Support Global Youth Connect's Programming & Rwandan Women Living with HIV

Global Youth Connect empowers youth to advance human rights and create a more just world.

I first traveled to Rwanda in 2007 as a participant in one of GYC's human rights learning and action communities. My experience with GYC inspired me to go to graduate school and explore in greater depth the impact of mass violence on women's civic and political participation. GYC provided me and many others with an incredibly meaningful and important experience that continues to shape my academic and advocacy interests today. Please join me in supporting GYC so that many others can benefit as I did from their terrific programs.

If you donate $50 or more before December 31st, GYC will send you a bag made by Rwandan women living with HIV/AIDS that are part of the INEZA Cooperative. GYC's purchase of these bags for this current fundraiser has an important impact on the women in this cooperative. Read more about the INEZA cooperative here: http://inezacooperative.wordpress.com/

I'm fundraising for GYC because of the organization's tremendous impact on people in post-conflict countries. In 2010, for example, in Bosnia and Rwanda, GYC activists worked with grassroots NGOs and:

Initiated a Batwa (indigenous) University Students Program to fight discrimination against Batwa youth and support Batwa children in Rwanda

Drafted grant proposals for the Center for Peacebuilding in Sanksi Most, Bosnia

Conducted observation visits to Kibuye Police Station, Rwanda, resulting in better health services for & release of illegally detained youth

Contributed to Community Building Activities in Sanski Most, Bosnia

Wrote and performed in Malaria Prevention Theatre

Crafted a manual on LGBT issues, in a Human Rights framework, such that if students in Rwanda raise questions about what it means to be gay, teachers will be able to respond.

Hosted a Conference on Arts, Peace, and Human Right

Your donations to GYC will enable this terrific organization to continue its programming and expand its outreach to human rights activists in the US who come from underrepresented communities. Your donations will help provide scholarships to youth in American to travel to Rwanda or Bosnia and participate in life-changing human rights workshops with other young activists from across the world. Moreover, your donations will help GYC realize its vision of hosting a human rights learning and action conference right here in the United States: In the fall of 2011, GYC aims to bring youth from Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, El Salvador, and other places where GYC has worked, to NYC for several weeks of training and advocacy work on human rights, where US and international participants will have dialogues with local policy makers, activists, and organizations. It is sure to be a powerful and important event for young human rights activists, and it won’t be possible without your support.

Please consider making any type of donation to GYC today!

For more information, visit: http://globalyouthconnect.org/

Organization Information

Name

Global Youth Connect
Phone

(845) 338-2220
Address

PO Box 1342
New York, NY 10159
EIN

521655875
Web

http://www.globalyouthconnect.org
Email

contact@globalyouthconnect.org

Summary

A deep-rooted desire to help put an end to the dehumanization and devastation of genocide and mass violence inspires the work of Global Youth Connect. We believe that investing in youth and enabling them to serve as active bystanders to promote and protect human rights is a critical strategy to help prevent and minimize the escalation of conflict as well as heal divided and traumatized communities seeking to rebuild after conflict. Based on our experience, we believe that the concepts and strategies of human rights education offer today?s youth the most powerful tools of understanding and motivation to take action. There is no question that today?s youth are growing up in a world with both globalizing and polarizing influences. We are being drawn both together and pushed apart at the same time. We can see the ways that lived experiences in other parts of the world affect our own communities and vice versa. And, we can see the ways in which our misunderstandings, disconnection and mistrust can breed the seeds of conflict, within our own communities and across national and ethnic boundaries. Some young people have unfortunately already chosen negative weapons: hatred, violence and intolerance. But just as many more young people are choosing the path of peace and human rights. It is these peaceful efforts that we must encourage and celebrate. We must support youth in overcoming cultural and other differences and tackle the causes of discord and violence between nations, cultures, communities, and individuals. Therefore, GYC is committed to empowering youth who are courageously standing up to ensure respect for the rights and dignity of others and to encouraging the development of collaborative projects aimed at eliminating the root causes of conflict.
Reports
- Guidestar