: finished the draft for the brochure
: finished the Minisrty of Development and Trade grant
: sent out LEssons Learnt Highlight to youth reps
:approved all new volunteers
: did some fundriainsg rsearch for a member's project in Vietnam
:meeting with guy from Employment Warehouse
: prepared for New York and YES summit
:reviewed Derek's manual
:did last week's meeting minutes
: finished feedback questions for Trillium
:finished my grad applications

As a thousand world leaders meet at the World Economic Forum's 'Davos in New York' Annual Meeting, the Youth Employment Summit will bring together youth leaders from 25 countries to highlight issues of youth employment around the world. The Opening Reception of the two-day YES Youth Forum will take place on Wednesday, January 30 at 6:30 p.m. at the Synergos Institute at 9 East 69th Street, New York City.

The youth leaders from every continent will participate in workshops on building national and international networks to promote youth entrepreneurship and to create better employment opportunities for young people around the world. The youth leaders are helping to plan the Youth Employment Summit 2002 (YES2002), to take place September 11-15 in Alexandria, Egypt.

"I've come to New York with the goal of implementing the vision of the Youth Employment Summit and to lend my skills towards developing a youth friendly strategy to proactively address youth employment in a tangible way," said Kenroy Roach, representing the Volunteer Youth Corps in Guyana.

The goal of YES2002 is to create productive and sustainable livelihoods for an additional 500 million young adults, especially youth facing poverty.

"Let us be clear. Half educated, unemployed youth with no prospect of being integrated into a better future is a prescription for disaster," said Dr. Ismail Serageldin, chairman of the YES Organizing Committee and a former Vice President of The World Bank, who will deliver the keynote address at the Opening Reception. "If young people do not have a stake in the existing social order and political order, if they do not feel there is a way forward for them, why should they sacrifice for a better tomorrow? Why should they have an interest in protecting the stability and social safety of that system?"

"The Summit and the subsequent Campaign are designed to do three things, said Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor and a member of the YES2002 organizing committee: "One, build leadership and commitment to action from a wide variety of partners; Two, empower these partners with the knowledge needed to take effective action; and Three, make a compelling call for global collaborative action."

Joining Dr. Serageldin at the Opening Reception will be José Maria Figueres-Olsen, former president of Costa Rica and the Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, who has recently joined the YES2002 organizing committee.

Location: Synergos Institute
Time: Wednesday 6.30pm January 30 2002
Address: 9 East 69th Street NYC

For more information about the Youth Forum or YES2002 in September, contact Fred Clark. Tel. 1 781 696 9572

Visit the YES website at www.youthemploymentsummit.org


####


The Youth Employment Summit is being organized by Education Development Center, Inc., an internationally known nonprofit research and development organization located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.


Jennifer and I will be representing TakingITGlobal and Canada at this exciting event!

2002 CENTENNIAL ESSAY CONTEST

A hemisphere-wide writing contest for ages 13 – 18
Entries must be received no later than March 15, 2002

BACKGROUND

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization, works with the countries of the Western Hemisphere to promote health and well-being for all the peoples of the Americas. In 2002, PAHO will celebrate its 100th anniversary.

PURPOSE

The 2002 Centennial Essay Contest was created to encourage young people in the Americas to express and share their views about what it means to be Celebrating 100 Years of Health while looking at the Pan American Health Organization's major strength—forging partnerships to promote health in the Western Hemisphere.

THEME

The theme is Partnerships for Health. The essays should explore public health partnerships, their history, meaning, importance, and achievements in terms of the health of people in the Western Hemisphere. The following key questions can be helpful in this process:

What are partnerships and why do we need them in the public health field?
Why don’t people in the Western Hemisphere get smallpox or polio anymore?
How has successful collaboration between international, national and local public health agencies, non-governmental organizations, government officials, and other individuals affected your life and the place where you live?
How can partnerships promote health and help spread important health information?
What do you think lies ahead? What partnerships might be formed in the future to promote health?


JUDGING

An independent panel of experts will judge the entries in Canada. The essay of the national winner will then be entered in the Pan American contest and judged by an independent panel at PAHO Headquarters. The judging criteria are as follows: Adherence to topic, accuracy of facts (or plausibility of thesis if subject matter is fictional), creativity, originality and correct use of language.


AWARDS

The winner of the National Essay Contest will represent Canada in the Pan American contest.
The winner of the Pan American Essay Award in Public Health will receive a $500 cash prize and an official certificate of recognition. The winning essay will be posted on the PAHO Web site and could be published in various Centennial publications.
CONTEST RULES

The essays must be between 350 and 500 words, typed, double-spaced. All ideas must be original.

Essays can be written in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. A completed entry form must accompany all entries; contest entry forms and guidelines are available on the PAHO Centennial Web site www.paho.org/100 Contestants must be between 13 and 18 years old at the time of submission. Family members of PAHO employees are not eligible.



Entries must be received no later than March 15, 2002

Please mail entries to: The Canadian Society for International Health,

1 Nicholas Street, Suite 1105, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7B7

The Pan American Winner* will be announced in June 2002 at PAHO headquarters and recognized in press releases disseminated throughout the hemisphere.

*The winner will be notified by the corresponding PAHO country office.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2002 CENTENNIAL POSTER CONTEST

A Hemisphere-wide Artistic Competition for Ages 6 – 12
Entries must be received no later than March 15, 2002



BACKGROUND

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization, works with the countries of the Western Hemisphere to promote health and well-being for all the peoples of the Americas. In 2002, PAHO will celebrate its 100th anniversary.

PURPOSE

The 2002 Centennial Poster Contest was created to encourage young people throughout the Americas to express and share their views about health and healthy lifestyles.

THEME

The theme of the contest is A Picture of Health. The posters should express how the participant understands the concepts of health and being healthy. The following key questions can be discussed with children before they begin drawing to encourage creative thinking and foster understanding of the theme.

What do you look like when you are healthy?
What do you need to be healthy? (healthy food, clean water, vaccines, etc.)
What can you do to stay healthy? (exercise, healthy behaviors, etc.)
What kinds of things are you able to do when you are healthy? (study, play, run, etc.)
Who can help us stay healthy? (doctors, nurses, community health workers, parents, family members, teachers, friends, etc.)
Do you live in a place that looks healthy?
Is there a way to make the place where you live healthier?
Do you have a picture of health in your mind?


JUDGING

An independent panel of experts will judge all entries in Canada. The posters of the national winners will then be entered in the Pan American contest and judged by an independent panel at PAHO Headquarters. Entries will be judged based on the following criteria: adherence to theme, originality, creativity and visual effectiveness.


AWARDS

The winner of the National Poster Contest will act as Canada’s representative in the Pan American contest.
The winner of the Pan American Poster Award in Public Health will receive a $500 cash prize and an official certificate of recognition. The winning poster will be displayed on the PAHO Web site and the design could be reproduced in various Centennial publications.
CONTEST RULES

The posters must be <16"x20" to 22"x28"> or <41cmx 51cm – 56cm x 71cm> in size and two-dimensional in form. Children can use acrylics, crayon, pencil, colored pencil, charcoal, tempera, pastels, magic markers, watercolors, ink or any combination of these media. All artwork must be original. A completed entry form available at www.paho.org/100 must accompany all entries. Contestants cannot be more than 12 years old at the time of submission. Family members of PAHO employees are not eligible.

Entries must be received at the offices of PAHO’s technical representative in Canada, the Canadian Society for International Health, by no later than March 15, 2002


Please mail entries to:

The Canadian Society for International Health

1 Nicholas Street, Suite 1105

Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7B7

The Pan American Winner will be announced in June 2002 at PAHO headquarters. The winning poster will be displayed on the PAHO Web site and will be recognized in press releases disseminated throughout the hemisphere

Dear Friends, fellow youth and peace activists,

We bring you a new project from the Youth Branch of the Global Campaign for Peace Education, in which YOU can get involved:

September 11 and the ensuing violence has highlighted the importance of working on conflict prevention and the root causes of violence, so as to create a world where all forms of violence and injustice, including terrorism, will
have no reason to exist.

Working to foster peace education is one war prevention strategy we can jointly work on. The Hague Appeal Youth Programme is focusing much of its work on coordinating the Youth Branch of the Global Campaign for Peace
Education. From the perspective of this Global Campaign, young people are not just the primary recipients of education but central agents in the promotion of education for peace and justice. One specific role for young people is to be active in the non-formal aspect of education.

So what is this new project?

We wish to collect examples of peace education activities that can be performed by young people outside of the school/university setting. These could include peer education sessions, through the organisation of
conferences, seminars and workshops for young people. Other activities use more fun and creative ways of getting education for peace across, such as
arts, theatre, music, poetry, storytelling and media.

Are you, or a youth/peace organisation you know, involved in peace education within this non-formal aspect? If so, please let us know!

Our objective is:
- to collect one-page (max) descriptions of each peace education initiative,
together with full contact details of the organiser (contact person,
address, telephone/fax, email, website).
- to post these descriptions on the HAP Youth website
(http://youth.haguepeace.org).

This will:
- publicise your efforts
- encourage young people around the world working in similar initiatives to
support one another by sharing ideas and resources.
- get young people inspired to get involved in your projects
- provide visible initiatives which others can emulate in their own
communities.
Having access to additional information will deepen communication. Through the Peace Education Youth Discussion Forum (find the link on HAP Youth
website) young people can participate
in discussions about these initiatives.

We look forward to receive your project descriptions.
Thanks in advance. Together we can create a better world.

Please reply to: olivia@ipb.org
(and please be clear in the subject title you are replying to this call)

--

Peace Education: a holistic process which gives people the skills and
knowledge necessary to create and maintain peace. Peace Education encourages
people to develop critical thinking through the participatory learning of a
wide range of interrelated disciplines, including human rights, human
security and disarmament, development, co-operation, social and economic
justice, conflict prevention and resolution, non-violence, environmental
preservation, gender studies, and international relations. Peace Education
promotes tolerance and understanding, while encouraging people to take
constructive action.

Olivia Martin
Youth Programme Coordinator
The Hague Appeal for Peace

To find out more about the Global Campaign for Peace Education, the HAP
Youth Network (and other areas of work with regards to youth involvement in
the GCPE, e.g. the Advocacy section) and the Hague Appeal for Peace, please
visit the websites below and/or get in touch.

http://www.haguepeace.org
http://youth.haguepeace.org
http://www.ipb.org




======================
Olivia Martin
Youth Programme Coordinator
The Hague Appeal for Peace
c/o International Peace Bureau
41, rue de Zurich
1201 Geneva
Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 731 64 29/ 741 40 10
Fax: +41 22 738 94 19
e-mail: olivia@ipb.org
http://youth.haguepeace.org/hapyouth/
Follow the link to JOIN the NEW youth peace education discussion forum!

SUBSCRIBE to the Hague Appeal Youth list-serve:
Send an e-mail to majordomo@itaweb.com
with this command (in the body of the message):
subscribe hapy-list

AlterNet December 13, 2001

Collateral Damage Made Real

By Deborah James

I was wholly unprepared for the level of poverty and desperation I witnessed
among refugees on a recent trip to Afghanistan. If you have never imagined
the refugee camps, visualize a seemingly endless stretch of scrap-and-stick
tents, filled with raucous children, lacking food, water, basic hygiene or
infrastructure. Border it with stunning stark mountains, surround it with
cold air and support it with dirt and dust. Then you will have an idea of
the conditions under which Afghan refugees fleeing American bombs are
attempting to survive.

After the tragedies of Sept. 11, when it became clear that the U.S. would
retaliate against Osama bin Laden's terrorist attacks though a campaign
against Afghanistan, I began to worry. I had heard about "collateral damage"
and "smart bombs" during the Gulf War. My gut tightened when I heard these
rhetorical strategies deployed now. My father, a career U.S. Army officer,
was deployed to the Gulf with those very phrases in 1990. This time it was
my turn to travel to the region, to see for myself the effects of U.S.
military action.

In late November I traveled to Jalalabad, Kabul, Peshawar and Islamabad on a
four-woman delegation organized by Global Exchange, the human rights
organization where I have worked for the last eight years. I also
represented the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the
oldest women's peace organization in the U.S. and, as a result, I focused
particularly on the issue of women in a post-Taliban government and the
condition of children in the refugee camps. But my main personal aim was
just to witness, and what I witnessed was extremely troubling.

There was Ramsir, A 24-year-old Tajik mother whose 5-year-old child is
psychologically damaged from the recent bombing. Rasmir's daughter was at a
park in Kabul when American bombs, aimed at the airport, missed their mark
and killed three of her playmates. The women in the park screamed, "Where's
my child?!" Rasmir told me, as they searched for remains among the shrapnel.
After this, Rasmir and her children, who remained in Kabul through both the
mujahedeen and the Taliban regimes, fled the country. Before the slaughter
in the park, Rasmir's neighbor's house had been hit by U.S. bombs. All nine
members of the family were killed. Rasmir told me the shock her daughter
experienced in the park was too much.

I met Rasmir at the Afghanistan Women's Council, a food distribution, health
and educational services project for refugee women and children in Peshawar,
Pakistan. Directed by Fatana Gailani, the center has recently been inundated
by refugees fleeing not only the Taliban but the American bombing. I asked
Gailani if she supported the U.S. bombing campaign, as I expected an
educated woman from Kabul would. "Like most people, I was happy at first, as
I am eager to return to a liberated Afghanistan," she said. "But then I
started seeing the flow of refugees, almost every one with a story of
civilian casualties. And now I say that the bombing must stop. We innocent
Afghans are paying the price."

Another vivid memory is of Haziza, a 12-year-old girl living in a refugee
relief center in Peshawar. I sat with Haziza while an elderly woman told us
she had lost her three sons -- one to the Russians, one to the mujahedeen
and one to the Taliban. As Haziza started sniffling, another visitor to the
center asked the girl crudely, "Why are you crying?" to which she responded
with deeper sobs. As I reached to embrace Haziza, I could feel her body
brace against the deepest pain. "We lived in Kabul near one of the Taliban
military bases, where my father had a small grocery store," she said. "One
day I was out with my father, when we saw planes roaring overhead and heard
scary, loud sounds like thunder. When we returned home, my mother and
younger brother were lying dead in a pile of rubble that was once our house.
My father went into shock and lost his mind. Now I'm the one in charge of
our household. I take care of my five brothers and sisters. We have no money
and it's hard for me to find them enough food to eat."

I also met refugees in a camp on the road from the Khyber Pass to Jalalabad.
They were from the nearby village of Duranta, which was nearly hit by
American bombs that were targeting a Taliban camp and missed. After the
bombing, inhabitants of the entire village fled. Eight days later, they
began returning home in a trickle. But they have been terrorized by the
bombing. I took a picture of 17 children standing in front of the village;
the backdrop to the photo is bomb craters.

How many civilian deaths have occurred since the bombing campaign of
Afghanistan began? I asked several Afghans if they could estimate the
number. The estimates I heard ranged from 1,000 to 5,000. When I relayed
that figure to a U.S. reporter upon my return, she paused and countered that
it actually wasn't that many, considering we are at war. I replied that it
was approximately the same number of innocent people who died in the World
Trade Center attack. Have we become the evil we deplore?

The answer to the question will emerge as Afghanistan rebuilds itself, as
more exact numbers of civilian casualties emerge, as our promises of aid are
either met or retracted. But whatever the postwar Afghanistan looks like,
the battle will be uphill. Afghanistan has long been a country in crisis. It
has been devastated by over two decades of war. Ten percent of all land
mines in the world are there. Life expectancy is 45 years of age, and
Afghanistan's infant mortality rate rivals the poorest African nations. The
national literacy rate is 10 percent and diminishes by half for women.
Tribal warlordism and monarchy are the two political arrangements familiar
to the Afghan people. Those traditions are resistant to change, and their
remnants are the primary components of the new coalition government that
resulted from talks in Bonn in November.

One step toward stability in Afghanistan is the incorporation of women in
government, or their re-incorporation. Women were part of the loya jirga,
traditional parliament, in Afghanistan before the wars, and I met several
accomplished women who could be pivotal to rebuilding the country. In the
end, two women were chosen to be part of the transitional government: Sima
Samar, vice minister for women's affairs, and Suhaila Seddiqi, who will be
appointed minister of health. "I'm elated," said Khorshid Noori, coordinator
of the Afghan Women's Network in reference to Samar and Seddiqi's inclusion
in the government. After five years of Taliban rule and the Northern
Alliance before them, it's a start, though the general sentiment is it's far
from enough.

The question put to me most often by Afghans relates to U.S. interests in
the region. After the Russians were defeated in the late '80s, the U.S.
government, and the rest of the international community, abandoned
Afghanistan, leaving it to the warlords, militant foreigners and the
interests of its more powerful neighbors, particularly Pakistan and Iran.
The Afghans feel deeply skeptical about the motives of the United States in
ousting the Taliban. If the U.S. concentrates its future aid on a
much-touted Unocal pipeline, they tell me, then their worst fears about the
U.S. intervention will have come true. Although the pipeline will be a
source of future jobs in the region, many will see it as the reason the U.S.
came back to Afghanistan.

The U.S. has much to prove to the people of this bomb-ravaged nation. The
U.N.'s World Food Program is currently engaged in a Herculean effort to
distribute 52,000 tons of food per month for the 6 million people rendered
dependent from the bombings, 23 years of war and three years of drought.
Aside from the mind-boggling logistical arrangements, there are two primary
obstacles to the provision of aid. One is the U.S. bombing. Aid workers
cannot distribute food under the present military campaign. The second
obstacle is the banditry and looting taking place in the void of a central
government. The solution to this is the immediate deployment of U.N.
peacekeepers. At the time of this writing, the Bush administration was still
obfuscating attempts by the U.N., France, Jordan, Turkey and Bangladesh to
send an international delegation to secure food distribution in unruly
areas. If food aid does not get through, and Afghans die by the thousands
this winter, they will know whom to blame.

Traveling the six-hour road from Jalalabad back to Peshawar, I found myself
wondering about Afghanistan's postwar economy. Afghanistan does not have
significant source of income other than its trade in opium. The country is
the largest exporter of the drug in the world. If the international
community, particularly the U.S., comes through with the billions of
dollars, then, besides rebuilding the areas destroyed by bombs, it must help
create viable economic alternatives to the opium trade and incentives for
men to put down their guns. The reconstruction also must be sustained by
locally based programs for income generation that do not put Afghanistan
into environmentally dangerous industries or exploit its labor for the
benefit of U.S. corporations. We must not put Afghanistan on a debt
treadmill that leaves the country beholden to the economic dictates of its
benefactors, nor the World Bank. In fact, reconstruction should start with
the canceling of the $50 million in debt held by the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank.

The Afghan women I met insisted I repeat as often as necessary that aid must
also focus on women and children. They told me future aid must target
education, health and job opportunities for the young. The need to focus on
children is obvious. The majority of Afghans are under 18 years old, meaning
that well over half the country has spent all of their years under the
scourge of war. Women also make up 60 percent of the country. They were
denied the right to study, work and receive medical care under the Taliban,
and were subjected to mass rape when the Northern Alliance held Kabul.
Afghan women have been delivering needed assistance during two decades of
refugee crisis, while the U.S. looked away. Now is the time for them to take
greater control.

One fine example of the success of female-run aid programs is the
Humanitarian Assistance for Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA)
organization, which was founded three years ago by 27-year-old Orzala
Ashrawf. HAWCA, based in Peshawar, serves the refugee community by providing
income-generating projects and literacy classes to women. It also provides
classes once a week to girl carpet-weavers. Visiting one Sunday morning, I
met a classroom full of girls. Every one was afflicted with a deep phlegmy
cough from the daily inhalations of thread lint. Yet each one displayed a
shining desire to learn to read and write. The youngest was 5. I asked her
if she had any time to play amidst her labors. She said no. I then asked
what time she went to work in the morning. She didn't know. She is too young
to tell time.

This girl is my muse for helping in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Her
brown-eyed gaze asks, "Will you do your part to end of the long tunnel of
war I have survived? Or will I become another Afghan orphan forced to work
before I can read?"

Photographs by Marla Ruzicka.

Deborah James is fair trade director of Global Exchange, an international
human rights organization. She also serves on the board of the Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom.