Women Awareness & Development Organization
Project titled: “Strengthening Women Entrepreneurs through Spices Packaging”
Project Leader: Mr. Muhammad Idrees Khan, age 24
Pakistan

Mr. Muhammad Idrees Khan designed and initiated this project after witnessing the repression of women in the Karak District in Pakistan. Due to both lack of education and the social and cultural barriers of the Pardah system, the women have become housebound and dependant; as a result, their standard of living is very low. To upgrade their standard of living, this project initiates income generating activities to the women’s doorsteps, so that they may earn honorable living their houses. This project chose the processing of spices because it is the least costly to produce, as well as most lucrative and easy adaptable income generating activity. Rural women are generally unskilled and unfamiliar with modern technologies involved in the horticulture enterprise such as preservation, fruit drying and spices preparation, as well as its packaging; all these practices are extremely technical and women need to be given guidance and training to assist them. Thus, this training enables low-income families to improve their socio-economic condition and continue their practices for sustainable development.

Kids Kart
Project Leader: Jeff Lambin, age 14
United States

Kids Karts was inspired by Jeff Lambin’s little brother John-Henry and his countless days spent in the hospital. During visits, Jeff would bring books to read to him and games and puzzles to play, trying to make his stay enjoyable...Kids Kart began by an idea to help children.

After Jeff’s experience with his brother being hospitalized, Jeff approached his mom and dad and offered his idea to do something for children that were hospitalized, believing that if there would be something to keep kid’s minds and hands busy, then being in the hospital would not be very difficult nor would they worry about being there. So, after Jeff talked with his parents about it, he started to draw out the design and with the help of his dad, reviewed the tools and supply list to build one. After calling over 50 places of business, Jeff received donations for wood, wheels, etc for building his first Kids Kart.

Jeff built a 6.5.5 foot rolling wooden carts and filled them with crafts, games, books, puzzles, and even costumes. These vehicles all working to help kids in the pediatric wards occupied during their stays. So many kids are afraid to not only be in a strange place but also away from their families and home. Kids Karts are designed to help kids heal faster by giving them a comfort level of security as well as time to allow them to heal faster! Kid Kart is to help children everywhere, by teaching them to learn by hands on doing, growing with the enrichment learning. To keep kids active, to be a friend to them in need, to heal faster, to be able to be home faster, to love learning new things.....

YouthNet Immunization Program
Project Leader: Peter Mugabe, age 25
Uganda

Peter Mugabe initiated Youthnet last year with the aim of recruiting youth volunteers to participate in Uganda’s national immunization program, after realizing that most young people like students are idle in most of their vocations. So after perceiving the need to develop an activity to benefit his community, Peter took action. The main goal of his program is to offer free immunization in his country so tools, drugs and training is free of charge. Each year, the program adapts a new campaign that distributes an immunization. For example, this year they offered a vaccination against measles, and last year’s campaign fought against polio and measles.

Peter is currently working on increasing the number of volunteers to approximately 1000 volunteers. He would also like to introduce radio programs educating youth, as well as to see the value of volunteering and the areas of operation increase. Peter’s challenges include convincing young people to volunteer and fundraising, both of which he hopes to overcome in the future.

Role of Youth in Community Development
Project Leader: Mikayil Zeynalov, age 22
Azerbaijan

“Bridge to the Future ” Youth Union was established in April 2000, in Western region of Azerbaijan. The main goal of our organization is to support disadvantaged young people. Recently affected by armed conflict in the region, many people became IDPs and refugees. Now there are about 1 million refugees and IDPs, sheltered all over the country. Main part of them is young people. More then 2000 IDPs live in Hagikend refugee settlement, not far from our city.

During Mikayil’s previous work with youngsters in this community he realized that their main problem is exclusion from the society. They cannot find their role in the development of their community. Taking into consideration this problem he decide to implement “The Role of Youth in Community Development” project, which aimed provide them with basic knowledge on third sector and help them to organize their own initiative groups. In this project he organized training course for IDP youth in following topics: •
The main principles of democracy • How to be social activist • Volunteering • What is NGO? Role of NGOs in the democratic society • Leadership • How to work with environment • Project writing.

45 IDP youth, between 18-25 years, were involved to these training-courses. Duration of this project was 2 months. 45 participants were divided into three groups, 15 in each. Every group had three day training. Trainers in this project were volunteers of “Bridge to the Future” Youth Union. As a result of this project some of participants of the training courses came together and organized a youth initiative group in Hacikend IDP settlement. Now these young are active members of the society and they have own role in the development of their community.

TV Debates "Dialogue" - Youth program on TV Budva, organized by Center for Creative Communication "Logos" and TV Budva
Project Leader: Predrag Zenovic, age 17
Montenegro

This project consists of ten live TV debates held on the local Montenegro television channel TV Budva. Participants include debaters and high school students from "DaniloKis" high school, and on occasion relative specialists are brought in to discuss the subject on hand and to answer any questions of the debaters and audience. The main goal of the project is to incite the youth to think critically and creatively about problems existing in their society and to open the possibility of creating new attitudes and alternative solutions for the existing issues. In addition, this program aims to demonstrate a process of the tolerant and constructive dialogue, incite the local authorities to make decisions more efficiently, and emphasize the problems of the youth which were not identified by the local authorities. Finally, the debates hope to compel citizens to think more critically, to become participants in a dialogue, and to contribute in solving problems of their own town.

In every episode of the Dialogue program, the attitudes and thoughts of young people towards the community they belong are very clearly presented. Every episode consists of a live dialogue in the studio, prepared video clips, and contact with the audience. A special part of this program is that over 30 high school students take an active part in preparation and production (creating data base, research, opinion polls etc.) and during the process; they realize how the program demonstrates tolerant and constructive dialogue and how to authentically present creative solutions to perfectly identified problems. Another value of the project is that is expanding to include other debate clubs from Montenegro and will be realized on the state television program.

Integrated Soil Management Through Young Farmer Field School
A.R. PATIL, age 27
India

Young Farmer Field School is a tool to build capacities of young farmer groups and youth club staff in managing crop & soil nutrient management, to make them better decision makers in promoting sustainable use of resources at the cropping farming and watershed systems levels.

Young Farmer Field School is a participatory approach, wherein training is imparted on the basis of young farmers needs.

Once the need is identified, season long practical training is imparted emphasizing on learning through discovery. Training is provided in the young farmers field itself which enables better understanding of the field problems, their management and control.
The purpose is to assist farmers in developing their ability of making critical and informed decisions that render their farming systems more productive, profitable and sustainable.

Training helps young farmers to make their own decisions, to organize themselves and their communities, and to create a strong working network with other young farmers, extension workers and researchers. Through their participation in YFFS activities farmers become experts in their own fields. Training methods become tools for continued inquiry and improvement by the community.

Yichalal Project
Project Leader: Sissy Wagnew, age 24
Ethiopia

Sisay took the initiative to begin the Yichalal Project (Yichalal means, ‘it is possible’) when she was in her last year class of study in Addis Ababa University. She began the project having witnessed the depressing lives of street children and youth who are living on the street and the miserable lives of jobless high school complete youth who were exposed to various risky situations such as drug abuse, alcohol addiction and HIV/AIDS among others. According to current estimates, Ethiopia has a total population of 70 million. From this population 16 million youth, which are in productive age, are unemployed only because of lack of opportunities and appropriate education. This creates the cycle of intergenerational poverty when the youth of today remain poor, unemployed, disempowered, deprived and marginalized. She began Yichalal Project first alone, but after seeing her motivation and efforts two friends (university students) joined her.

At the initial stage it was difficult to carry out the project due to governmental objections. Sisay later got the support of the local government officials by directly involving them in all the activities. Also, most parents gave up with their children and they did not give any attention for them. So, they were reluctant to participate with us to help inform, involve and empower their children. Sisay established youth-adult partnerships where the youth and their parents will have equal decision making role in the community with one respecting the values and perspectives of the other age.

Among many projects, Sisay’s group has conducted 10 city cleaning campaigns involving about 3,000 youth, local government officials and community members. Through her project, volunteers have planted about 10,000 tree seedlings in the outskirts of the city of Addis Ababa. The Yichalal project satisfied the needs of the community by empowering and involving the idle youth in productive activities. The youth which were threats to the community are now initiators and change agents of the local development activities.

Proyecto GEM
Project leader: Daniela Rubio, age 21
Mexico

Daniela believed that she was very fortunate to attend university, and should give something back to her community. She decided develop Proyecto GEM, with the main purpose of encouraging community empowerment, especially among young people. It consisted on teaching young indigenous children valuable skills through fun workshops (painting, dancing, nature, astronomy, health and storytelling) and academic support.

Inter-Communal Conflict Resolution
Project Leader, Olasunkanmi Razak, age 28
Nigeria

The project is the settling of inter-communal/tribal conflict between 2 communities that exist side by side, sharing common culture, heritage and ties. In an innovative manner, the winner was able to convene the town heads from both villages and reach an agreement to research the relationship between both villages. The outcome of the research proved such relationship, and stopped violent activities among the communities. The product is an acid test of the youth in conflict resolution and peace initiative.

The “Bet Campaign” - SustainUS – The U.S. Youth Network for Sustainable Development
Project Leader: Steve Swartz, age 19
USA
The goal of the “Bet campaign” was to show the US government that American youth could conserve 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide by obtaining pledges from youth; they promised to voluntarily reduce their energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. If SustainUS met this goal, President Bush would have to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development and bring five young Americans to the conference as part of the U.S. government delegation. If this goal was not met, SustainUS would transport President Bush around Washington D.C. on a bicycle rickshaw.

Although Bush never agreed to the terms of the Bet campaign, it still had many positive effects. First, it showed President Bush that American youth care about the environment. Second, we informed youth that their actions impact the environment in a concrete way. Third, it helped to publicize the World Summit on Sustainable Development in the U.S., which received much less media attention in the U.S. than in other countries. Because the campaign was particularly unique and engaging, it received substantial media coverage and helped to publicize the WSSD. Steve coordinated SustainUS’ media coverage for the Bet campaign and drafted, edited, and distributed press releases prior to and during WSSD. Interviewed by international press, Steve successfully sent the message to the world that American youth are not only the leaders of tomorrow but also the partners of today. Thus, the message reached not only those already aware of the importance of environmentalism and sustainability, but also the general public.