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Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 17th issue of "Worlds of Experience", focussed on thetheme "Youth Against Violence".
Children and youth are often victims of structural and domestic violence,and, in situations of social and economic deprivation, youth can also beperpetrators of violence. "Violence against children and youth is a globalcrisis that calls for global action" states the UN Secretary-General's Studyon Violence Against Children. The ICYE Federation, following a seminarheld in Guatemala in 2007 on prevention of youth violence,in which thephenomenon of the "Maras" (youth gangs ) was debated - with the supportof the EU EVS programme, facilitated the insertion of 13 young volunteersbetween Europe and Latin America in projects dealing with children andyouth victims of violence.
The first impressions of some international volunteers engaged ineducational work with kids at risk show how these children "seem not tohave any value.and ..fight for everything", "..are unable to accept anyauthority" but with the right support and understanding "..learn to expressthemselves .about their rights . and about .the advantages of runningyour life in a non-violent way..".
Hopeful is the insight of one volunteer into these children/youth's lives,whose "destinies were everything but easy and still, (yet) they are filledwith hope and love at the same time".
Volunteers voices is followed by the UNOY Peacebuilders ViolenceAgainst Children And Youth Campaign, and four new publications on youthin conflict with the law and violence prevention, as well as on the plight ofchildren and young people growing up in forgotten conflict zones.
News from "Int'l Organisations" reports on a new publication on "Youth andthe work of the United Nations", the UNV Online Volunteering Serviceprogramme, the International Volunteer Day and the contest "Cultures onthe Street". News From NGOs range from the innovative project "OneLaptop per Child", the Rainbow Paper on intercultural dialogue, to the tool-kit by the Stand Up Against Poverty campaign.
ICYE programme news feature, among others: the Pan-American CapacityBuilding Seminar on programme development and diversification, the LatinAmerican training on the new German volunteer programme "Weltwärts",new EVS projects' documentations, and recent EVS volunteers'training/evaluation seminars.
In the hope that you'll enjoy the reading, we would like to encouragereaders to send us their articles and pictures for the next issue of "Worldsof Experience", which will be dedicated too "Youth and Children's Rights",and will be published at the end of February 2009. Please send yourcontributions to icye@icye.org , before 31 January 2009 .
Warmest Wishes!
ICYE International Office
This and previous issues of "Worlds of Experience" can be viewed and downloaded as a
PDF
file.
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