YO!™ (IFOR Youth Opportunities)

The IFOR Youth Opportunities newsletter is an initiative of the IFOR Youth Working Group. This online newsletter, newly renamed to include the brand YO!™, features 6-8 news items or events relating to youth activities. The full text of each news item is linked to a website and associated files that are uploaded to the IFOR Web server.

Bettina Schieraus as co-YO!™ editor researches and produces the content and the design work and distribution is done in-house by Meltem Başara.

Issues of YO!™ 2011:

Youth Opportunities, June #45

Youth Opportunities, May #44

Youth Opportunities, March #43

For more information on youth within IFOR or to submit news, information and/or subscribe to YO!™, please contactYO!™ co-editor Bettina Schieraus.

GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTIONS:
- Please send contributions* “via email" to YO™ co-editor Bettina Schieraus.
- Contributions can range from 50 to 150 words, plus a title and a link to the full article, if available online.
- Digital photos and logos can also be sent to Bettina Schieraus.
* Please note: IFOR reserves the right to edit all contributions for clarity and content.

For more information on youth within IFOR or to submit information and/or subscribe to YO!™, please contact Bettina Schieraus .

About the Youth Working Group

In 2006, the IFOR Council founded a Youth Working Group to improve youth work within IFOR. We have been meeting online and occasionally also face-to-face since, and have begun to create plans for several youth-related activities that could take place on an international level within IFOR. Our group consists of Martha Beale (England), Beatrice Amony (Uganda), Bertram Flesch (Germany / The Netherlands), Pete Hämmerle (Austria) and Nina Perkowski (Germany). We’d love to hear any questions, ideas or concerns you might have regarding our work or IFOR’s youth work more generally – just send us an email at YWG.IFOR@gmail.com.

Why should IFOR strengthen its efforts to empower youth and youth initiatives within a movement working for peace and nonviolence?

Youth and the work undertaken by youth are not only essential to the future of IFOR and the sustainable development of the peace movement. It is just as crucial to empower young people so they become individuals who are independent, critically-minded and able to take initiatives. This will enable them, through nonviolent actions, to resist the militarization of society and the use of violence and destruction.

Empowering youth in our structures today will result in the strengthening of IFOR member organizations in the future. If we fail to engage young people today, the consequence will be a weakened movement for justice and peace!

By recognizing the efforts made by the young members of IFOR, we encourage a generation to actively commit themselves to the promotion of a nonviolent way of living!

Since December 2006, the International Secretariat (IS) of IFOR has been developing strategies that will facilitate an empowerment of youth members within IFOR. Youth empowerment has been identified as an important field of work for IFOR since the current number of active youth in the movement is very low.

In December, a working group met for the first time to discuss what could be done to address the issue of low youth involvement. The working group decided that Steffen Post (currently full-time volunteer at the IS) should create a questionnaire that can be sent to all BGAs in order to find out about the current status of their youth work.

Courtesy of F0R England

IFOR Youth Council

To make this Youth Council most useful to IFOR’s young peacebuilders, we need to know more about what youth work all IFOR BGAs are doing. At the end of last year, we sent a questionnaire to all of you to gain an up-to-date overview of all member organisations’ youth work, as well as needs or ideas that IFOR members might have.

We have so far received only very few answers, which were published in our Youth Opportunities Newsletter and distributed among our youth network. We now would like to ask all of you to please answer the "seven brief questions" on page 2 to help us gain an understanding of your youth work, your interests within youth work, and your needs during the Youth Council in November.

Please take the time to respond to this questionnaire by returning it as soon as possible. Your help will be greatly appreciated, and your answers used to publish a short informational article on your organisation in YO!™ (IFOR Youth Opportunities).

Transforming Conflict: Peace by Peace 26th to 28th October 2007

How can we transform the world around us?
What is conflict transformation? And how does it apply to our lives on a daily basis?

The Fellowship of Reconciliation’s annual Called to be Peacemakers conference offers a unique opportunity to learn what conflict transformation is and how it applies to us. Exploring the steps to conflict transformation in a personal and international context, the residential weekend conference will provide expert speakers, in-depth workshops and training.

The conference is for 18 to 30 (ish) year olds who want to be challenged, gain practical skills and meet others who share their concern for peace and conflict issues.

FoR subsidises the weekend to allow as many people as possible to attend. FoR also provides a limited number of travel bursaries and subsidised places. Conference places are only £40 if booked before 1st October 2007 (and £45 after), so please come join us!

For more details please contact Martha Beale at:
Fellowship of Reconciliation,
St. James Church Centre,
Beauchamp Lane,
Oxford, OX4 3LF.
Tel: 01865 748 796
Email: Martha Beale

Ugandan youth show courage in tackling AIDS

"AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, the greatest human destroyer," a young girl states dramatically, standing alone in front of an audience of about 50 adults and students. She is part of the Ugandan AIDS Education Group for Youth (AEGY) which educates young people about HIV / AIDS and enables them to spread the message within their society through drama, songs, speeches and other gatherings.

To read more about the successful work of AEGY, read the full article here