In recognition of the great gifts our young leaders have to offer to the rest of the URI community and to share with the world, we are proud to announce the launch of our Inaugural Youth Ambassadors Program in 2010! In this pilot year, our Youth Ambassadors will be initiating projects of interfaith cooperation and service-learning of their design, learning from each other and from their peer mentors through online exchange, participating in regional leadership trainings, and sharing their views and experiences through website blogs with the URI community and broader public. Through a selection process, in which more than 50 youth ages 18-30 across the globe applied, we selected fifteen finalists for their clear vision of what interfaith cooperation could bring to their community, for their engagement in an area of work or an area of the world that represents new growth for URI and for interfaith solidarity, and for their demonstrated dedication to working to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings. Here is a brief introduction to each of our Ambassadors:
Abdihakim Aynte was born in 1983 in Somalia, Mogadishu. He moved to Kenya in 2001 to pursue his studies in Community Development, Social Work and Project Management, then returned to Somalia in 2005 to resume his work at a local organization that empowers disabled people of Somalia. As project manager of this NGO, he helped initiate many pilot projects that have been sustained to date. In 2008, Aynte launched a think-tank organization, Somali Forum for Progress (SFP), which is devoted to exploring a range of issues including peace, interfaith dialogue, human rights, and education. He is also working at Faith Without Borders (FWP) as deputy chairperson, a broad movement of interfaith-based organizations from around the world that was established in Finland by a group of concerned citizens. He is currently studying Political Science and International Relations at the London School of Economics (LSE). Aynte is a young person inspired to help people with words of peace and interfaith dialogue. He has devoted much of his time to seek peace and justice from every angle of the word. For the Ambassadors Program, Aynte dreams to build an interreligious coalition and campaign against the religiously-motivated conflicts in Somalia and to lobby for a lasting peace in his home country.
Doria E. Charlson, 18 years old, was born and raised in San Francisco, California, USA. She is a member of a Reform Jewish congregation and has participated in and led many groups related to social justice causes, including advocacy and fundraising to halt the genocide in Darfur and religious co-existence. Currently she is an Assistant Fellowship Leader for the Diller Teen Fellowship Program, which provides Jewish youth with knowledge and skills relating to leadership, Israel, and creating positive changes within their communities. She will be taking her third trip to Israel in the summer of 2009 and has made several trips to both Europe and Eastern Europe, exploring Holocaust history and contemporary immigration. Doria is a member of Stanford University’s class of 2013, where she studies humanities, modern languages and dance. At Stanford, Doria is involved in Hillel, STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur), and is a fore member of Stanford F.A.I.T.H. (Faiths Acting in Togetherness and Hope). Doria wrote and directed the film Holidaze which premiered at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in 2008. She has won many international awards in modern dance and, for six years, was a member of the ODC Dance Jam, a contemporary dance company based in San Francisco. In addition, she loves to cook, read, wander and learn. Doria is honored to be an inaugural Youth Ambassador and hopes the program creates lasting friendships, promotes tolerance, inspires positive change, and contributes to peace everywhere. As an Ambassador, she intends to focus on raising awareness about the prevalence of malaria in Africa and to raise funds to help prevent malaria through organizations that provide nets and medical care to those in highly affected regions.
Peter Dziedzic, 18 years old, is a university student from the United States. He has volunteered in the offices of local organizations including the Interfaith Youth Core and the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. He was involved in a Catholic-Muslim Youth Steering Committee which was sponsored by the Interfaith Youth Core. He would like to develop an internet-based project that focuses on discussing the common links between the three Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). He will be transferring to the University of Edinburgh next year to study Philosophy and English Literature. Peter enjoys writing and hopes to pursue a writing-based career in the fields of journalism, freelance writing or fiction. Peter also enjoys traveling, and would like to spend a few years vagabonding after the completion of his studies. He looks forward to working with everyone involved in URI. As an Ambassador, Peter plans to develop a web-based communication platform for connecting young people of different faiths, as a way for them to discuss faith differences and similarities in a responsible manner, to discuss current events and expand upon ways to attain interfaith understanding.
Abrar Ebada, originally from Egypt, is a student of the Master’s program in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Motivated with a passion for peacebuilding and inter-cultural efforts, she has participated in a number of international events that aim to contribute towards global understanding and mutual cooperation. Abrar is also a member of the British Council’s Global Changemakers where she represented Arab youth in last year’s World Economic Forum on the Middle East. In her spare time, Abrar enjoys watching interesting documentaries, trying out milky dessert recipes and playing hide and seek with her two mischievous kittens Crema and Cacao. What drives Abrar to work for stronger interfaith cooperation on the global level is a deep-grounded belief that each religion holds a message of peace and serenity thus giving a strong potential to unite different people rather than divide. Through the URI Ambassadors Program, Abrar hopes to launch a new project that combines interfaith service with environmental awareness and protection.
Ishilta (his penname and spiritual name) is a writer, geographer, energy-medicine healer, celestial cartographer, philanthropist, earth warrior, sacred ecologist, pioneer and student of life. During his early childhood, Ishilta initiated efforts to revive a local youth organization and organize events in his home village, and served as a junior officer of Legion of Mary. In 2003 he, together with his friends, birthed the first Neopagan e-magazine and networking site in the Philippines, Maggagaway (http://manggagaway-central.blogspot.com), where he worked as managing editor. He also contributes to Humanity’s Team Philippines’ Yellowpad. He served as a Philippine Wiccan Society moderator in 2007 when he brought and represented Wicca and other earth traditions for the first time in the Youth Interfaith Conference held in Laguna. He is also a student of Tantric Buddhism since his refuge ceremony in 2006 and became an active participant of the local Sangha. Since 2000, Ishilta has facilitated a number of energy balancing, space healing, astrology, Wiccan talks and workshops and earth healing ceremonies. As an earth warrior, Ishilta is a member-volunteer of Haribon Foundation, a communication officer and event organizer to Diwang Ilog Pasig Network, Earthdance Manila Network and Integral Art Metta Inc. He is currently finishing the Divine Beings Spiritual Program and will soon join the Byakko family. He maintains a blog at: http://bodhishilta.multiply.com As an Ambassador, Ishilta plans to engage the youth in his region in environmental activities and give them the opportunity to experience stewardship and communion with nature. He also plans to bring them to different cultural / spiritual ceremonies, festivals and gatherings to enrich their personal experience and appreciation of different religious practices, and to form an interfaith meditation group that will come together to experience the “different hues and expressions of the Divine.”
Dr. Sushil Koirala, a 27-year old Hindu from Nepal, is currently working in a hospital as a medical practitioner. He has also devoted himself to six years of peace activism on an international and national level since 2004. He has campaigned in many countries for peace and democracy in Nepal. From 2004 – 2006, under the banner Campaign Peace for Nepal, he organized petitions, signature campaigns, gave speeches and talks in many countries regarding the war and human rights abuses in Nepal and sought international solidarity to end war, pursue peace and restore democracy in his home country. In 2007, he founded the organization Peace for Nepal to promote peace and freedom at home and abroad. Since 2004, Sushil has worked voluntarily for the promotion of World Peace and a Culture of Peace by organizing various activities and programs in many countries as a Peace Representative of the World Peace Prayer Society. He is also a founding member of the World Spirit Youth Council. He has organized various interfaith programs and involved leaders of various faiths to promote world peace, harmony, human rights and freedom. As a Youth Ambassador, Sushil plans to engage leaders of various cultures, ethnicities, religions, faith traditions, and from social, business and political sectors to work for peace in their communities. He plans to organize interfaith activities at a local and national level, such as interfaith music and cultural programs, while also inspiring youth and people at an international level to work together for World Peace, to alleviate poverty and human suffering.
Francisco Esteban Morales Ventosa, 29 years old, is a Member of the Community of Students of the First Nations of America, and comes from the Kolla Indigenous nation. Francisco was born in the current plura-national Republic of Bolivia on August 3, 1980, of Argentine nationality. In the course of his training at age 18, he joined the Sikuris community, seeking more information about his cultural identity and participated in this community until 2001, when he began studying Drama and Theater and forming theatre groups with the purpose of rescuing the traditions of Indigenous peoples. In 2002 he co-founded the group Savia Latina, which together with other youths designed radio programs such as SAVIA LATINA” on FM WILDE and “Fuera de Serie” Latin Wave FM. In 2003 Francisco worked with some organizations in which he came to know the political reality of indigenous communities and the need to prepare and build the capacity of future generations to end the inequality of socioeconomic opportunity they face. He then began his higher education in Sociology at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2005 he joined the work of the Indigenous Organization “Student Community of the First Nations of America” which connected him to the field of interfaith dialogue and the importance this has for the healing and construction of a more just and equal society. He has participated in several international and national conferences, leading and presenting about the ancestral knowledge of indigenous worldviews, to promote and assist in the work of building a culture of peace and fraternity between humanity and Mother Earth. As an Ambassador, Francisco dreams to be part of the process and the formation of multinational states and pluralist societies in the world as alternatives to support the care of our planet and home, our Mother Earth.
Rowaida Mroue, a 23-year old Shi’a Muslim from Lebanon, is currently serving as the Program Coordinator and Media Consultant for the Lebanese Youth for Different Society Organization (LYDS) where she organizes events to educate people on topics related to youth, human rights and conflict resolution. Rowaida is also a trainer in Human Rights, Conflict Resolution, Leadership and Youth Empowerment for the American Islamic Congress, coordinating AIC projects in Lebanon. She has a background in public relations and media outreach, most recently having worked as a public relations coordinator for Dar Al-Farasha, where she was responsible for coordinating with Lebanese and Arab radio and television stations, magazines and newspapers for the news publications of the company. She studied Communication Arts and Journalism and is currently completing her Masters in International Affairs from the Lebanese American University in Beirut. She recently participated in a five-days “Interfaith Leadership Seminar: Arab Bloggers Moving from the Virtual to the Real World” at Al Akhawayn University where students and youth activists from Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Tunisia and Algeria shared ideas for building virtual bridges in the Middle East to generate interfaith and intercultural projects in their own countries. As a Youth Ambassador, Rowaida plans to implement a one-year project for youth ages 15-24 years old, offering workshops in Lebanese cities and villages on interfaith engagement for social change and creating a national petition to push for greater social cohesion and integration.
Nyambura Mundia, a 23-year old Protestant Christian from Kenya, is a journalist trainee and an artist who has devoted her efforts to use journalism and art as tools for community development and conflict resolution. With a talent for writing and a passion for dance and body fitness, she has used these strengths to reach out to slum communities and to be involved in mobilizing youth into groups that nurture peace and development initiatives. She convenes a young women’s literary stage which aims at giving the African Girl’s voice a more honorable space; she herself has had her poetry published in a local anthology. In 2008 Nyambura worked with Post Election’s Internally Displaced Persons, using poetry and dance as a means of conflict resolution among young people in a Kenyan slum called Mitumba. She has also worked with several blood donation organizations and recently she helped pioneer Faith Based Blood Drives which has helped take AIDS education a step further in her community. URI-Kenya is still in a formative stage and alongside her country’s trustee, she is helping formulate strategies to involve more youth in interfaith work in Nairobi. Peaceful relations, community development and inspiration for young minds define the activities around her life. As an Ambassador, Nyambura is planning to organize an interfaith Blood donation drive, organizing youth donors from many different religions and traditions to highlight the fact that blood is a unifying factor among all human beings. This will help to overcome stereotypes and break social barriers; to contribute precious resources to the alarming blood scarcity in Kenya’s national bank, and to break new ground around STD and HIV / AIDS education and prevention.
El Hammoumi Naoufal, a 27-year old Muslim from Morocco, started working with youth NGOs in his country at 7 years old. He is the founder of several national and international level initiatives carried out by young people for young people. He is president of the Moroccan NGO for Young People’s Development in Tiflet, and the founder of the URI Cooperation Circle Salam Shabab. He is also a founder-member of the Association of Arab Youths, the International League of Young Journalists, and the Arab Cash Support Mobility of young people. He has taken part in several multinational conferences on the topics of young people and their impact on sustainable development, human development, lobbying and participative development. Selected as one of the top ten best young journalists of Morocco, Naoufal has also been involved in several press reviews and works in progress such as: the Network of Young Arabics and a project for reinforcing the regional press in Morocco and on the Internet. With a particular passion for learning about cultures and new technologies, Naoufal loves building international websites for youth initiatives. He also likes tennis, traveling, NTIC and to take part in humane actions. As an Ambassador, Naoufal’s dream is to work with a dynamic team to carry out their dreams on the ground, to continue his work as a missionary for peace, tolerance and non-violence, and to support young people’s ability to think positively about life.
Patrick Nickisch, a 25 year old Gaudiya Vaishnavite (Hindu), was born and grew up in Cologne, Germany. After finishing high school, he joined the Hare Krishna movement and entered a training time in the monastic order for several years, going on pilgrimages to India several times, living in ashrams, and receiving spiritual instruction of the Vaishnava faith, a monotheistic Hindu tradition. After graduate studies in Vaishnava theology in Belgium, he is presently continuing with a postgraduate program in religious studies with a focus on world religions, religious experience and dialogue. His official interfaith engagement as a Hindu representative started in November 2007 in Belgium where Religions for Peace launched a national council in Brussels. Afterwards, he joined Religions for Peace in his hometown in Cologne and was active on various occasions as a Vaishnava-Hindu speaker. He got in contact with URI at ISKCON’s headquarters in Mayapur, India, during the URI Global Assembly via its Young Leaders Program which inspired him to dedicate more work and service to the URI afterwards. He became a member of the URI European Executive Committee in Spring 2009, also to increase youth presence on the Board. In a similar capacity, he participated in two of the URI President’s Council satellite meetings on communications and growth which proved very insightful and educational. Hoping that these services for the URI community can increase significantly through the Youth Ambassador program, Patrick is looking forward to further the aims of URI by working with the other ambassadors and all of those who want to support the participation of youth in making a difference in the world, toward a culture of healing, justice and peace.
Mrithula Shiva, a 20-year-old Hindu from Malaysia, fell in love with the beauty and intricacy of Bharathanatyam, a classical Indian dance, at the age of five and still today is deeply in love with the tradition that has been passed on to her. She writes, “I am most happy on stage, dancing my heart out and living in the moment.” Mrithula’s principal at secondary school, upon watching her dance the Bharathanatyam on countless occasions, recommended that Mrithula represent Malaysia at the International Sunburst Youth Camp in 2005. Here she showcased the Malaysian Indian culture together with many other students from ten countries around the world. Mrithula also had the opportunity to dance alongside her dance teacher in a two-week dance tour of the UK in 2006. This tour sparked the idea for her that dance could be an international unifying factor. At this point, Mrithula wnated to do more for the Indian community and joined the Petaling Jaya Hindu Youth Organization (PJHYO). She is now a committee member and head of the sub-committee for youth and leadership programs. Mrithula intends to accept the post of vice-president of PJHYO in 2010 to further enhance her leadership skills as well as to do more for Malaysian youth. At present, Mrithula is a final-year accounting student of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). While she is a full-time student, she also works part-time as a teacher assistant for the British Council. Mrithula is happy in the position, working with children ages five to nine, because she can put to use the skills she has acquired over the years. She has learnt that we are all individuals and each one of us deserves respect and dignity regardless of age or race. She has also learnt a great deal of patience. As a Youth Ambassador, Mrithula dreams to engage her classical dance background to create an annual music and dance festival as a platform for youth to express their own religions and spiritual beliefs, and to promote better understanding of each other’s traditions through the medium of dance and music.
Daniel Stephen Sullivan, a 29-year-old Catholic and native of Massachusetts, USA, serves as Chief of Staff to the Dean of the Massachusetts House of Representatives while pursuing his graduate work. He is Chairman of Young Professionals for International Cooperation of the UN Association of Greater Boston, serves on the UNA-GB Board of Directors and is a member of the YPIC National Leadership Council. Dan has been a Delegate to the Youth General Assembly at the United Nations and a SustainUS Agent of Change Delegate to the UN Commission on Social Development. He has taught in the after-school program Citizen Schools and is also an ordained minister. He completed a Certificate in Health and Human Rights from Harvard University School of Public Health, an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown University, a Bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard University, a Certificate in Conflict Analysis from the US Institute of Peace, and studied at the Leadership for Change program at Boston College and International Relations at Lynn University. Dan was selected as a Global Health Scholar by the American Medical Student Association in 2006. Of interfaith cooperation, he writes, “The great challenges of the 21st century will be faced and solved by citizens of the world engaged in a struggle to realize our best ideals and we can do this only through the power of our shared values that are inherently enveloped in our faiths.” As a Youth Ambassador, Dan plans to organize a Global Health and Faith Youth Summit, focusing on global health education, faith and action for undergraduates, graduates and young professionals ages 18-30 who seek to connect their personal faith to their social responsibility through community education and service.
Freeman Trebilcock is a 21-year-old Australian born Tibetan Buddhist monk. A founding member of the international peace organization Loving Kindness Peaceful Youth, he has a deep commitment to promoting inner values as the basis of creating a more peaceful, just and sustainable world. Freeman has collaborated in numerous interfaith initiatives including organizing and participating in the “Dialogue with the Dalai Lama: Multifaith Forum for Schools” in 2007 and coordinating the Buddhist community for the Melbourne Interfaith Youth Pilgrimage in 2008. Freeman has twice attended the Interfaith Youth Core’s (IFYC) conference on interfaith work. Inspired by the IFYC model of interfaith service, in 2009 Freeman started InterAction: multifaith youth network, an Australian-based organization which promotes religious pluralism by engaging young people in common action for the common good. InterAction held its launch in Melbourne in the lead-up to the Parliament of the World’s Religions and will continue to use the energy generated by this major event to advance interfaith harmony and cooperation locally and across the globe. As a Youth Ambassador, Freeman plans to work with faith groups at University campuses across his region, with a focus on coming together on common projects of service – “common action for the common good.” He has a vision for InterAction to grow into an Australia-wide network and instigate change across the entire campus environment for University students, where faith groups currently remain isolated and disconnected from each other.
Shazia Wahid, a 27-year-old Shia’h Muslim, is a dynamic girl residing in Quetta, Balochistan in one of the four provinces of Pakistan. She belongs to the Hazara tribe which inhabits parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. She has over six years experience working in community development, human rights, youth engagement in peacebuilding, tolerance, interfaith harmony and women’s empowerment. She started her career as a volunteer working in her community; later on she received a one-year course on mainstreaming gender and development from the Institute of Development Studies and Practices (IDSP-Pakistan) that changed her mind, and she decided to dedicate herself to the development and empowerment of youth and women in rural areas of Balochistan. She spearheaded an organization for youth titled NEW YOUTH. The organization focused on youth development by crafting innovative approaches to youth empowerment, human rights, peace and tolerance and women’s issues. The organization also ensures the role of young men and women in peacebuilding through active youth engagement and interfaith harmony, helping them to get together and share their ideas and experiences with each other in the context of peace and tolerance and ending discrimination against religious minorities. Shazia has great concern for the youth of her country and strives to change their behavior to play a positive role in developing their own communities and reduce sectarian and religiously motivated hatred and violence. As an Ambassador, Shazia plans to build understanding among young men and women in her region about interfaith dialogue through monthly seminars and formal and informal community meetings, to bring in different religious leaders who are interested in interfaith dialogue and who wish to contribute to the peaceful development of youth, and to develop links with other networks, groups, UN and civil society organizations to create an institutionalized interfaith dialogue.
Ligue Internationale des Jeunes Journalistes: La LIJJ participera à une table ronde sur les préoccupations de la jeunesse du bassin euro-méditerranéen