LWF Youth Blog

LWF Global Training for young leaders in Moscow

July 6, 2009 by lwfyouth

Participants of the European LWF Global Training for Young Leaders

A contribution by Daan Leker and Moritz Gräper:

„Seigneur, nous arrivons…“

Today was already departure-day. Nine young adults from all over Europe (Sweden, France, Slovakia, Chech Republic, Finnland, Poland, the Netherlands, Ukraine and Germany) had been together for one week. No one knew what to expect!

During the week we shared thoughts, ideas, passions and problems. We supported each other in developing projects for our local contexts, wich was the goal oft he LWF young Leadership Course. And got to know each others cultures. One thing is for sure: Time just flew by.

The LWF program was divided into different phases. After we had gotten to know each other better, we started by analyzing our views on our home context, to sharpen our goals and talk about things that need change.

In between working on our projects we also had bible studies wich where presented to us in interactive ways. We discovered about the gender differences between our cultures and learned how to speak as apostles. Which was really interesting. During the week it was really good to see that everyone one was entitled to their own opinions and was able to speak freely! We also had worship every day, which we all prepared. We learned songs in French, German, Swedish, Russian and all the other languages. This was a bit difficult sometimes. And we played games in the morning to wake up, most of which included paper towels.

We were exposed to Russian diakonal work in a soup kitchen to get a feeling of social issues in Moscow. We helped passing out soup, salad and tea to 60 to 80 year olds. These people came tot he soup kitchen almost every other day and from all over Moscow. It was impressive to see and it really made an impact on all of us to see that these people, who al ready have a whole life behind them, didnt have enough money to eat. It was a an impressive day.

The kitchen was run by an Etheopian man who had been in Russia since the eighties. Younger volunteers from Cameroon and also Nigeria helped out. After this deep real-life experience we got into, we started the next day to go into ourselves in order to discover our passion and formulate a vision. It was so precious hearing what’s really going on inside of every one!

The most challenging part was probably to move from the big ideas of our vision to a certain project that would make sense in our own communities, being realistic about sources, budget and people. Many of us experienced quiet a crisis. Goals that where to big, SMART goals that we didn’t fully understand. Preparing the presentations which we had to do on the last day, without computer! An example of some oft he projects we will be working on fort he next ten months are:

- Setting up classes for young people in wich they’ll learn to discover themselves and try to give them direction in their lives.

- Setting up an international program in a congregation.

- Setting up youth services within in a congregation.

- Setting up youth meetings and give English lessons to young people.

For us it was very helpful to hear one an others opinions. We usually got up between 7:30 and 8 am and went to bed at around 1 or 2 am! There was simply so much interesting things to talk about, lots of work, tommy emmanuel videos on youtube.com, table tennis matches (Joanna beat us all), playing volleyball with some Russians, having coffee, and so on.

Thank you to everyone who participated (Yana, Sanna, Johanna, Daan, Nastia, Katariina, Milan, Martin), thank you Roger, thank you Yana and Dmitry! You all made this trip so precious!

Moritz & Daan

Posted in Church, Ecumenism, Europe, Faith, LWF, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation | Leave a Comment »

calls for applications — Ecumenical Women Blogging Specialist

July 1, 2009 by Emily Davila

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Ecumenical Women (EW) is an international coalition of church denominations and organizations which have status with the Economic & Social Council (ECOSOC) at the United Nations. We train and empower faith-based advocates for gender equality at the annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held in February-March.

Ecumenical Women at the United Nations is seeking a Blogging Specialist to update and maintain its blog and website, www.ecumenicalwomen.org. Qualified applicants will be familiar with blogging and other social network tools, or demonstrate serious willingness to learn. Applicants should be committed to women’s rights and gender equality, be comfortable writing about Christianity and other faiths. Experience with advocacy, ecumenical organizing and the United Nations is preferred but not required.

The EW Blogging Specialist will be responsible for posting 4-6 blog posts per month, which s/he may either write or recruit others to write and edit. Posts should be within the interests and advocacy goals of EW’s member organizations. The Blogging Specialist must be a clear and creative writer, an independent worker, and capable of working remotely.

Multiple writers will be chosen, depending on applicant pool. Young men and women from the global South and /or underrepresented groups from the north are encouraged to apply in order to deepen our blog’s perspectives. Individuals from remote locations are strongly encouraged to apply, but Internet access is required. This position will last three months upon hire with opportunity for renewal. A stipend of $400 will be provided.

In your cover letter, tell us why you will be a creative and interesting blogger, and how you can help us improve our website.

To apply, please submit resume, cover letter, and two samples blogs of 200-300 words, including hyperlinks on topics related to faith, women’s rights, advocacy or the United Nations of blog posts by July 30th, 2009 via email (put “Blogging Specialist” in subject line) to:

Malte Lei malte.lei AT elca.org

Ecumenical Women c/o Lutheran Office for World Community

Posted in Life | Leave a Comment »

Aids 2031: 5% for the future

June 26, 2009 by lwfyouth

Rebekka Højmark Jensen writes her last report about the youth summit of Aids 2031 (after the first posts here and here):

“Last day on the AIDS2031 Youth Summit. After some very intense days together with other young leaders this day was spent in company with established leaders i the fields of AIDS work, media and politics. The idea was to create ways to promote youth participation at all levels in decision making in the field of HIV and AIDS. Moreover, the goal was to secure support for youth led organisations. Whilst young people are already running organisations on their own initiative, they often have poor access to funding. The established funds do not have a policy to support youth led organisations seperately. However, this summit has made it perfectly clear that youth led organisations have a very special role to play in the fight against HIV and the stigma connected to it: Young people hold the key to communicate to other young people; Young people have the passion to do great things with few resources. As a result, young people are the ones who can turn over the situation and make way for a world in 2031 with less HIV infections, with less stigma and with less descrimination of positive people.

To change the situation, this AIDS2031 Youth Summit introduced a campaign called ”5% for the Future”. Very simply to call upon foundations to allocate 5% of their budget to youth led organisations!

I am really thankful that I had the opportunity to attend this meeting. Many very skilled and powerful people, both young and less young, reached enormous results during these few days in Norway. I leave a piece of my heart with each and every person who took part in the summit. I know we all share a common hope for the future and I leave from Gardermoen Airport with one big lump of this hope. God bless you all.”

Posted in Church, HIV/Aids, Justice, Life, Youth, Youth participation | Leave a Comment »

Aids 2031: Are churches ready to fight stigma?

June 24, 2009 by lwfyouth

Here is the second contribution (here is the first one) of Rebekka Højmark Jensen who currently attends the meeting of Aids 2031:

“The AIDS2031 Youth Summit is rolling on its second day. I am on the working group discussing how we can create safe spaces for youth HIV positive people. Spaces to talk, grieve, cry, scream, or simply just to be. One of the main solutions, as we see it, is to address schools, government and religious communities to secure that there will be safe spaces in the local environment. I find it devastating how many people have been excluded from there religious community because their status as HIV positives was revealed. Most of all this keeps people, who are actually religious, away from practicing their religion, from celebrating their life as given by God and from listening to the Gospel that tells us that God walks with us on our journey in life. This also creates a great ditch between the churhces and the HIV/AIDS organisations. The dialogue is extreemly challenged because the confidence between people living with HIV and the churches has been broken. I hope that in 2031, the inclusion of people living with whatever type of illness will be normal in religious communities all over the world. The ways to get there are many. First of all, I think we should see the other person as a person before anything else.

This Youth Summit is also a step on the way. It takes many aspects into account and will result in some very concrete plans for how to approach the issues of stigma and discrimination towards young positive people from now on and untill 2031.”

Posted in Church, Faith, HIV/Aids, Justice, LWF, Youth, Youth participation | 1 Comment »

Aids 2031- Young adult conference in Norway

June 23, 2009 by lwfyouth

Aids 2031 is a global coalition that wants to make sure that there a real changes in the global fight against the virus. Currently, a small conference of young leaders is taking place in Oslo, Norway.

The website says: “aids2031, in collaboration with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit, will hold a 2nd Young Leaders Summit in Oslo 23-25 June, 2009 to unite young leaders in the ongoing fight against AIDS related stigma and discrimination.”

On behalf of the Lutheran World Federation Rebekka Højmark Jensen, a young Lutheran theologian from Denmark is taking part in the conference. She writes:

“2031 is the year when HIV and AIDS has been with us for 50 years. The AIDS2031 is about what we have to do now to change the face of the pandemic in 2031. I came to the Youth Summit arranged by the consortium behind AIDS2031 with open ears to hear what the challenges are among the young people living with HIV today. The meeting started this morning, and already I am full of impressions. One person at my own age telling about being the only person in her family who is not positive which is why she can travel to Norway for this conference. Another girl, ten years younger than me, who was born with HIV and has had to live with heavy discrimination and stigmatisation since childhood. Others who spent a fortune on AIDS work because funding is not available for youth work.

Tomorrow we will discuss some solutions to carry forward. It will be demanding and productive because everyone is here to gain and give.”

Posted in Church, Europe, HIV/Aids, LWF, Life, Youth, Youth participation | 2 Comments »

LWF Youth Internship in Geneva 2010

June 19, 2009 by lwfyouth

2010 is going to be a busy year for the Lutheran World Federation. The end of July, it will have its 11th General Assembly in Stuttgart, Germany. Close to one thousand people will come together to learn, celebrate and make important decisions. 20% of the delegates will be young people under 30 years.

Already before that around 180 young people will meet for one week in Dresden, another German city to find a unifying vision for young Lutherans globally. In order to do that we need the help of a young person from a member church of the Lutheran World Federation. This intern will be invited to come to Geneva from February to November 2010. The main task will be to learn and build capacitiy to support the church back home. This will happen in the preparations for the both LWF conferences in July 2010.

If you want to learn more about this opportunity, please click here.

Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, Europe, Faith, HIV/Aids, Justice, Latin America/Carribean, Life, North America, Poverty, Spirituality, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation | 1 Comment »

Grant opportunity for youth-led development

May 29, 2009 by Emily Davila

Great opportunity for youth groups to apply for grants from UN Habitat.

Opportunities fund for Urban Youth-Led Development

Check out the small grants catagory for $5,000 – Deadline is June 15!

Posted in Life | Leave a Comment »

Jovenes En Lidergazo: Tenemos Aportes, Sabemos Aprender

May 27, 2009 by Roger Schmidt, Switzerland

Here is a report on the leadership conference of the LWF member churches in Latin America and the Carrabean that took place at the beginning of May. Hellen Rios Carrillo has written it. She is one of the young delegates to the LWF General Assembly in 2010: Continue Reading »

Posted in Church, LWF, Latin America/Carribean, Youth, Youth participation | Tagged international meetings, Youth, Youth participation | Leave a Comment »

HIV and Aids – young people are key

May 18, 2009 by Roger Schmidt, Switzerland

“The scale of the HIV epidemic remains daunting and young people remain disproportionately affected, accounting for 45 per cent of new adult infections in 2007.” This one of the highlighted sentences in a report by UNICEF UK that was released last week. The title says already a lot: “Preventing HIV with young people: the key to tackling the epidemic.”

The report itself gives an overview of the challenges in different regions of the world. A striking finding is that in Africa young women and girls are much more likely to become HIV positive. That is not the case in other parts of the world. To cite again the report on page 8: “In Southern Africa, adolescent girls are 2 to 4.5 times more likely to get HIV than males of the same age.”

Many member churches of the LWF have HIV and Aids work and many also prevention campaigns. But obiviously, it is far from enough. Churches have to demand a clearer policy in their countries and young people themselves have to make it topic. Young people have to raise the issue for their own sake. That is also an act of Christian love. Those who are the most vulnerable to being infected are also those who are hard hit already: For examples those who don’t have parents. Christian love among people means also: More prevention efforts.

Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, HIV/Aids, Justice, Latin America/Carribean, Life, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence, UN, Youth | Leave a Comment »