It’s been a full and intense week - from midnightly fire alarms to possible food poisoning (beware the shrimp!) to 58 young activists and social entrepreneurs getting very little sleep… but somehow this didn’t seem to affect their enthusiasm or their energy. (It may not have done wonders for the punctuality of some of them, mind you…)

 

We’re back from Uplands, UK, where we spent the week with the latest generation of Global Changemakers - an amazing bunch who have been keeping us on our toes. Many of them will be suffering from Post-Summit Blues, which we’re trying to have recognised as a genuine condition afflicting Changemakers at the end of their first regional or global youth summit. But they’ll also be working on their GAP (or Global Action Project) submissions, which are due this December. We’re all looking forward to the results of last week’s work - and the GAPs are just the beginning!

 

Next week will see a more regular Team Tuesday; we’re still not 100% complete at the office, with Katherine travelling to get rid of some of her excess leave and to recover from the insanity of the team (or is that vice versa?) and Anne returning tomorrow after staying behind in London - it was all planned, though. To the best of our knowledge, we haven’t lost anyone in transit (yet), neither Changemaker nor Team Bern. Let’s keep it that way! We wouldn’t want to pick anyone up at Heathrow, Zürich or Kinshasa Lost & Found…

 

 

P.S.: Don’t trust the shrimp…!

 

 

Congratulations to all who participated in the GYS last week, and special congratulations to the five GCMs who will represent the network at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum January 26-30.

 

The five GCMs selected are:

Anjali Chandrashekar
Dan Cullum
Mai Shbeta
Raquel Helen Santos Silva
Trevor Dougherty

 

Please send Anjali, Dan, Mai, Raquel, and Trevor your innovative ideas + your help as they prepare to represent all of us in Davos in January.

 

 

 

From the writings of T.E. Lawrence, with a lot of help by Caroline Casey:

 

“Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible.”

 

Keep dreaming, keep being dangerous - keep making it possible!

... and you blink twice and it’s already the final day of the Global Youth Summit 2010. Time flies when you’re planning Global Action Projects, visiting UK organisations that are bringing about change in their communities, acquiring new skills and brushing up on the ones you already have - and most of all, when you’re having an exciting, intense week with a new family of likeminded young people eager to make the world a better place, step by step.

 

Friday was dedicated to finalising the GAPs and presenting them to the group at large: the six groups ranging from Environment and HIV/AIDS to Education and Human Rights have all come up with intriguing, creative approaches to raising awareness on the issues close to their hearts.

 

Before the end of the day and the farewell dinner and celebration, the Global Changemakers were treated to a truly inspiring talk by Caroline Casey, social entrepreneur and founder of Kanchi - a true testament to the power of following your dreams and not letting yourself be told what you can and can’t do.

 

We will be posting more on the Global Youth Summit, its results and the follow-up work during the coming week. The summit is over - the journey of these new Changemakers has only just begun!

 

P.S.: For now, here are some of the highlights from previous days:

 

 

Thanks to our tireless peer facilitator and photographer Andrea, the Global Youth Summit 2010 is the first time our photos are entirely done by a Changemaker. Check out the Global Youth Summit gallery for impressions from the summit!

 

In the meantime, the Changemakers are off to London to visit Spring Gardens, home of the British Council, and a number of organisations actively engaged in the capital. Tune in later for details!