V. National level highlights

The Centro Argentino para la Cooperación Internacional y el Desarrollo (CACID) worked with a National Coordinating Committee including, among others: Soldado de la Independencia, City of Buenos Aires, Federacion Universitaria de la Argentina, Federacion Universitaria de Buenos Aires and the City of Rosario. In November, the groups held a preparatory conference for GYSD that served to highlight innovative youth service programs throughout Buenos Aires. Two events were held during the GYSD celebrations, which included: the Second Fair of Youth Service Innovation Projects of the City of Buenos Aires on April 15^th; and the First Fair of Youth Service Innovation Projects of the City of Rosario on April 28th and 29th.  During the Fairs, over 20,000 youth participated and awards were given to youth for having done outstanding community service projects.

The Volunteer Center of the International Public Charitable Organization “Nadezhda Express” and the Republican Public Youth Association “Next Stop – New Life” participated in the preparation of Global Youth Service Day in Belarus.  In Minsk on April 12, 2000, more than 100 volunteers participated in the “Volunteer Project Fair.” Young people carried out 17 projects in different areas. In addition, the national youth organizations “RADA,”  “Different But Equal,” and a representative of the Sweden organization “Peace Quest” participated in the Fair. All 50 participating groups of the “Volunteer Project Fair” were awarded with certificates and the eight best projects received with diplomas.

  On April 15, 2000, youth carried out an environmental “Spring Garden” project at the Central Botanical of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences. Over 350 people contributed over 1,458 hours of service refurbishing and planting at the Botanical Garden.

  In Vitebsk, volunteers visited elderly and homebound residents and cleaned their apartments, conducted a game day in the orphanage, and carried out an area cleanup. Other youth volunteers in the settlements of Dokshitsy and Novopolotsk arranged an entertaining events for over 200 adults and children.

  In Mogilev, youth volunteers cleaned a park, planted flowers, bushes and trees and cleaned the area around an emergency hospital.  Events where sponsored to help veterans of War and Labor, as well as to collect clothing for children in need. A competetion was prepared for the best publication on the topic “Volunteer – 2000.”

  In Bobruisk, students cleaned the city park, residential areas,  and a home for infants. Collections of toys where arranged for the orphanage.

  GYSD stimulated various press articles in newspapers including the “Belaruskaya Delovaya” (Belarusian Buisness Newspaper). Radio channels like “Radio Rocks” and “Alpha Radio” hosted interviews with volunteers and announced information about the events on their programs. Channel 8 of Belarusian TV showed two reports from the site of service events and interviewed event organizers.

ESAM in partnership with a large group of young people coordinated the following activities: 1) a visit to the juvenile detention center in Cotonou, followed by the collection and distribution of food, used clothes, shoes and toys to poor families and their children in the local area; 2) the cleaning of streets and pruning of trees in the town of Akotomey; and 3) a national press conference about volunteering.

  Over 800 volunteers participated in 6 projects throughout the country.  The projects included construction work on a school for children with special needs, volunteering in day-care centers and community centers for children with special needs, and performing for residents of a Home for the Elderly. GYSD generated media attention and highlighted youth service. Young volunteers were very enthusiastic about their participation.  Their effort contributed to the promotion of volunteer work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the OSMIJEH is looking forward to future celebrations of GYSD. 

  Association Mieux Vivre (AMV) worked cooperatively with the Scout Association, the Girl Guides Association, and the Federation of Children and Youth Movements. Preparatory meetings were held with the director of a national TV station, several journalists, NGO leaders and secondary school principals, inviting their participation in GYSD. Young people were involved in the repairing of roads in the capital city of Douala. The Governor launched a kick-off ceremony for the weeklong event that began with a march.  A 2-kilometer piece of road was cleaned and repaired. During this time activities such as football and basketball were offered. Meetings were also held throughout the day and a large battle of the bands took place later in the evening.  In addition to holding a public lecture on the benefits of volunteering, a visit was made to a day care center for children of people suffering from AIDS.  Approximately 1,000 participants celebrated GYSD in Cameroun.

  Five regions in Canada celebrated Global Youth Service Day as the culmination of Canada’s week-long National Volunteer Week. Young people were involved in Youth Volunteerism Awareness campaigns, volunteer-a-thons, and the launching of Volunteering Works!, a youth volunteer website (http://www.volunteer.ca ). 

The Corporacion Grupo Tyrona Ecologico coordinated events in the cities of Bogota and Cali.  Over 7,000 volunteers participated in an Informative Volunteer Forum and organized a tree planting activity, pictured at right. As a result of GYSD a forum was organized with the support of the United Nations in which a network of a thousand members was created entitled “Jovenes Por la Vida y Por la Paz.”

Young Volunteers prepare to plant trees

GYSD was a great success in Costa Rica, with the participation of 250 youth volunteers from 20 different organizations. In the morning the Volunteers built 18 homes in two towns with Habitat for Humanity (HFH). In the afternoon different organizations had a chance to set up stands and light candles in a map of Costa Rica with the location of their organization on the map. Carla Uribe, a 17 year old girl with cerebral paralysis, spoke about volunteering and different forums where held. 

In El Salvador, the YMCA, along with 15 partnering organizations, mobilized more than 600 young people from around the country. They participated in a Forum entitled “The Youth’s Role and Youth Service to the Community.” The Forum provided the opportunity to reflect and recognize the potential and development of  the youth in volunteer service to the community. The Forum was followed by a Youth Rally for Volunteering and the planting of over 500 trees in Santa Tecla.  As a result of the activities, the United Nations Development Program is supporting a process to enable youth to develop a national youth  platform in El Salvador.

Opening Parade in Salvador’s celebration of GYSD

Planting Trees

 Asociacion Cristiana de Jovenes (ACJ) de Honduras coordinated and undertook various activities that raised public opinion/awareness for the positive contributions of young people, fostering youth participation, and demonstrating the role and involvement of young people in the development of the country. Their activities on GYSD included: 1) a public event/rally, in cooperation with the Scouts and the Red Cross, focused on youth service and action, which gathered young people to paint murals throughout the city of Tegucigalpa on specific themes and issues; 2) a monthly open space debate leading up to the celebration, in cooperation with the Frederich Ebert Foundation, on critical issues of importance to youth and youth volunteering; 3) publishing articles and stories in newspapers around the country, and 4) a special musical concert by a Honduran artist.

The Israeli Volunteer Center for and by the Children and Youth spent a day in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, talking about the importance of volunteer action.  There were approximately 300 participants from a variety of volunteer organizations.  The proceedings were translated into sign language for the Deaf.  A lecture on the benefits of volunteering was made to the young people and two panels were conducted afterwards.

The second event in honor of GYSD was an Awareness Journey that took four days.  The goal was to increase the awareness about youth volunteering in Israel.  Volunteers enjoyed their time and felt that it is important to stay in touch with other young volunteers and work together.

On April 15^th over 9 organizations in Almaty joined in the celebration of Global Youth Service Day. Young volunteers conducted an event to lend a helping hand to 12 orphanages and raise funds. Concerts, games, quiz shows, contests, planting and repairing territories where some of the activities that where conducted. Books, toys, clothes, and sports supplies where some things that were collected prior to the celebration. Various donations where given to the orphanages by several companies and institutions in lieu of the celebration.

In Pavlodar, young volunteers also joined GYSD by conducting games and lessons at orphanages and boarding schools. Volunteers also collected clothing for seniors, and held an ecological event aimed to clean up the streets. The day was concluded with a concert organized by several youth groups. 

The Ugunja Community Resource Center along with 43 partnering nonprofit organizations and Government Ministries, brought together 300 young people for GYSD. Videos where shown portraying the challenges young people face when confronting the spread of HIV/AIDS, about ethnic violence and about the struggle faced in Kenya for change in the constitution. These videos where followed by open discussions. Various presentations where made which highlighted and encouraged youth to volunteer.  Along with a dramatic theatre presentation, forums, discussions, speeches and presentations, an ongoing website: www.gysd.50megs.com was promoted to connect youth to volunteer information. The event ended with the group compiling a list of resolutions on youth involvement in political, social, and economic reform, and in the fight against AIDS.  A task force was formed to follow-up on these issues. 

The second event was the creation of two Botanical Gardens that were planted in the Village of Nyasanda.  These herbal gardens will be under the directions of the International Center for Research in Agroforestry and the University of Maseno and will be used for medicinal practitioners.  The results were so well received that other gardens are being planned around the country. The young volunteers were encouraged by the appreciation shown them and are excited to encourage others to participate in volunteering.

National Council of the YMCA worked with eminent and respectable Liberians (including the former President and Archbishop), ten high schools, five universities and three other youth groups on planning the activities for GYSD. Together, they cleared debris and litter from the surrounding communities and installed latrines in several different communities to provide more adequate sanitary facilities. They also held a health, sanitation and reproductive health awareness program for adolescents on April 15, which was open to the public.

The Halley Movement held a press conference and an intergenerational dialogue entitled "Linking the rights of the child to the elderly."  The dialogue centered around ways to engage youth and elderly in solving society's problems, strengthening youth participation in development, bringing all generations together for two global meetings and stimulating research to launch an intergenerational annual movement for GYSD. 

Rather than organize a separate event, Presencia Ciudadana Mexicana linked its GYSD activities to those occurring for EARTH Day 2000 and organized a big event where more than 250,000 people attended. 150 young people distributed environmental education pamphlets and manned some of the stands at the Event. The Minister of Environment of Mexico City and their Public Affairs Director attended the event and promoted the importance of young people volunteering around environmental issues.  PCM is looking forward to working with the GYSD network for next year’s event.

Mexican Citizens’ Presence and the Union of Environmental Groups (pictured above) organize a fair with stands where youth leaders show how to live with alternative technologies. Youth volunteers (left) working with kids, making some drawings of sea animals.  

GYSD activities were organized by several youth organizations in 60 communities.  Approximately 150 young volunteers participated in round-table discussions that covered issues such as education for democracy and peace, children’s rights, health education, teamwork, child abuse prevention, conflict resolution and leadership.

The Asociacion Cristiana de Jovenes de Nicaragua worked in cooperation with El Consejo de la Juventud de Nicaragua and the Nicaragua Environmental Organization.  These groups met with the Executive Committee of the National Council on Youth of Nicaragua to discuss GYSD and effectively created a National Coordinating Committee for the celebration.  A public awareness campaign and the production of t-shirts led up to the celebration of GYSD. On April 15^th, tree-planting activities were held in the capital city of Managua and a youth festival was held at the Institute for Sports, where over 2,000 youth from across the country participated.  The festival included a youth debate and dialogue on themes such as youth development, sustainable development, health, drug and alcohol abuse, among others.

GYSD was celebrated on May 6^th and 7^th in Peru.  Six hundred and fifty young people from 10 organizations joined to hold a public forum called "Hot Chocolate for the Soul" as a public service to women in the country. The Forum focused on breast cancer and educating women about its threat. Over 1,250 women attended the discussions.  Following the discussions, the volunteers participated in a campaign for the prevention and ending of breast cancer.

The Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency (PNVSCA) actively supported the inaugural celebration of the Global Youth Service Day on April 15, 2000.  It undertook three significant activities to mark the celebration of the event, namely the creation of a GYSD national organizing committee (comprising of 17 government agencies and NGOs), the holding of a national convention for youth leaders and volunteers, and a variety of awareness-building activities.  A National Convention of Youth Service Organizations was held April 14-15 at the Assumption High School in Antipolo City. The official Statement that emerged will be presented to the President, highlighting the  recommendations of the youth.

A total of 247 persons attended the convention. Both the Secretary and Executive Director of the National Youth Commission (NYC) and the Director of PNVSCA were present during the convention and answered the queries of the participants. Several press releases on GYSD and the holding of the youth convention were printed in the country's national dailies. This was designed to increase national awareness on GYSD and youth volunteerism.  Also, the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued circulars enjoining the institutions and agencies under them to support the activity.

Despite the narrow timeframe (2 months) given to NOC to plan and conduct the activity for GYSD, it was able to gather a large number of participants from across the country on short notice.  The Estrada Administration expressly supported Philippine participation through the issuance of Proclamation No. 259, declaring April 15, 2000 and every year thereafter as Philippine Global Youth Service Day.

The Philippines looks at its participation in the first celebration of  Global Youth Service Day as significant and highly participatory given the involvement of the young people and the institutional support of both the governmental and private sectors.

GYSD opened Russia’s 5^th Annual National Volunteer Week.  The Centre of Volunteers, in cooperation with over 100 partnering organizations, undertook over 150 activities and projects in over 60 cities throughout Russia, Belorussia, Kazahstan and Ukraina.  Over 10,000 volunteers participated in service projects ranging from cleaning parks, visiting children’s hospitals, collecting supplies for children’s homes, volunteering in homes for the elderly, to planting trees and performing concerts in military hospitals.  A TV-Bridge was organized, linking in friendship young volunteers in Indiana, USA with those in Moscow.  In Kazkhstan, the day ended with a concert organized by local youth groups.  The resource potential of youth in the solution of social problems of their communities was recognized and highlighted.  

Washing windows, painting and looking after infants at the Children’s Rehabilitation Center

CleaniCleaning 

The Conseil National Des UCJG Du Senegal (CNUS) held the GYSD celebrations on May 13, due to the Catholic Church's World Youth Days from April 14-16, 2000.  The CNUS worked in cooperation with the youth organizations associated with the Senegalese National Youth Council, as well as other schools and NGOs.  Their activities included a day-long event with sports events for young people alongside an exposition of youth service organizations and associations.  The day ended with an evening of entertainment and performance art by volunteers. 

Slovene Philanthropy worked in cooperation with 10 other community service organizations, students at local universities and members of Slovene Public Relations Association to promote the youth festival they held on April 15^th.  The event was publicized to the government ministries, all primary and secondary schools in Slovenia, as well as to several NGOs, social and charitable organizations. Those schools where volunteering is a required part of the curriculum were invited to participate in GYSD, but specific activities were not suggested or followed-up.  The main event was held in the capital city of Ljubljana attracted about 400 youth participants who took part in workshops on the streets, learned more about volunteering and organizations in their community and completed surveys on volunteering. Young volunteers visited Nursing Homes and Centers for Handicapped persons.  The main event was followed by an open air rock concert in cooperation with the city authorities, which drew a much larger crowd.

Over 300 volunteers in four different provinces took part in GYSD and activities included: sport events, team building exercises, cleaning of YMCA grounds and fields, weeding sports fields, washing walls and windows of the YMCA buildings.  After the activities, ceremonies took place where volunteers were recognized for their work.  As a result of the day’s activities, volunteers commented that they would like to be more active in their communities and felt more motivated to do so.  The volunteers felt deeply appreciated for the recognition of their work and it encouraged them to do more as well as to encourage other youth to become more involved in volunteerism. Note: South African National Youth Day is June 16.

AEVOL organized an environmental march and clean up for GYSD 2000. Approximately 100 young volunteers cleaned a historical pathway (ANIBA) and learned the cultural and historical significance of the site.  The event received national radio coverage and local press coverage. 

GYSD activities were celebrated in two cities, where over 300 volunteers participated in three different events.  A Youth Volunteer Fair gathered 37 different volunteer groups for an exposition that lasted two weeks. On April 29^th, volunteers and municipal workers painted 12 road-crossing signs in busy parts of the city of Montevideo. The City Administration and local traffic police helped provide safety to the youth that were painting.  Local politicians visited the painters and very successful media coverage resulted.  At the end of the day, the Director of the Education Ministry presented each volunteer group with a recognition certificate.  Next year, the Fair will include recreational activities.

Youth Service America and a coalition of 39 national organizations mobilized over 3 million youth in thousands of service projects for the 12th anniversary of National Youth Service Day.  Projects ranged from: 400 youth building playgrounds in distressed areas of Washington, DC, to read-a-thons with younger children, to conflict resolution rallies and teach-ins with thousands of youth in Denver, Colorado.   In addition, 19 corporate sponsors mobilized their employees to also participate in the service projects. For more details, you may visit the following web page: <http://www.SERVEnet.org/nysd/>.