Voice Newsletter
August 2004
Greetings to you all!
This issue celebrates International Youth Day, the launch of ‘Local Solutions, Global Impact’, the final communique from IYP2004 and comes out exactly one month after 2nd Oxfam International Youth Parliament concluded here in Sydney.
For those of you whom we shared those amazing 8 days with and we want to thank you for your amazing contributions and your role in making the event such a success. By now, most of you have returned home to reconnect and share your experience with you friends, family and your community and to work on your action plans. We send you our best wishes.
For those of you who would like to know more about what happened at the 2nd Oxfam International Youth Parliament, we encourage you to read the news section on IYP’s website www.iyp.oxfam.org/news/index.asp and the final communique.
This newsletter will be an essential tool for us as a network to continue to share ideas, exchange information, opportunities, resources and learning and to update each other on our work for a more peaceful, equitable and sustainable world. As such, we invite you to contribute articles, letters, useful information, resources and importantly updates and information about your action plans. Contributions should be sent to info@iyp.oxfam.org We look forward to hearing from you!
All the best from the IYP Team,
Nicole, Kelly, Sofiah, Lisa, Tom and Rohan
SPOTLIGHT- Celebrating International Youth Day
“Today’s world has the largest number of youths ever, with almost half its population under 25 years of age.” Koffi Annan
In celebration of International Youth Dayand the significant contribution young people across the globe are making towards a more peaceful, equitable and sustainable world, we are launching‘Local Solutions, Global Impact’, the IYP 2004 Final Communiqué. This document provides a snapshot of the voices and ideas of the 306 Action Partners that attended IYP2004 last month here in Sydney and gives insight into the decisions and commitments to action that they have made towards building a more sustainable future. ‘Local Solutions, Global Impact’ was developed during IYP2004 and has been finalised over the last few weeks thanks to the hard work of an editorial and design team in Sydney.
Pre-release copies are now available online and can be downloaded from www.iyp.oxfam.org
A final print version will be available in two weeks. Any corrections for the final print version should be emailed to info@iyp.oxfam.org by Monday the 16th of August.
Coinciding with the launch of‘Local Solutions, Global Impact’ here in Sydney, many Action Partners across the globe have organised local events in their communities to discuss their Action Plans, the IYP2004 Final Communiqué and key youth issues. See ACTION UPDATES for more information about Action Partner events.
The theme of this year’s International Youth Day is “Youth in an Intergenerational Society.” To read more about this years theme visit the UN Youth Units website at:
www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/
ACTION UPDATES
Action Partners hold Action Plan Launches on Six Continents!
Examples of Global Launch events being held today include a Youth Peace Rally in Nepal by Action Partner Sadhu, which will be in conjunction with the Youth Section of Nepal’s Ministry of Sports and Education, together with a Youth Conference on National Youth Policy held later in the day.
In Iran, Action Partner Vahid will be holding an AIDS awareness workshop to launch his Action Plan.
Action Partner Olesegun, from Nigeria, will share his Action Plan and IYP Communiqué on state television, while talking about the need for more youth culture and empowerment initiatives in Nigeria.
In Romania, Mihaela will launch her Action Plan online, making her work on fighting the spread of HIV known to Romanian society. Her launch is followed by a 2 day training session with 17 HIV-infected youth, training them on how to use online Internet forums to communicate with journalists reporting on HIV/AIDS issues in Romania.
In Colombia, Delicia will launch her action plan by holding a community meeting for young Indigenous Peoples. This launch event will stress the importance of working with other indigenous groups in her country and abroad, and provide advice for doing so in the midst of the turmoil created by Colombia’s war between the Government and paramilitary forces.
There are also IYP Action Plan launches taking place in India, Venezuela, El Salvador, Afghanistan, the Phillipines, Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Gabon and Haiti.
Action Partners holding Communiqué Launch events are asked to send us any reports and pictures of your event for the next newsletter. We look forward to hearing your news!
RESOURCES
www.computer-aid.org: Computer Aid International is the world’s largest supplier of computers to developing countries. Visit this site to see if you are eligible to donate or receive donated computers.
www.aworldconnected.org: Nominated for a “Webby” (the world’s best Web pages award) in Activism, this site has relevant news and resources by country and action topic. Some articles about approaches to youth action and activism can be thought provoking for IYP Action Partners.
www.takingitglobal.org: As the world’s largest online youth community, this is a useful platform for networking, expressing yourself, staying updated on international youth events and learning about what others are doing around the world.
www.islandyouth.com: A UNESCO project for Island youth to connect with each other.
Have a useful website that would support the work of Action Partners? Please let us know email info@iyp.oxfam.org
EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
CALLING ALL ISLAND YOUTH
By Lindsey Higgs, UNESCO
Are you between the ages of 13-23 and living on an island? Do you feel that your voice is not heard? Well now it's your chance to speak up and get involved by telling other island youth, as well as the United Nations about life where you are. Share what you think about Life and Love on your islands, My island home and Money in my pocket. The views presented in this online forum will be discussed at the International Youth Visioning event in Mauritius in January 2005, and developed into sustainable projects run by young islanders. See www.islandyouth.org for more details on this initiative.
ENDNOTE
“During this parliament, I have been impressed by the way people are so concerned and want to be involved in decision making in their countries. People are so committed to making changes to make the world a better place to live. I have met many people here and their action plans show that there are many big changes to come in the world through OIYP2004”
Leonard Boniface
2002 Action partner, Tanzania
