Jain Spirit 2003 06 No 15

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 34

LIFESTYLE
BE THE CHANGE!
Rosey Simonds and David Woollcombe believe that young people are energetic agents of transformation
- all we have to do is to trust and empower them
TODAY, AS OUR LEADERS PREPARE TO GO TO
war, it is timely to remember that perhaps our most
precious resource is not oil or real estate, but young people. In the past there was the idea that children should be 'seen and not heard' and even today people think of young people as a problem. Media stories abound about young people getting into trouble - vandalising property, beating up pensioners, having problems with drugs and relationships.
give them roles that they can play in society that encourage their altruistic instincts and enable them to become informed, caring and active citizens.
The question that always comes up is - HOW? How do you locate them? How do you nurture them to take action in constructive ways? What are the most constructive tasks that you can assign those young people who are eager to take action to improve their world? A lot of the answers to this are
Youngsters promote healthy living
A village girl participates in a
Peace Child project
Unfortunately, these things happen. There are the mean, familiar and they remain valid and constructive today: raise disruptive, disturbed and selfish young people, just as there funds for UNICEF through non-uniform days; start a school are of any other age group. However, rather than view them Amnesty group and get involved in a letter-writing circle; as a problem, think positive! Having had the privilege of restore the school grounds and create habitats for hedgehogs. working with young people and empowering them to address There is no end to things they can do. global issues through Peace Child for the last twenty years, we However, many young people want to go further - and believe that children and young people have a keen sense of those are the ones that Peace Child has worked with since what is fair, unsullied by the cynicism of adulthood. Many of 1981. We first used the medium of drama to look at the major them have an energy and an idealism for community and global challenges they faced and to support them to take action global improvement that adults can only wonder at. Apart to address those challenges. For the first decade, we concenfrom the two of us, our office is staffed entirely by young trated on the challenge of ending the Cold War. Peace Child volunteers who give a year of their time to come and work arranged the first two-way US/Soviet youth exchange with us.
programmes, based on a musical which told the story of Young people are the largest untapped resource available Russian and American children who become friends and, after to the planet. It is surely the duty of those of us who work with numerous adventures, persuade their Presidents to become young people to nurture their idealistic characteristics, and to friends as well. Musical exchanges took place each summer
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Jain Spirit. June - August 2003
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF PEACE CHILD