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HomeHomeTake ActionGlobal Youth in Action Awards1999 Winners
Youth In Action Awards 1999: The Winners! (5)

Ben Smilowitz, Age 17
International Student Activism Alliance
http://www.studentactivism.org/

"My most rewarding work is with the International Student Activism Alliance (ISAA), an organization that I helped create. The ISAA is a national student-run organization that speaks up for student rights, representation, and many other student-related issues. The ISAA now has 155 chapters and over 1,200 members around the United States. Some members are working to repeal curfew laws, put students on boards of education, and defend student first amendment rights. Last year, students in Connecticut created and successfully passed a bill that put two student seats on the State Board of Education. There are similar campaigns underway in many states across the US. I love speaking to my peers about getting active and working for change. I want to see participation rates in our society soar and the only way to do that is to motivate students to get involved. I believe that peer to peer motivation is much more efficient than any other type of mentoring. Students listen to their peers more than they listen to adults. In my experience, just speaking with other students, around the country, about getting involved often increases their participation. I am certain that the more students our organization reaches, the more students we'll inspire and empower. It's my goal to get the message out to as many students as possible. I truly believe that if more students get involved now, they'll stay active and involved for the rest of their lives. If that happens, our world will be a better place."

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Jason Dean Crowe, Age 13
The Bosnia Statue Project and The Informer
http://www.comsource.net/~jdc

"In 1997, I heard the story of Vedran Smailovic who witnessed the massacre of neighbors in a bread line during Sarajevo's ethnic cleansing. His response was to take his cello to the site and play while snipers fired. To me his musical harmony represented social harmony. I knew I had to convince the world the only answer to war is harmony! I organized a cello concert at UE (4/97) to honor the war's victims and "Harmony in the Park" (5/97) to unite diverse groups and bring awareness to Bosnia's multiculturalism. I commissioned a statue (8/98) of the cellist to be shipped to Bosnia as a gift from kids everywhere. This tangible symbol allows kids to say, "No to war, yes to harmony! No to genocide, yes to human rights!" Through my newsletter (distributed to young people in 26+ states and 6 foreign countries), speeches at conventions, and participation in Junior Summit, I network with kids and teachers worldwide who are starting to study Bosnia, causes of war, and do fundraisers. Two Ohio schools sent $500! Fourth graders from a Maryland school sent $150. A synagogue class in Pennsylvania is donating their annual offering. Kids in Indiana, Florida, and California are preparing fundraisers. Recently I sent a starter kit to kids at a family center in Connecticut. Teachers in Iowa, Texas, and North Carolina have asked for starter kits. Kids from Canada, England, Jamaica, and Singapore have expressed a desire to participate. My goal is realized: the statue has become a catalyst empowering kids to work together for peace and multicultural harmony."

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Kouthar and Marwa Al-Rawi, Ages 10 and 11
Remember the Iraqi Children
http://members.aol.com/hamzaha/iraqichildren

"Our project fulfills the needs of children not only in our community, but in communities all over the world. According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child article 6, all children have the right to life. That right is being denied children in Iraq. And as long as Iraqi children do not have rights, all children all over the world do not have rights. At any time adults can get mad at a world leader and start sanctions on a country, which denies innocent children enough food, medicine and clean water. These policies harm children when they are protected by international laws. Our goal is achieved everyday with each person and child we educate with our campaign. It has positively impacted our community and others by showing that children can make a difference and that they can run a campaign. Our campaign is called Remember the Iraqi Children. We are collecting one million postcards to the President of the United States, requesting he lift the sanctions on Iraq, for the sake of the children. We collect postcards from our community as well as from all over the world in every language and from many countries. The postcards are going to be part of one of the most important art shows the world will ever see. Imagine an art show that can bring about change and save the life of a child. We encourage adults and children to submit a postcard. We have collected well over 100,000 cards."

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Stephanie Lefeldt, Age 16
Youth Helping Children in the Carpet Industry

"Dear ladies and gentlemen, here is my essay about that what youth do in Munich, Germany: Their names are Chandran, Raja and Suresh. These young children have one thing in common: they are robbed off of their ability to play tag, to skip rope and to dream. They are prevented from their basic human rights as outlined under the United Nations Convention of the Child. Millions of children hand make the carpets which we import into Germany. So we must not close our eyes from the reality of the 250 millions working children and we cannot ignore their problems. My name is Stephanie Lefeldt, I am 16 years old and from Munich, Germany. I founded a group, which in English is translated to called "Youth help children in carpet-industry " For over a year, we have been and continue to work for these children who work in exploitation in Asia. We have organized events for young people for them to get educated about the problem at our local schools, and we have spoken out to the media about the aims of the campaign. We have told more than 1000 children directly or indirectly how they can get involved and help.We have given out information and we have contacted companies like Nike which use children in their workforce. I have done all of this with a wonderful and committed team of young people in my school (my sister helped too). One of our current projects is that we are building a "weaving-loom", which will be placed in certain downtown carpet stores which use the "Rugmark-label" (a label which says that it is child-labor-free).We have been asked by these carpet stores to show the customers how strenuous and difficult it is for children in places like India have to work.The customers will be encouraged to try to weave themselves ! This is an on-going project because there is much to do and we will not give up. We have put in hundreds of hours to help make this possible and we have had much support from our community. It is 100% youth run and lead and we are having a good time too!"

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Michelle Keegan, Age 19
Multi-National Peace Keeping Team

"Our student club, the American University Free Burma Coalition, spearheaded a Multi-National Peacemaking Team to enter Burma, a country in Southeast Asia, and handed out small cards which read: "We support your hopes for freedom and democracy. Don't forget, don't give up." Our purpose was to provide hope for repressed students in Burma. The Team consisted of Malaysians, Indonesians, Thais, Australians, American and Filipinos. For our actions we were arrested, detained for six days in Burmese police confinement and then sentenced to five years in prison with hard labor. We were subsequently deported. Burma is dominated by a Hitler-like dictatorship. Amnesty International has labeled the dictatorship one of the most frightful in the world. From 1988-99, over 3,500 elementary, high school and university students have been murdered. Thousands languish in prisons where they are tortured and/or raped. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who leads the struggle for human rights in Burma, has called on students to "use your liberty to promote ours". Due to the media coverage, we had the unique opportunity to tell the world about the atrocities that are happening and suggest possible solutions. Since we planned the activity for months, including hundreds of planning hours, we positively affected the situation inside Burma. We acted on a completely innovative idea, using international non-violent action to stop killing, torture, rape, forced relocation and forced labor. Thousands of Burmese thanked us for our courage and we will continue fighting for human rights in the future."