture, inter-cultural dialogue and learn to apply skills with the large group
- to understand their communities and their role as Active Citizens, locally and globally
- to plan for social action projects and further cascade of the learning program
The third and final segment of the Youth Peace campaign shall be held in Lahore in September, where youth from all four provinces will take part in a 'National Youth Festival' and will be selected from the same workshops, those who showed their commitment to do something for peace."
I hope you are thinking what I did as I read this inspiring news - WOW! What an amazing time to be alive on this Earth!
Friends, I share this good news from our global interfaith community to bring some hope to you all, fellow interfaith peacebuilding pioneers, so that you might know that you are not alone and to continue to be inspired to move through the fear and realize your dreams, OUR dreams, of a better world.
With love and care for all of you,
Sarah
