We've started a blog -- have a lot to figure out but Washington DC is home to many youth programs that include media, and we're about to go on a road trip to New Orleans for the Rebuilding Democracy through Student Organizing Conference. The blogsite is http://dcym.blogspot.com/

Urgent!!! Youth to Youth Disaster Relief
Please post widely

Dear Friends,

The Youth Leadership Support Network has a relationship in Sri Lanka with a youth group called FOUNDATION FOR CO-EXISTENCE. FOUNDATION FOR CO-EXISTENCE focuses on youth issues at the grass roots level. They have been organizing skill development for displaced youth, culture for peace: community street drama group (multi-ethnic), and writers and artists for peace. They were busy preparing a street drama festival program in Trincomalee when disaster struck. They are now in the front-lines of rescue and relief efforts.

Since the disaster of December 26th, FOUNDATION FOR CO-EXISTENCE has been solely focused on emergency support for thousands of families in desperate situations. They just formed the Civil Society Initiative for Relief and Reconstruction with partner groups in Sri Lanka. They need our support today.

Please read the following message from Sri Lanka. Please send copies of your messages to info@worldyouth.org so we can document our support efforts.

Solidarity,

Sheila Mirza, Youth Organizer
Douglas Calvin, Founding Director
Youth Leadership Support Network
www.worldyouth.org

please keep checking our website: www.fceoex.com for the latest updates.

Emily Paul
Foundation for Co-Existence
www.fcoex.com

Civil Society Initiative for Relief and Reconstruction

We Need Your HELP - IMMEDIATELY

With over 2 million displaced in Sri Lanka right now,
Over 30,000 having lost their lives,
Thousands of homes and habitats devastated,
And Almost all infrastructures in more than 08 districts destroyed…

Sri Lanka is challenged with recovery from the biggest natural disaster in its history.

All roads along the coast from Kalutara to Hambantota, Jaffna to Mullaitivu, Trincomalee to Batticaloa and Ampara are devastated. Roads, houses, schools, hotels and infrastructures have been destroyed. Immediate relief work and humanitarian assistance has commenced, however recovery is going to take more than what can be alleviated by immediate efforts. Immediate needs include food items, clothing, blankets and mats, medical services, essential drugs, water purification tablets and oral re-hydration tablets/powder, drinking water, white cloth and baby food.

There are no words to explain the agony and trauma endured and the ensuing dependency on the kindness, generosity and solidarity of others.

The Foundation for Co-Existence (FCE), Sewa Lanka Foundation (SLF) and the National Anti-War Front (NAWF) have jointly formed the Civil Society Initiative for Relief and Reconstruction to organize emergency relief and humanitarian aid to the thousands of victims of the disaster and to involve intermediate and longer term reconstruction. This joint venture for relief work to provide humanitarian assistance commenced with an initial contribution from these three organizations. Each organization has a strong presence in these regions through their branch offices, Island wide networks of over 1000 civil society organizations in peace building and development activities, and a combined staff capacity of over 500. Contacts have been established with the government, LTTE, INGOs and bi-lateral and multi-lateral agencies based in Sri Lanka to ensure just and fair relief and reconstruction services across the ethnic and district boundaries. The civil society networks have been broaden to ensure inclusive approach of civil society to promote collaborative efforts and to share the responsibilities collectively in building the future of the victims living in all devastated areas of the country.

Already, the organizations have developed several centers for food and medical supplies to be received and are in agreement with two media institutions, the Young Asia Television and MTV, a popular TV and radio channel for publicity of the efforts and to disseminate information. The Information Center of FCE has been strengthened by creating a unit to gather information regarding the camps, the number of people affected, and their needs. Working together with these organizations will expand cooperation with other civil society organizations. A daily meeting of this initiative taking place at 6.00 p.m. with inclusive participation of civil society organizations, state representatives and representatives of international agencies government will provide opportunity for interaction with other stakeholders, sharing of information and strengthening understanding and collaboration.

Initiatives have been taken to appoint a team of experts with the support of INGOs to plan the intermediate and long term reconstruction in all affected districts.

This is an occasion to pool our efforts together and demonstrate our solidarity through meaningful actions that transcend boundaries. It is a pity that this disaster occurred as people were attempting to pass the decisive crossroad in efforts to transform the ethnic conflict and to build sustainable peace. Let us take this challenge to build our future together towards our shared goals as equals.

We know, you as Sri Lankans, belonging to different nationalities/ethnicities, and/or as friends of Sri Lankans, are looking forward to help the people of Sri Lanka at this moment of trauma and tragedy. Many of you have written to ask how you can help, trying to source the best means of transmitting money or donating your services.

PLEASE join us in mobilizing funds. It is URGENT. The needs are enormous. Several pledges for funding have been received. Days do matter. To help this collaborative endeavour, you can transfer funds to the shared account listed below. Please note that every little bit counts. Even if you forego a few coffees or drinks this week to make a donation – be assured, it matters.

Total accountability and transparency and non discriminatory services are ensured in this relief and reconstruction effort. All contributions will be acknowledged with a receipt.

The bank account details are as follows:
Bank: HSBC
Address: Colpetty Branch, 51A Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo 3, Sri Lanka
SWIFT CODE: HSBCLKLX
Account Name: Foundation for Co-Existence – Disaster Fund
Account Number: 003-078219-003

Please feel free to e-mail us for further information or clarification: FCE - tsunamiaid@fcoex.com or foundation@fcoex.com, NAWF -nawf@eureka.lk, Sewa Lanka – sewahq@sri.lanka.net.

Further details about the partner organizations are available via their individual websites:
FCE – www.fcoex.com, Sewa Lanka – www.sewalanka.org, NAWF – www.nawf.lk
.

The general appeal for assistance is attached for your perusal. Please feel free to forward this email and the attachment to any friends, family or concerned persons.

Many thanks in advance for your support and contribution (in kind or financial).

Yours faithfully,

FCE, Sewa Lanka, NAWF




EMERGENCY HUMANITARIAN AID
URGENT APPEAL
Introduction:
Sri Lanka is faced with the biggest natural disaster in its history with the tidal waves hitting in its coastal regions. The final death toll is yet to be counted, but feared to be beyond 30,000. Nearly two million people have been displaced and several hundred thousand families have lost their homes.

The Foundation for Coexistence (FCE), Seva Lanka Foundation (SLF), the National Anti War Front (NAWF) and Young Asia Television (YATV) have formed a civil society coalition to organize emergency relief and humanitarian aid to the thousands of victims of the disaster that has devastated the eastern, northern and southern costal areas.

The relief work to provide humanitarian assistance has already commenced with the initial contribution from these organizations. The four organizations have a very strong presence in these regions through their branch offices, wide spread networks of peace building and development activities and its staff capacity of over 500.

Most of the areas affected due to this natural disaster are the areas where the organizations are involved in peace, reconciliation and development activities. The arrangements have already begun to mobilize the networks and constituencies to organize the work in the respective districts. The Seva Lanka with its regional offices and personnel will concentrate in the northern province and collaborate in the eastern province. The Foundation for Coexistence, which has a strong presence with its full time field staff and networks in the eastern province will take charge of the responsibilities in all three districts in the eastern province. The NAWF, the largest peace civil society network which was founded jointly by several leading NGOs including the
Foundation for Coexistence, the Movement for Defense of Democratic Rights, National Peace Council, Uva Community Development Centre, Hill Country Assembly, Prassanni, Inter- Religious Peace Foundation, Centre for Society and Religion and Kelanimitiyawa Podhu Jana Udhanaya, have mobilized 14 sectoral networks of trade unions, teachers, women, youth, students, professional, artists, writers etc along with its district based networks will take charge of work in Galle, Matara and Hambantota districts. YATV will document the situation and the relief efforts across the island.

The preparatory work has already started in all the effected districts and the network partners in these districts are being mobilized. Required resources need to be mobilized to conduct the operation. There are several spontaneous moves by various groups and concerned citizens to collect relief items to distribute to the victims. There is a need to coordinate the distribution to ensure fair distribution to the victims. Further, past experience of several humanitarian agencies indicate that the lack of coordination of relief supplies and information on urgent requirements to the remote areas have resulted over supply to some areas that may have better transport or communication facilities and insufficient supply to remote areas.

Several media institutions conducting live talk shows and advising public on relief are not providing correct information and/or over emphasizing areas of their choice. This may influence organizations and citizens groups to concentrate their efforts in selected areas and to ignore other more affected areas.

Therefore, there is a great need to gather proper information on urgent needs and to coordinate relief supplies to ensure fair distribution to victims.

The organization:
The four organizations are negotiating with local and international NGO and other civil society organizations such as trade unions, media institutions to broaden the coalition. Already, a partnership agreement has been made with Sirasa, a media institution conducting TV and radio channels in all three languages and they have agreed to meet the cost of transportation of relief items to the affected areas and to provide necessary publicity through their channels.

Further, it is important as civil society organizations engage with public to demonstrate our solidarity with victims and people of the areas and to share their efforts to overcome from the tragedies and suffering. This intervention will also strengthen our legitimacy and the constituencies for future initiatives.

Entire operation will be conducted in a transparent manner in collaboration and coordination with the government structures in the districts and civil society organizations at the national and district levels. Initiatives have been made to identify most important needs to the victims and to communicate to the authorities. Closer relationship and communications will be maintained with the government relief operations and other institutions.

Arrangements will also be made to organize the victims in the relief camps and other places by promoting their collaborative efforts to overcome their difficulties collectively to restore their normal life.

While providing immediate humanitarian assistance to the victims, efforts will be made to look towards the intermediate and long term need to restore their normal life.

The Requirements
The need of the hour is food in bulk amounts. As processed and cooked food can not be moved fast to long distance, it is necessary to transport dry rations that could be cooked in the camps.
The immediate requirements are,
1. Rice,
2. Dhal,
3. Dry fish
4. Milk food for infants and small children
Meanwhile, there is a serious shortage of medicine, medical material and medical personnel.
While the GMOA is currently trying to mobilize medical staff and there are other private sector personnel willing to rush in to those area, the dire need is in securing medicine such as,
1. Panadol
2. Antibiotics
3. Pain killers
4. Cotton wool
5. Bandages
6. Plasters etc.

Water is contaminated and therefore, infection can cause health problems. Emphasis will have to be given to prevent the spread of disease in these areas. The organizations were able to identify nearly 10 doctors and para-medical personnel who are willing to travel to the affected areas to assist victims by organizing medical relief their respective camps or areas. Mobile medical relief teams will be sent to the affected areas to provide medical relief. This will be done in collaboration with the government health authorities.
Logistics in moving the relief are being worked out to ensure fair distribution of relief of most essential items.

Estimated financial requirements:
The estimate is done on the basis of initial information gathered from the districts to provide immediate humanitarian assistance. The three organizations formed this coalition have contributed rupees one million each to start the relief operation. Collection centers have been organized and people sending their collected items to these centers. First consignment of emergency relief has already been dispatched to Batticaloa and Mullaitivu.

UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE!!
Enclosed:
Youth Organizer Sheila Mirza Poem and Opening Address at UN Peace Parade in DC
Youth Leadership Support Network Press Statement
Peace Parade Press Statement and Endorsers
Articles about previous Youth Leadership Support Network Neighborhood Peace Parades

On the suggestion of John W. McDonald, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the Carter and Reagan administrations, the United Nations established the United Nations International Day of Peace in 1982. A day marked by global cease-fire and non-violence, peace building activities take place all over the world, as the day serves an invitation to all nations and people to honor a cessation of hostilities. The day is a devotional celebration commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.

Yesterday, September 20 2004, several hundred people paraded for peace in Washington DC. The day began with spiritual blessings, comments from youth organizer Sheila Mirza and a song by singer/songwriter Gemma along with Ambassador John McDonald, Originator, UN International Day of Peace, Chairman, Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy, Chair, UN Association's Task Force for Building Cultures of Peace, Washington, DC

Peace Parade Opening Poem and Address by Youth Organizer Sheila Mirza, Youth Leadership Support Network

Sweet Dreams of Success
shattered by insufficient support
sounds like a story
tall tale of sorrow
its seriously surreal
sing songs of seen signs
disregarded, disposed
next step…
sincere BUSHHHHH
shining in silence
through many sins
scent of satisfaction
floating in the skies
so hard to scratch
still we stay alive
and stretch as far as
the sounds of the seas
sensations of melodious harmony
linger in our souls
spirits wander in mist
they are mist
slowly shape-shifters shift
into squirrels and cicadas
sometimes spiders, building extravagant
webs of silky, smooth, string
since Saturday, I’ve been sighing
senses dismantled by
Stress, Stress, Stress, Stress,
we make the sun’s rays
shine on our struggles,
but continual despair, and
oppressive oppression
try to smash our tight fists in the air
Yet, we still stand
voices suppressed
Rise Up through the quick Sand
to oppose Racist, Fascist words from the
SAFAID House
Yessss, we are Strong
Containing strength of a million swallows
the Winged-Ones
we surround sexist scoundrels
with each Step
Will not Give Up
Will not Surrender
we are close
with Assata, Betita and X’s
Support
we are ONE with our Souls
eyes closed
heads high
Sheeeerrrrr Confidencccceee…

-Sheila Mirza, 19 9/20/04 8:27am


My Name is Sheila Mirza. I’m a youth organizer with the Youth Leadership Support Network. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be here today standing in front of this beautiful mosque being a Muslim woman from Pakistan. About 3 years ago, I decided to give up on organizing because of being a victim of a hate crime post 9/11. I thought, “ why should I work with and fight for young people when they are beating me up?”

But then I realized, young people face a vast amount of violence be it at home, in the streets, in our schools and the wars just tops it all. We have gotten so used to violence around us that it feels okay to not change it. These policy makers feel more guns equals more peace, but we say MORE PEACE EQUALS MORE PEACE!

We see it daily on the news, in Iraq and feel it here in our own communities. There isn’t enough money for youth programs while budgets increase for armed police to go undercover and infiltrate 14 year olds. Young people feel more like criminals than human beings. The money it takes to provide weapons for war and destruction can and should be used for food, education, and healthcare for a fraction of the cost of repression and war.

In policies and issues here and abroad, under-recognized voices like those of young people, women, the poor, and indigenous must be empowered. We encourage friendship among youth groups, not competition while also reaching out to youth not in groups. We are doing this. The Youth Leadership Support Network organized our first neighborhood peace parade 4 days before 9/11 and they continue to this day. We need to promote peace around the block and around the world.

We do this by training young people in what they are interested in most: The Media and Arts. In WorldYouth Media, “why watch the news when you can be the news,” youth learn radio production then interview and build relationships with local and national, and international youth groups increasing awareness of different kinds of organizing while building their own alternative youth media.

Children in neighborhood peace parades don’t use abstract concepts of peace, but embody it with artist, elders, and neighbors painting banners, doing go-go beats, and dancing in the streets for PEACE. It is their leadership and strength that tugs at the conscience of those involved in violence.

We encourage support from our elders who have been through the struggles of being young and facing mass injustice. We have saved articles and materials from our organizing and experiences and have created DC-Youth Activism Archives in which young people learn REAL PEOPLE’S HISTORY unlike the lies they hear in schools. We invite our elders to meet and share stories with youth to build intergenerational awareness.

Then there’s RACISM. In the name of freedom of speech, white supremacist hate groups hold white power demonstrations in our neighborhoods, bomb our mosques, temples and homes. This is a face of domestic terror. There is a lot more money and support going to right wing hate groups than grassroots organizing for peace and justice. We must teach our children intercultural interdependence.

We know that DC is a place where many national events and mobilizations take place, but our local organizing is too often ignored. We need your support to make it known to national and international groups that they need to invest in DC communities. We are still a colony oppressed with more and more gentrification and displacement of families and young people happening daily.

We invite all musicians, artist, mentors, to join us today, tomorrow, this week, next week to Promote the Peace…Participate!

We need beautiful diverse people like you to not turn away from realities, but face our fears to put an end to racism, intolerance, and violence.

We need you to make your smiles and spirits one with ours

I’d like to close with a quote of the great internationalist, artist, activist Paul Robeson whom our center is named after. November, 1950 at the first National Convention of the Labor Youth League, Paul Robeson said,

“They want you to grow into a union-busting, scabbing generation to ensure their dominance over labor and their ever-mounting, fantastic profits. They want young America to absorb the anti-Negro and anti-Semitic poison which their hack writers turn out in textbooks and newspapers and radio and movie-scripts-all for the glory of what they call the American Way of Live…But you say NO! You say, no more war, Books not Bullets! Bread, not cannon, Life! not death.!...I know that you will sweep aside the backward creed that “Youth should be seen and not heard” – and that hundreds of thousands of American youth will join you…You must insist that peace cannot be won, that fascism cannot be defeated, without the vital contribution of the young generation.”

Thank You!!

Youth Leadership Support Network
www.worldyouth.org

For Immediate Release September 20, 2004
Contact: Sheila Mirza, Youth Organizer
(917) 520-5268 dcfresh@nycmail.com or
Douglas Calvin, Founding Director
(202) 489-7892 douglas@worldyouth.org

District of Columbia Youth Honor United Nations International Day of Peace
Promote the Peace….Around the Block and Around the World…Participate!

Washington DC. Youth and adult mentors from the Youth Leadership Support Network (YLSN) a violence prevention arts media education and training network based in Washington DC will participate in the world’s first Peace Parade in honor of the United Nations International Day of Peace on Monday, September 20, 2004.

More guns and weaponry do not create peace: increasing peace is defined by the participation of all people taking action to change perceptions of reality that are often defined by fear, terror and violence through means of arts and celebration and thus redefining reality itself to plant seeds of peace where it is most needed.

For the past four years the YLSN has birthed “neighborhood people’s parades to promote the peace…participate” in poor and working class neighborhoods of Washington DC. Beginning in June 2001 the YLSN launched an ongoing program to bring peace parades into communities as a means to visibly and spiritually embody the principles of peace and friendship in areas plagued by the despair and violence of poverty and fear. This celebration began with a 30 hour art opening with 15 hours of live music in three venues. On September 7, 2001, the YLSN partnered with children from Manna Community Development Corporation and led a peace parade in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington DC. Children parading in the streets calling for peace and non-violence in their lives took on a global perspective when four days later the 9-11 attacks and subsequent anthrax attacks directly affected their lives and community and began a “global war on terror” that has no end. Peace parades have since taken place in several DC neighborhoods and DC youth have initiated hundreds of walk-outs from school, peace protests and events to call for policies and the practice of peace in their community, schools and internationally. The leadership of young people in Washington DC joins with young voices around the world in demanding changes in world militarism and violence. They are voices that deserve to be heard.

Too often the voices of the dispossessed, women, children, elders, veterans, artists and the poor are ignored in situations of increasing strife even while they are offering alternatives to war and violence. These voices are not just protesting a policy or government but a total rejection of the militarism and the associated profits, greed and environmental and cultural destruction for power and domination when it is clear that the answers must be found in peace, friendship and interdependence. Millions around the world are joining this call for peace.
“Everything we do is intergenerational because young people are the most important voices to be heard and respected by adults. Likewise, adults and especially elders have life experiences and perspectives that are valuable to our youth. It is important for everyone to support youth leadership and youth-driven projects. We view the arts as the "motion in the movement," and as such a central component in our organizing and educational programs. Artistic freedom encourages non-traditional ways of viewing the “how’s” of movement building and organizing. It speaks to both the spirit and the structures,” says YLSN Director Douglas Calvin.

Promote the Peace...Participate means what it says...people getting involved to make a difference in our neighborhoods, our communities and our world. We invite you to join us and share your talents, visions and networks with DC youth as they sing, dance and parade for peace around the block and around the world.
***
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 20, 2004, Washington, DC - Featuring the world's first parade float in support of the passage of a United States Department of Peace, H.R.1763, a procession endorsed by more than 80 international, diplomatic, peace and nonviolence, humanitarian, spiritual, religious, civil and human rights organizations will parade down Washington, DC's Embassy Row on Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. on Monday, September 20. In the Spirit of Mahatma Gandhi's historic Dandi March of 1930 and Dr. Martin Luther King's civil rights marches of the 60s, the world's first Peace Parade in honor of the United Nations International Day of Peace will make its procession beginning at 11:00 a.m. from in front of the Washington Islamic Center, located at 2500 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., and parade down Embassy Row to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial. World-renowned speakers will discuss the imperative need for a structural shift in policies which foster creating cultures based on nonviolent conflict resolution and honoring all of humanity at the Memorial.
Peace Parade presenters include internationally-acclaimed civic and religious leader Bishop Medardo Gómez, one of the most outspoken voices for peace and justice for El Salvador's poor majority, who is considered by many to have inherited the mantel of influence of assassinated Bishop Oscar Romero. Additional speakers addressing parade participants include: Ambassador John McDonald, Originator, UN International Day of Peace; Patricia Clark, Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Dr. Mark Weisbrot, Syndicated Columnist and Co-Director of the Center for Economic & Policy Research; Dr. Rev. Walter Fauntroy, lead advocate of the Stop the Genocide Campaign in Sudan; Rick Clugston, Board of Directors, Earth Charter, Mike Tidwell, Executive Director of Chesapeake Climate Action Network; Sheila Mirza, Youth Leadership Support Network; Mary Gunning, Director of St. Jerome's Head Start; and Jay Winter Nightwolf, Native American Radio Show Host. Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH-10), winner of the 2003 Gandhi Peace Award, will give the Peace Parade's keynote address via telecast.
As part of a 1 million voice choir which will join in song all over the world to celebrate the United Nations International Day of Peace, Washington's Peace Parade participants will be the first precipitous drop in the unifying song sound wave for world peace, as lead by Gemma, Founder of the "One Million Voices, One Peace" initiative (see www.asingledrop.com).
Media are encouraged to attend the Peace Parade's press conference at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, September 20, at 2025 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC where presenters will be available for interview. Transportation will be provided for members of the media attending the press conference to the Peace Parade's opening ceremony at 11:00 a.m. at 2500 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC, directly in front of the Washington Islamic Center. For further specifics about the Peace Parade and the United Nations International Day of Peace, see: www.PeaceParade.net or contact Pamela S. Skarda, Director, Peace Parade at: 703-915-2261.
The Executive Committee of the world's first Peace Parade in honor of the United Nations International Day of Peace would like to give a special thank you to Devi Studios for the design and construction of its beautiful website.
United Nations Association

Pathways to Peace

International Day of Peace

We the Peoples Initiative

M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence

Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy

Global Coalition for Peace

Washington Area Spiritual Network (WASN)

DOPCampaign.org

North American Peace Alliance

Global Renaissance Alliance

Radio One - WOL AM, WYBC FM, WOLB AM

National Congress of American Indians

Jay Winter Nightwolf, WPFW 89.3 FM

Prayer Vigil for the Earth

Washington Peace Center

Every Church A Peace Church

Washington Buddhist Peace Fellowship

ISKCON - International Society for Krishna Conscience

Little Friends for Peace

Gray Panthers

Peace Tax Fund

The Light Institute

CCAN - Chesapeake Climate Action

Prince George's Peace and Justice Coalition

Maryland United for Peace and Justice

Pax Works

Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace (WIAMEP)

Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean (EPICA)

Pastors for Peace-DC

Committee for Indigenous Solidarity

Nagasaki-Hiroshima Peace Committee

Free the Peace

Proposition One Committee

DC Anti-War Network

Sustain-DC

Spirit Creative Services Inc.

Vajrayogini Buddhist Center

Black Voices for Peace

The Spirit of Truth Center
Dr. Rona Fields
American Friends Service Committee
Code Pink, Women for Peace
Veterans for Peace
Initiatives of Change
Witness for Peace
Rhythm Workers Union
Conscious Media Forum, Kathmandu, Nepal, kiran@radio.fm
Sudan Campaign
Humanity's Team-Washington Metropolitan Area
African Holiday Association
Iraq Veterans Against the War
DC Poets Against the War

World Peace Makers

Conversion For Reclaiming Earth in the Americas (CREA)

Little Friends for Peace

The Nizhoni School for Global Consciousness

Reelspirit DC

International Association for Human Values

Nuclear Free Takoma Park Committee

Alaska Native Health Board

The Nova Greens

Youth Leadership Support Network

Dances of Universal Peace of the Greater Washington D.C. Area

September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

DC Native Peoples' Network

Community Coalition for Peace and Justice

Al-Islam Masjid

American Healing Arts Alliance Inc.

Iraqi Americans for Peace
DC Guerilla Poets Insurgency
Prince William Peace Makers
Montgomery County Peace Action
Montgomery County Coalition for Alternatives to War
Church of the Saviour, Washington, DC
The Peace and Social Concerns Committee of the Friends Meeting of Washington (Quakers)
Dayspring Church
National Memorial Procession, October 2, 2004, Washington, DC
DovertoDC
Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio is the Peace Parade’s keynote address. His address will be via telecast at 1:10 p.m. at 2025 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC in the main meeting room. He is the winner of the 2003 Gandhi Peace Award and the Chief Sponsor of H.R.1673, which creates a Cabinet-level US Department of Peace.
Speakers/Presenters:
• Ambassador John McDonald, Originator, UN International Day of Peace, Chairman, Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy, Chair, UN Association's Task Force for Building Cultures of Peace, Washington, DC
• Dr. Rev. Walter Fauntroy, Pastor New Bethel Church, Organizer of Dr. King's 1963 March on Washington, Leader Stop the Genocide Campaign in Sudan, Washington, DC.
• Patricia Clark, Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation, New York, NY.
• Rick Clugston, Board of Directors, Earth Charter, Washington, DC
• Dr. Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic & Policy Research, Washington, DC.
• Mike Tidwell, Executive Director of Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), Greater Metropolitan Washington, DC.
• Mary Gunning, Director of St. Jerome’s Head Start, Baltimore, MD
• Jay Winter Nightwolf, Native American Radio Show Host, WPFW, Washington, DC
• Gemma, Founder of “One Million Voices One Peace” and A Single Drop, New York, NY.
• Bishop Medardo Ernesto Gómez Soto, Lutheran Bishop of the Poor and Ambassador for Peace, El Salvador. Bishop Medardo Gómez is one of the most outspoken voices for peace and justice for El Salvador's poor majority. As head of the Lutheran Church of El Salvador, he is a civic and religious leader of international acclaim. He is in the United States this week to meet with the National Council of Churches USA to discuss issues of the economic and social impact of the Central America Free Trade Agreement and the role US churches can play in support of a more just economic system.
• Sheila Mirza, Youth Leadership Support Network, Takoma Park, MD
• Lida Saeedian, Rumi performer
The Peace Parade is proud to debut as part of its celebration, Forum Barcelona 2004's International Day of Peace broadcast, produced for the United Nations International Days, Courtesy of the Embassy of Spain.

Articles describing Youth Leadership Support Network Neighborhood Parades to Promote the Peace…Participate!

Youth Leadership Support Network Neighborhood Parades to Promote the Peace…
Around the Block and Around the World…Participate!
“Imagine the looks on children’s faces when the Youth Leadership Support Network organizes a parade through their neighborhood. These “Promote the Peace…Participate” parades feature giant puppets, mural-sized banners, New Orleans-styled brass marching ensembles and colorful costume after costume passing down streets that in hundreds of years had never been the site of a parade. This was one way we introduce our organization to the kids of D.C. I have watched kids pour out of their houses and join our parades, and linger around afterwards to ask some of our musicians (who are mostly youth and elders in the local music scenes but have included international guests) to teach them an instrument. Thus was born our weekly drum workshops for kids in that particular neighborhood. The neighborhood kids are involved in preparations before our band strikes its first note. Volunteer teams do door-to-door outreach with art-filled announcements. In art workshops facilitated by professional artist-volunteers, the children are taught how to build puppets and draw and paint banners. We take the kids on park clean-ups to prepare for the after-parade - a musical jam session and talent-sharing where we drive home how important public parks are to a neighborhood.”
-- Jason McGahan, YLSN Volunteer Staff Member, 2001 -- 2002



People’s Parade Promotes Peace
By Robin Chen Delos, DC Free Press, September 2001
Young people marched down the middle of streets and sidewalks, chanting “What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now!”
A People’s Parade to Promote the Peace was happening in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest D.C.
Colorful puppets and banners accented the march and drew the neighborhood’s attention to the parade.
Thirty-five youth and half a dozen adult supporters participated in the September 7th parade.
“You don’t need huge numbers to have an effect,” Douglas Calvin said. “A small group of people with creative visibility has an enormous effect.”
For three days before the parade, the Youth Leadership Support Network (YLSN) had been working with the youth from the Manna after-school program, teaching them about banner painting, puppet-making, poetry, performance art, and promoting peace in their neighborhood.
The YLSN is a violence-prevention art education media and training organization serving D.C. area youth, said founder Douglas Calvin, 36.
Neighborhood organizing in underserved areas is the concept behind parades. The YLSN bring peace parades to neighborhoods where there is violence, poverty and a lack of affordable housing.
“There is tremendous potential through parades to involve people in helping to find solutions to the violence in their community and the world,” Calvin said. “People’s Parades for Peace are more important now than ever since a war is upon us.”
Parades encourage people already in groups to participate, but “a lot of young people are not in any group, and these events are for them too,” he said.
The children and teenagers in the Shaw parade, who ranged in age from seven to sixteen, passed out “promote the peace” flyers to passers-by on the sidewalk and went over to the windows of cars to give fliers to drivers.
Their youth and positive energy reached the people in the community, particularly the many drivers who honked in support, and hailed the parade with the universal peace sign.
“These kids are the future. They’re the future of this city,” said YLSN organizer Jason McGahan. “For adults to see them expressing themselves like this is powerful. And you can see that in the eyes of everyone they pass.”
One young boy, holding a banner he had painted, was certainly infused with the spirit of the parade. As the parade began, he asked, “Where’s the band, where’s the drums?” then shrugged his shoulders and started chanting “Freedom, freedom, freedom.”
Enabling communication among young people is one goal of People’s Parades for Peace, Calvin said. “It’s about sharing positive activities youth are involved in, whether it is violence prevention, performance art, music, or an open-mic.”
“Young people are told in so many ways that they are powerless. They can’t vote, job opportunities are lousy, freedom of speech and student’s rights are at an all time low. And yet if you look at any movement anywhere in the world you see that it is when young people assert their voice that the world changes.”



Destiny’s Essence is the Many Colored Drum Beat, October, 2002
By Robin Chen Delos, Age 18, YLSN Volunteer Staff Member, 2001 -- 2002

Peace in the town
Peace in the world
No more fighting
No more bombing
Please don’t bomb no more
Peace Peace Peace

Peace in the town
And all the way around
No fighting
No bombing in the town
No bombing of people
[and repeat]

Destiny Thompson, 9

She was a warrior, I could see it by the way she carried herself. Destiny. Nine years old and I knew she was already a leader. She had already asserted her leadership in the neighborhood rhythm workshop the Youth Leadership Support Network organized for Petworth youth on a sunny fall day with the wind gentle whispering like brushes on a drum, and the sun so brilliant that kids couldn’t help but run to the park.
She flew over to us, and started drumming. Behind her, a colorful banner with the words “Promote the Peace, Participate” lay next to the intergenerational circle of people drumming. Periodically, Destiny brought the beats to a sudden stop, then counted out a new beat for them to pound out, maybe mirroring the pound of her heart, I thought. Drummer Mad X, who had been keeping the beat for twenty-years deferred to Destiny’s command. He listened to her count out the rhythm, watched her hands on the drum, and followed her lead. So did her little brother, their friends, a little four-year old girl named Essence, the little girl’s uncle, a veteran activist, and me. We could all feel Destiny’s spirit soaring. “A one, a two, a three, a four –now,” she cried, just like a band conductor.
The neighborhood seemed to feel the essence of the drumming following Destiny. A group of high school boys came over to where we were, wearing skull caps that made shaved heads look sleek under the sun, with their Hilfiger pants hanging low. They shyly crowded around and watched, then one came over and started drumming. Another asked me for my juggling balls, and showed me his tricks after I threw them to him. And Destiny’s beat kept marching on and on.
I met her after a neighborhood People’s Parade to Promote the Peace where the YLSN had started out as a rag-tag group of activist artists, musicians, and writers and then grown to a critical mass as youth saw the banners, the crazy cat puppet, and heard the triumphant horns mixed with snappy drums – and joined the procession – pouring out of their homes and playgrounds to be a magnificent streaming ray of hope. Destiny pranced down her neighborhood’s streets, running up to every passer-by and car to hand out fliers explaining the simple concept of the parade in the simple phrase, “Promote the Peace, Participate.” However, violence underlies her life’s reality in Petworth. “Everyday I hear gunshots and everybody’s fighting,” she said. Destiny marched, “so we could have peace.” Sitting at my side in the grass, and keeping the beat on a drum, Destiny quietly sang “peace in the town/peace in the world.” She sang with her heart, as a child who knows violence and sees hope’s marvelous possibility within reach. Maybe it was something inside her, waiting to leap out. Maybe the Peace parade helped to kinder it.
Young people pouring out of their homes to march in a peace parade, or youth running to the park to sit in a circle and play drums together shouldn’t be radical, it should be everyday. Or the everyday should be radical. But, as far as I know, Petworth has never seen a parade like the one that passed through its streets last October on a pretty sunny day. The YLSN builds an infrastructure where positive community-building spontaneity will occur. It’s about Destiny leading us….”And a child shall lead them.” She’s our future, and we better give her an opportunity to exercise leadership now, so she knows. So she won’t make so many of the mistakes our own leaders are fumbling through.


For more information, contact the Youth Leadership Support Network
www.worldyouth.org (202) 489-7892 info@worldyouth.org

Youth Activism Summit
Music, Media, Movements, Mentors
February 8, 2003 , 1 –5 pm
Cada Vez Restaurant, 1438 U st. N.W. Washington DC 20009

Please join us in a day of networking, sharing music, media production skills trainings, and intergenerational dialogue to support DC youth activism. Come share your experiences, ideas, and visions and be inspired by those you meet. Represent!

Youth for Peace: DC area high school students, middle school students and college students are organizing to stop the US war in Iraq and wars around the world. Connect with other schools -- participate for peace!

Worldyouth Media: Why watch the news when you can be the news? Come meet media producers and learn how to produce your own media on the web, radio, starting a newsletter, becoming a spokesperson to the press and much more.

Music is the Motion in the Movement: Share your talents and learn freedom songs, rhythms and rhymes.
Bring your instruments! and join the Promote the Peace…Participate Intergenerational Marching Band.

DC Student Labor Action Project: Join DC SLAP! and support working families in DC and the labor union movement.

Community, Campus and School Youth Groups: There are many positive youth groups in DC who don’t yet know each other or what other groups are doing in their communities. Bring info and people!

Commemorating the 43rd anniversary of the growth of the modern U.S. student movement, which launched February 1, 1960 when four black students staged a sit-in at Woolworths in Greensboro, NC. Within ten days students in 15 Southern cities were participating in sit-ins against segregation and racism. These students would form the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in April of 1960, setting the stage for the growth of the civil rights movement and student and youth organizing across the country for decades to come…Come meet veterans of SNCC and student and youth movements from the past 40 years.

Co-Sponsors welcome. For more information:
Youth Leadership Support Network: info@worldyouth.org, (202) 489-7892

Promote the Peace…Participate
Worldyouth for Worldpeace
www.worldyouth.org

Welcome to DC Taking IT Global!
Talk about it. Redefine your realities. You may be surprised, the world might just change...for the better. Check out this site, sign-in and create a free account. You can post your ideas, projects, organizations, problems and solutions to people who care enough to take action. It's about participation.

So sign on. Musicians, artists, poets, media-makers, writers, youth program participants, organizers, caring human beings...participate. Put you ideas out to your neighbors and to the world. Get feedback and support. That's the idea. Promote all of your events on the calendar -- it's there for you. Post articles, updates, create projects, let the world know. Invite your neighbors, cousins, classmates, band-members, brothers and sisters to sign-on and participate.

It's a place for DC/MD/NoVA area youth to plug in and support each other and check out positive youth from around the world. DC TIG is a partnership between TakingITGlobal in Toronto and the Youth Leadership Support Network in DC.

The Youth Leadership Support Network works on several projects, and invites you to participate, partner, and promote positive visions and vibrations among all people.

Two of our main projects are WORLDYOUTH MEDIA(check out http://projects.takingitglobal.org/worlyouthmedia). It's media with a mission: why watch the news when you can become the news.

Another project is SHINE: STOP HATE,INSPIRE NEIGHBORLY ENGAGEMENT (http://projects.takingitglobal.org/SHINE.) SHINE promotes the positive through networking and does workshops, protests, and education about the face of domestic terror: white supremacist violence and targeting of youth for recruitment in the DC area. Check it out.

We also do neighborhood parades to promote the peace...participate, and other performing arts productions and promotions, networking and mentoring. We have a Council of Mentors available to share skills, knowledge and workshops. For more information, check out www.worldyouth.org. or call (202) 299-1055.

Most importantly, DC TIG offers the opportunity to network and support each other, learn and grown together, and involve the support, inspiration and hopes of youth from around the world. Peace is possible...participate