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Posted: July 16 2006,13:11 by frannyparren
from INTERNATIONAL - UNOY - Franny Parren |
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QUESTIONNAIRE
Firstly) Is your organization
youth-led or primarily youth-serving?
Please explain
briefly.
The European University Center for Peace Studies
(EPU) in
Stadtschlaining, Austria is primarily
youth-serving.
1. INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL
ACTIVITIES
a) If funds were available, what youth activities
related to a
culture of peace (CoP) would you like to do as an
individual?
Offer a high quality education in peace culture
to more students.
We invite the best specialists in their field
from around the
world, and emphasize interactive learning, with a
high degree of
active student involvement, and a combination of
theory, practice,
and personal motivation. Living together
with other students from
different cultures and political
backgrounds is also a great
learning experience. Many
former students wrote that their time at
EPU was one of the best
in their whole lives.
b) What non-financial support would you
need to do these
activities?
Better publicity among
prospective graduate students.
c) If funds were available,
what youth activities related to a CoP
would your organization
like to do?
Offer more scholarships to talented and needy
students to learn
about conflict transformation and
peacebuilding.
d) What non-financial support would your
organization need to do
these activities?
We mostly need
financial support: 12,400 Euro per student to study
for one year
and obtain a Master of Art in Peace and
Conflict
Studies.
2. SUPPORT FROM GOVERNMENT AND THE
UN
a) What changes in youth policies do you think the
government/
leadership in your country should make to promote a
CoP?
Support more scholarships for peace studies. The
following true
story shows the deep impact a scholarship can
have. In 1958, the
first delegation of thirty Soviet students who
came to study for a
year in the United States with a Fulbright
scholarship included
Alexander Yakovlev. In 1985, he became
Gorbachev's key adviser for
perestroika, glasnost and
democratization. The few thousand
dollars for that
scholarship probably did a great deal more to help
end the cold
war than billions that the United States spent for
weapons, which
only aggravated tensions.
Governments should also allow young
people to work with various UN
organizations as volunteers for
one year, instead of doing military
service, with the same amount
of financial support that they pay
for one soldier.
b)
What CoP youth activities do you think the UN should carry
out?
Vastly expand youth employment. I have heard that
60,000 young
people apply each year for volunteer work with UN
Volunteers (UNV),
but only about 2,000 can now be accepted,
because of financial
restrictions. That number should be
vastly expanded. And most
youth never even hear of UNV,
otherwise many more than 60,000 per
year would
apply.
OTHER QUESTIONS
3. Do you have any suggestions
or recommendations for improving
youth participation in CoP
activities on any level (UN, government,
civil
society)?
4. What could be done to improve/ensure
transparency and flow of
information in promoting the
CoP?
Some of the best radio and television programs about
global
problems and their solutions are usually aired between 2
and 4 in
the morning. They should be shown during day time
and evenings,
instead of all the nonsensical violence that now
fills the
airwaves.
5. To ensure the best possible benefit
of a UN Voluntary Fund for
youth on the CoP, how should it be
managed/administered?
It should be overseen by some highly
respected personalities of
unquestionable moral standing, like
Nelson Mandela, Mikhail
Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter and
others.
6. How can youth not yet involved in CoP activities
be reached and
motivated to get involved?
It is important
for members of youth organizations to visit youth
in their home
and invite them to participate. Posters and
announcements
in the press and on radio may help, but those who are
less
confident will not dare to come. They need
personal
encouragement, as shown by the following
story:
MAKING HEALTH CARE AVAILABLE TO ALL
after Giovanni Andrea
Cornia
The Dutch government supported an
experiment in pre-natal care
in the state of Kerala, India.
It funded 40 village health clinics
where expecting mothers
could come on a regular basis to make sure
they and their unborn
baby were in good health, learn about hygiene
and good nutrition,
and then come back periodically after they gave
birth to show the
baby to make sure it developed normally. In 20
villages,
these free clinics were announced with posters and
radio
advertisements. In 20 other villages, the same
publicity was used,
but in addition, every household in the
village was visited by a
nurse every two months, to ask people
how they were doing and
inform them about the free health service
available. In the first
group, only the well-educated and
richer people made use of the
service provided. But in
those villages where a nurse visited
every household, even
low-caste and poor people dared to make use
of the services
provided.
This shows the importance of reaching
out personally to people
with low self-esteem.
7. a) Which
other organizations do you know of, that work for
a
CoP?
The UN University for Peace in Costa Rica
b)
Would you be willing to contact them or may we contact them
with
the questionnaire? Please specify.
I do not know
anyone there, please contact them yourself.
8. My response to
this questionnaire is my personal opinion? Yes
/organization's
opinion? No |
