17th World Council of YMCAs - Saturday July 24 - 2010

17 WC Observer th

SATURDAY, JULY 24th, 2010

I Couldn’t Ask for a Better Starting Point says Newly Appointed World Alliance Secretary General

By Harold Obeng Yeboah, Africa Alliance of YMCAs What has been so impressive during this World Council is the strong presence and participation of young people who have articulated themselves with commitment and energy.

This is the view of newly appointed Secretary General of the World Alliance of YMCAs, Rev. Johan Vilhelm Eltvik, who will take up his position on 1 January 2011.

Speaking about the current focus on resource mobilisation, Johan said that the launch of the Investors’ Circle and the initial pledge monies of almost USD 80 000 raised, is so important for the global Movement in terms of supporting a shared direction.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better starting point. I am moved and very happy.”

Born in Norway, Johan has served as a staff member of the YMCA since 1986. In the eighties he introduced Ten Sing at a YMCA in Germany. Ten Sing is a youth-led programme focusing on leadership and expression through music, arts and drama.

He has served as Leadership Development Director for YWCA/ YMCA Norway, before taking up leadership positions at YMCA Europe level.

Worship: Mending

Rev. Johan Vilhelm Eltvik

In 2004, Johan received the Cavalier Cross of the Polish Order of Merit from the State President of Poland.

Dr. Bart Shaha, current Secretary General of the World Alliance of YMCAs said, “I have known Johan for many years as a colleague and a friend. It is a great pleasure to be passing on this role to him, and I am very confident in his ability to lead and strengthen our global Movement. I wish him every success and God’s blessings as he takes up this new role.”

Photo by John Ainsworth

By Clarissa Balan, World Alliance of YMCAs

It would take much more than wiping the “dirt” off Gaia to restore the earth and reverse global warming but what we did this morning was a good start. I’m sure that those who came to wipe off the mud and paint from the globe did so with a deeper promise to do something, no matter how small.

We are at a point in the World Council programme when we need to think about mending and what this may mean for our life as a global community. Given our diversity and differences and how these have impacted our relationship to each other, our choices, our politics, the last day of the World Council is a good time to reach out to one another and reaffirm those things that unite rather than divide us.

I’m a Citizen - I Move Forward

By Gil Harper, Africa Alliance of YMCAs

These powerful lines of the catchy Subject to Citizen (S2C) song have echoed around us for the last week… we have heard them sung by Chemphe on stage and again by the youth who joined him, we have heard the tune whistled and hummed by delegates and chanted out loud on occasion.

Clearly this African YMCA song has gone global through this gathering of world leaders, with participants identifying their own realities to strong messages of the song. But what lies behind the campaign song of the African YMCA Subject to Citizen programme?

Youth in Africa are subjects – politically, economically, in our cultural and social systems and in our communities. This leaves them open to manipulation, exploitation and abuse. In times of political crisis for instance, they are easily manipulated into situations of violence as evidenced during political conflict.

“But if a young person is earning money, is equipped with knowledge about their rights and responsibilities and is skilled at articulating their views and advocating for positive change, they are not easily manipulated. Rather, they play the role of a citizen, contributing to peaceful and positive change,” said Vezi Mncwango, YMCA South Africa Executive Committee member, who led a workshop on S2C this morning and who facilitates S2C youth training in Africa.

S2C is about change now, but it is also about equipping youth as future leaders to develop holistic, appropriate and self-sustaining solutions for their country and continent. There are four aspects: - Civic action - Gender and Transformative Masculinity - Economic Renaissance - Youth Justice The programme is being rolled out in various phases. In the pilot countries of Kenya, Liberia and Zimbabwe, youth are being trained on the S2C curriculum and will establish clubs in schools

and tertiary education to train others, and to engage in advocacy and programmatic work.

In Madagascar, we are working on the research phases of an Economic Renaissance programme and in Zimbabwe are involved in a Transformative Masculinity programme.

In Kenya, a specific One Million Campaign is addressing voter education in the run-up to the 2012 elections. “Never again do we want to experience the kind of violence we did in the last elections, where brother turned against brother, and our moms and sisters were raped. We were used by the politicians and we fell for it. Some youth were paid to create violence and because they lived in the slums and were vulnerable, they took the money. They were at the forefront of the violence – some of them fighting for or against something they didn’t even understand.

But they were also the first to fall,” said Collins Omondi.

This campaign aims to reach and train one million youth in Kenya to ensure young people play an active role in positive and responsible youth participation in the elections.

The S2C One Million Campaign is a joint initiative between Kenya YMCA and Africa Alliance of YMCAs. During the campaign, we will: • Train young people to be election observers • Hold peace and reconciliation tours and camps in

different locations in Kenya • Promote youth justice • Create awareness and educate young people on

gender-based violence through Transformative

Masculinity training • Train youth on economic empowerment We also plan to produce a campaign song as a medium for youth to reach out to other youth. We are really hoping that Chemphe will be able to hook up with a Kenyan musician, and we are going to take what we started in Ghana and brought to Hong Kong to a different level… we are taking it directly to the people, in the slums and on the airwaves!

Hong Kong Youth: Hopes, Dreams and Fears…

Dr. Alice Yuk, YMCA of Hong Kong When the YMCA of Hong Kong undertook research on priority issues affecting young people, they found that “having a harmonious family, getting a good education and a job with prospects” were young people’s greatest aspirations.

Family First

Education

The value of family in Chinese culture cannot be underestimated. Even in the 21st century, where people are increasing individualistic, family is still a priority. As levels of domestic violence, divorce, and family breakdown increase, many young people are lacking confidence and hope in finding a happy and harmonious family life. The YMCA in Hong Kong offers young people a platform to discuss these issues, as well as support to build strong social relationships with their peers, elders, and members of the opposite sex in particular.

Prevention is always better than cure. The YMCA’s College of Continuing Education recently introduced a greater diversity of accredited courses and a more flexible module system for diploma and high-diploma awards. The College’s curricula have been widened to include social exposure, community service, and student leadership development training.

Youth Unemployment Youth unemployment has been a serious issue in Hong Kong since the mid-1990s. After the financial crisis in 1997, youth unemployment hit an all time high at 30%. With support from the Hong Kong government, the YMCA of Hong Kong has delivered a range of social programmes including language lessons, IT skills, and on-the-job-training, all aimed at preparing young people to enter employment.

Mobilising Young People for the Future When we organise youth leadership training and development programmes at the YMCA, my colleagues and I use some core principles: we walk with the young people; we work from bottom-up and not top-down; we respect young people to make decisions; we encourage advocacy in action---do something no matter how small; take the first step and you’ll be there. We share the pride of our young people.

Global Citizenship Blog – An opportunity for “virtual volunteering”

By Daniel Gomez, Latin America and Caribbean Alliance of YMCAs The Global Citizenship Blog is an internet-based project developed by the Latin America and Caribbean Alliance of YMCAs (LACA), through which it shares, almost in real-time, what is happening at the World Council of YMCAs, as well as what happened during the International Youth Forum. The people responsible for giving life to this project are young delegates from LACA who have access to the platform and are able to share their views freely in this “virtual volunteering” project.

What is most interesting about this project, is the idea that we are only using technologies that everyone can have access too.

This is an extension of LACA’s general policy at the regional level: It does not use any software, equipment or technology that its National Movement’s wouldn’t have access too. In this way it seeks to bridge the technology gap in the region. It is for this reason that the most common platforms used are blogs (Blogger by Google), free photo albums (Picasa by Google), videos are edited with Movie Maker, and the recordings are made with cameras, phones and a netbook.

The idea is not to use ultra powerful machines or have professional photographers, it´s to create a system registry and correspondent from the daily handling of our youth with the technology and also demonstrate in practice that can make quality products at low cost. This is an experiment that we first tested at the World AIDS Conference in Mexico in 2008 with great success: (http://ymcavih.blogspot.com/).

So far, in just 4 days, it has received over 1,600 visits and allowed people related to the YMCA all across the continent, who were not able to participate in the event, keep abreast of what is happening.

Please visit: http://hongkong2010ymca.blogspot.com/ or www.lacaymca.org/hongkong

Today’s Highlights

SATURDAY, JULY 24th, 2010

- The World Alliance in the 21st Century: A Call to Vision, Leadership and Innovation We will officially welcome the newly elected President and Secretary General of the World Alliance of YMCAs. Both will have the opportunity to share their vision and aspirations for the global YMCA Movement for the next quadrennium.

- Closing Worship The Closing Worship will celebrate Global Citizenship and incoming leadership of the Global YMCA Movement.

A Day in Photos...

Photo by Simon Williams