Great Lakes PeaceJam: Ending Hate and Intolerance

It is unbelievable that we are starting a new school year already! And as the youth from our families and communities return to school, we here are Seeding Change are busy preparing for what promises to be another very busy year for PeaceJam youth.

Last year at our Youth Conference with the Nobel Laureate, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, the youth participants painted a disturbing picture - one of students being afraid to go to school as they were singled out for bullying (including one young woman who was picked on for being too pretty and turn to cutting herself as a way to cope), another afraid to go home where abuse was common and no one in his life knew, a young exchange student from Pakistan afraid that she will be murdered for accepting a scholarship to study in the U.S., and still another who had been told his whole like that his only options were jail or death - until they found PeaceJam.

PeaceJam has not only provided a safe space for youth, it also supported youth to create a peer group where these very frightening issues can be shared, and maybe most important, empowered them to make the change they want to see in the world.

As our new academic year begins, we will be bringing our high school aged PeaceJam youth to Battle Creek, Michigan to launch a new year of social change on November 17th. The theme our youth have determined for this year is gender based violence. Unfortunately, this remains a common concern in their daily lives and more and more examples are brought to light of the kinds of hatred and violence youth face every day around the world. 

Please join us in supporting these youth led initiatives as our PeaceJammers identify the root causes of the hatred and violence and work together to create the change the envision for themselves, and the young people following in their footsteps!

Links:

• Great Lakes PeaceJam