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Dear Friends,
Welcome to the sixteenth issue of "Worlds of Experience", dedicated to "Youth
Volunteering and Environmental Protection".
As the global community grapples with the challenges of climate change, rising
energy and food prices, volunteers' voices provides interesting and refreshing
insights into " stories of delicate ecosystems, annual flooding, deforestation and of
impoverished communities trying to forge an existence in environmentally delicate
areas." Despite the availability of unlimited and real time connectivity, as an
English volunteer working with an environmental organisation in Honduras admits:
"For all I have known of the issues of deforestation and sustainable farming I can't
say I have begun to understand the complexities of them until I came to live here.
In Europe, when we speak of environmental issues such as deforestation and
sustainable farming we do so as a matter of environmental responsibility and
rarely as a matter of survival."
Another German volunteer working at a marine park off the Colombian coast
testifies that : "to make sure that such great places (coral reefs) will not be
destroyed, we all should work on their protection!. and not just as volunteers but
in our everyday life ., but " we are still for the most part unable to make the
smallest of concessions and changes in our lives."
This said, volunteering for the protection of the environment can make a
difference and be rewarding: "as a volunteer I have a unique opportunity to
change hearts and minds as through the process of cultural exchange we are
able to provide contrast, present different ways of doing things and foster new
ideas about life."
Volunteers' voices is followed by other awareness raising activities for children
and youth, such as the UNEP support Tunza Children's Environment Conference,
and Youth Version of Human Development Report 07/08 and the International
Youth Day - 12 August 2008 , both dedicated to "Youth and Climate Change:
Time for Action".
News from "Int'l Organisations" feature: UNICEF - Junior 8 Summit 2008 being
held in Japan., the forthcoming Annual Youth Assembly at the UN on the MDGs,
UN HABITAT - World Urban Youth Forum, and the Youth Priority Areas for World
Programme of Action for Youth. News from NGOs, features, among others, the
results of studies and initiatives: to measure the impact of youth volunteer
programmes (ICP & World Bank); to bridge the gap between Volunteering and
Social Activism (UNV/CIVICUS & IAVE); and researching innovation in
volunteering (V ).
ICYE programme news features: ICYE at the 20th IAVE World Conference;
results of two ICYE International training seminar in intercultural learning held
respectively in South Africa and India; three EVS final evaluation seminars and
the launching of new short-term EVS project promoting youth volunteering in HIVAIDS
prevention and care projects in Africa, Asia.
Hope you'll enjoy the Newsletter! Please note that the next issue of "Worlds of
Experience", will focus on " Youth against Violence ", and will be published at the
end of October 2008. We would like to encourage readers to send us their
contributions, in form of articles/pictures to icye@icye.org before 30 September
2008.
Warmest regards!
ICYE International Office
This and previous issues of "Worlds of Experience" can be viewed and downloaded as a
PDF
file.
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