Refreshed after the entertaining journey at Holiday Hill Camp and the lunch that followed, all participants were ready for the set of activities that took place during
the afternoon of this second day:
the afternoon of this second day:
Open Forum for Young Leaders: sharing of Experiences and Perspectives.
Everyone was invited to share experiences and intentions for the conference forum, providing also essential facts or aspects about our human rights work and leadership habits. As they spoke, the air was filled with the overwhelming strength and power of all the extraordinary and influential activists present.
Njonguo (Cameroon) evoked the image of a tall tower built from the name plaques of each participant, each one standing strong on top of the other. If one is pulled from the bottom, the tower crumbles. Like this, in the quest for human rights, as activists we must work as a community… if one fails, all fail, and we succeed as a team. This principle of universality connects the wide range of the careers and experiences of everyone attending the forum, from gender rights and education access to youth empowerment, disability rights, and micro-finance projects.
Zuki, a South African participant, called on these youth to be a generation of mice that roar. Small like mice as individuals, but together they are as strong and royal as lions.
Surrounded by the genius and beauty of Tunisia, Brazil, Greece, Lithuania,Tajikistan, and more, the general feeling was that this diversity of participants came here to learn something, take it back to our homes, furthering the frontiers of human rights.
The sharing session concluded with a brief question and answer session with Professor Amii, giving us all the opportunity to air our own concerns with the human rights process and come away with advice from the director of the UNESCO Chair program.
Surrounded by the genius and beauty of Tunisia, Brazil, Greece, Lithuania,Tajikistan, and more, the general feeling was that this diversity of participants came here to learn something, take it back to our homes, furthering the frontiers of human rights.
The sharing session concluded with a brief question and answer session with Professor Amii, giving us all the opportunity to air our own concerns with the human rights process and come away with advice from the director of the UNESCO Chair program.
Movie Screening: Emannuel´s GiftWith the guidance of facilitator Jyoti Vidhani we watched this highly inspirational documentary telling the story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah.
He was a 27-year-old Ghanan who was born with only one leg; the shame led his father to abandon the family, but his mother was determined to see her son grow up with strength and dignity, and with the help of a prosthetic leg, Yeboah was able to walk and care for himself. Determined to show his countrymen that the handicapped were capable of more than most were willing to acknowledge, Yeboah contacted an American organization called the Challenged Athletes Foundation, and with their help, set out on an unusual quest -- learning to ride a racing bike, and then piloting it across the nation of Ghana. Emmanuel's Gift is a documentary which chronicles Yeboah's remarkable life and his courageous journey, as well as the impact it had on his family as well as on handicapped people throughout the African continent.
A discussion on the situation of people physically impaired on many of our countries followed, and some of us shared some insights on the movie.
I´m inspired by Emannuel´s thinking. The simple story about his friends consistently not allowing him to play soccer with them. He found a way to make it happen. If we think about all the times that we have been told "no", or that our ideas are too idealistic, this powerful lesson is a new reminder that "no" can just be the beginning of the conversation.
Words of Rumeet Toor, Canada, after seeing the movie.
