It was a pleasure traveling to Sharm El Sheik with the the YES Leaders. it was a shame that not everyone could go. Let me just mmention some highlights of the Forum:

On Day 1 of the Forum, I saw most of the YES participants gathering in the the session focuse don The Power of Youth in promoting Peace moderated by Ashok Regmi (Program Manager, YouthAction Net, International Youth Foundation) where I managed to hear about the experiences of other young people working towards peace around the world. The stories they shared and the perspectives they come from certainly enriched my views on life. It not only made me feel a kinship forming among the youth that were in the forum, but it added fuel to my burning desire to do more - to help more.

Jen's session on Buildding Bridges across Geographical Boundaries showed us the extent of the role ICT plays in fostering peace. I also appreciated the point Gbenga Sesan made about access to ICT. He said that it's time for us to take step up and take responsibility in providing ourselves access to ICT - and access to anything if you go by his train of thought. Hee said he had never had a computer until 3 years ago, but that never stopped him from doing his work - from helping others and helping foster peace. We have to stop waiting for governments or other people to provide us with resources, but instead be creative in seeking those resources ourselves. The issue is not access, but the issue is are we prepared to do everything to achieve what we want to happen?

I think it was also durign this day that I finally ahd the chance to spend some time with Jennifer, who is so busy changing the world one country at a time through TakingITGlobal. And we love you for it, Jen! I look forward to seeing you again for that thing you talked to me about over lunch. I'm really looking forward to it.

I must mention it here that I haven't realized that I have not thanked Jennifer enough for getting me in touch with the Global Knowledge Partnership. I was looking for opportunitiees for the Philippine Youth Employment Network one day and TIG directed me to GKP's website. Because of that, I received the GKP Youth and ICT Award in 2005. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Jennifer! It opened doors for me!

Day 2 was quite eventful. There were fantastic sessions to attend. MCIT, Hewlett Packard and Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak's Women's Movement gave me an all-in-one printer from HP for "Creativity in ICT4Peace Award." Unintentionally, I went for the walk which turned out to be a run which turned out to be a walk for peace and planted trees. I didn't know that we were supposed to leave our name tags on the trees we planted so I still have mine. :)

During the Closing Ceremony of Day 3, several YES Country Leaders were given the chance to give our thoughts about the conference and provide some solution points to the issues brought up in the sessions. The Forum ended with a song written by Mrs. Mubarak and all the participants sang and hugged and got to know each other.

From the first to the last day, I made some new acquaintances who will hopefully be friends during my whole lifetime.

What stuck to me was a response one of the panelists made during the plenary on day 2 - WE ARE THE AMBASSADORS OF PEACE.

Dumisani Nyoni and I co-facilitated a World Cafe session on the theme of Community Building at the Youth Employment Summit meeting in Alexandria. Here are the notes from our session:

• Youth exchange experience, give and take relationship, consistent communication, time to evaluate, adapt to new needs, more action/results-oriented, internal capacity-building
• Goals of YES can be improved through information sharing beyond the community. Have an online exchange program of best practices and stories
• Strengthening communication channels
• Translation into different languages
• Updating information from different regions
• Scholarships and comprehensive training
• Country internship programs
• Entrepreneur funds
• What is the added value of YES working from a civil society – important for YES to position itself through other initiatives such as the ILO initiative (YEN), how can YES add value to YEN
• YES creates an in-country process to help build skills and understanding for youth access employment and jobs
• Need for a political agenda – to act as a pressure unit when it comes to policy setting
• Sharing the ideas
• Regular communication
• Assistance of country networks
• Coordinate promotion of social/economic/environmental
• Information exchange and human resource exchange between countries
• Developing a culture of diversity and respect
• Joint activities and projects
• Stronger relations between countries
• Ways to improve capacity of network leaders
• Ethics issues
• Donor information
• Give community the opportunity to think and nurture creative ideas
• Respect for the culture to have sustainable development
• Clear link for understanding needs of the community
• Bringing young people in as partners, getting youth more say in matters and opening opportunities
• Creating rural livelihoods
• Build their confidence
• Youth-to-youth markets
• Process showed us that we are already achieving many things that we need to do
• Try to remove hatred and enemy
• Making sure that we are collaborating
• When there are weaknesses – find tools to turn them into strengths
• Process showed how great of a community this is
• The challenge is not the future – the challenge is today
• Meeting frequently – even discussions over the internet to feel more connected to each other
• Should be a leader to any family – must have good leadership skills
• We just need to continue what we do
• Clearly defining our aims and goals
• Having a plan of approach and action -- Engaging the youth in the process
• Technology could play a vital role
• Fostering multi-sectoral collaboration
• Knowledge sharing
• We need trust, commitment, resources, rules, to be flexible, mutual understanding, to have an effective and efficient structure
• For leadership to be good at building capacities
• Adding something to our names (YES)

These are notes taken from the YES Alexandria meeting with inputs from participants (Aug 2007)


• Unconditional love, belonging, home, tolerance, respect, being there for one another, you can find your roots, identity, confidence, learning
• some say ‘blood’
• some say if they do not support your objectives – it’s just a relation
• embodies solidarity, social-cultural, responsibilities
• group of people living together, working on a shared interest
• accepts you as you are who may or may not have the same objectives
• with whom you share things/feelings, they know what you need
• people closest to you – a bond
• people who you trust and who trust you
• people who help you grow
• group of people having common interests, mutual respect and concern, sharing same ideas
• having something in common like language, food, religion
• people who care for each other
• people who we feel comfortable with or feel open with
• deep innate connection to
• deep sense of care
• support and believe in you unconditionally
• instill core values
• organism
• empathy
• support
• where you can be yourself, who you want to be
• where people appreciate you completely for who you are
• element of forgiveness for flaws
• acceptance
• space for resolution
• place for trust, partnership, warmth, love commitment, acceptance, mentors, constructive criticism, common values and aims among diverse group
• compassion
• guidance
• history and legacy
• essence of life, comfort and balance, support and partnership, private space of person, love and teamwork, sharing values, not alone, where you feel at home, solidarity and network
• group of people sharing common culture, vision in a respectful and friendly way
• community is mutual understanding and acceptance
• respecting different cultures, ethnicities
• fastest/biggest changes happen, patience, teambuilding
• Place you live, who you live with, interactive circles (i.e. social)
• Beyond immediate family, interaction, sense of belonging, defines who we are, people who assist each other, gives a sense of comfort through something shared, common unit, support, social interactions that determine our social/political thinking, shared norms/values/interests