Wedding Bells

My BFF Kim recently got engaged! I even got to help Pablo with the proposal from another continent. I am very excited for these two and know they have an incredible path before them filled with service to each other and the world.
Congratulations Pablo and Kim! Quito, Ecuador in July 2010!

Empowering Children as Peacebuilders Forum

As usual I'm behind on fulfilling my good intentions of blogging. Nevertheless, let me share with you a little bit about my recent trip to the Philippines. Last month I spent a couple weeks in Manila, Philippines for work. The purpose of the trip was to help out at an event called Empowering Children as Peacebuilders (ECaP) Forum. About 40 young peacebuilding leaders from 9 countries gathered together to share their ECaP work, build relationships with one another and launch a network for the children to continue to share their best practices with one another. Children ages 13-20 came from the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Korea, Kenya, Columbia and Lebanon. The first couple of days were spent with about 10 of these children who would be leading the Forum. World Vision staff helped train and mentor these youth so they were better prepared to lead their peers during the Forum. The five-day Forum itself was incredible. Each day was packed with interactive activities and peacebuilding exercises that helped the children think through their own context and peacebuilding work in their countries. Every country was able to share best practices through a marketplace, presentations, skits, artwork and media resources. Certain country groups introduced new modules and creative ways of thinking that could help other countries in their own peace clubs methodologies and activities. One night the children had a cultural night where each country group presented a dance, song or drama from their culture that shared a message of peace. On the last day the children worked very hard to develop a peace declaration stating their purpose and what they wanted to achieve as a group. The children shared this with stakeholders both internal and external to World Vision in a panel format. We ended our time together with a commitment signing as seen below.
I also had the opportunity to meet Fatmire Feka one of my heroes. After the war in Kosovo, Fatmire started Kids for Peace at the age of 11. She help found 8 clubs. Today there are 16 clubs led by children helping Muslims and Christians work together, teaching their peers about their rights and helping serve their communities through projects and activities. Fatmire, now 21 years old, was the keynote speaker at the Forum. Feel free to read the story I wrote on Kids for Peace as a World Vision International 2009 Peacebuilding Award Recipient.
I absolutely loved my time with the children. It was so wonderful to meet some of the children that have been heroes of mine since I began my work in peacebuilding. These children are true inspirations and agents of change and it is so cool to see them fighting for peace and justice at such a young age and with such passion and drive. Talk about true empowerment in their ownership and participation- taking up huge issues like children's rights, conflict analysis and community change! It is beautiful and this is exactly the kind of thing that excites me about working with children. My time with these children was so rich and full of life. Laughter, dance, and creativity that filled my experience with these kids will be something that will continue to motivate me in my work and carry me forward. I cannot wait to work more directly with children again in this capacity because let's be honest, working directly with children is my favorite. I only hope and pray that God will give me the opportunity to have that kind of dream job in the not-so-distant future.
For photos, media resources (including videos on awesome work in the Philippines, Cambodia and India), a look at the children's peace declaration, etc. please visit our public WVI Peacebuilding site.