“Youth means fire. Without the youth, there can be no hope for the future”
Now more than ever, hope for the future is what is keeping us all going. Empowering the youth of today is key to ensuring society’s success tomorrow. With this in mind, IAYSP International hosted a global rally of hope! It took part in the World Center, South Korea. And more than 120,000 youth and students watched this program online.
The event started with performances and words of advice from ppl with experience in specific fields.
During this first part, YSP took the time to award the YSP Peace Prize, created to support innovative peace projects from young people.
The prize was awarded to the Cambodian singer and actor Oun Batham. Known widely by the nickname “Sai,” he started the project “Run With Sai.” He has contributed a lot for Cambodian children. He run 99 days through out 21 cities and provinces in Cambodia for the distance of 2,408 KM had raised 0.5 million US dollars to support the Angkor Children’s Hospital in Siem Reap. This project was acknowledged by private citizen, government, private companies, and civil society, as well as getting collaboration with Unicef, a brilliant achievement! It benefited thousand of Cambodian children who need medical care at the hospital. Throughout this project, he showed encouragement, determination, public-minded, and the heart of living for the sake of other. A lot of youth in Cambodia were influenced by his action.
The final part of the program was deciding the winner of this year’s S!NERGY competition. Having a panel of judges, the audience also had the opportunity to vote for their favorite finalists as the presentations were shown at the event.
First to present was Ms. Tatiana from Russia representing the Good Food Project. An initiative that arose from one of our peace designer workshops that combats the issue of food waste.
The Good Food Project | Ms.Tatiana from Russia – YouTube
Then Ms. Eunji Kim from Korea spoke on the UniUs Project that aims to aid the reunification of South and North Korea. She wants to challenge the negative stigma of reunification.
Similarly, the Together for Tomorrow Peace Project was presented by two half Korean, half Japanese girls. They aim to improve relations between the two countries by coordinating more events for young people of both nationalities.
Second place was awarded to Mr. Oscar Ruiz from Nicaragua, presenting his Arsenic Degrading Bacteria project. He explained that for him, the most pressing issue is the pollution of heavy metals. There, we can find this Arsenic degrading bacteria. He explained how this pollution has dangerous effects on our bodies and how we should do our best to clean our planet.
Finally, first place was awarded to Ms. Rica B Marfil from the Philippines. She founded NCT (Nurturing Children’s Talents) to reduce inequalities associated with disabled children. She explains: “I see hope in their disabilities, just as someone has seen hope in my vulnerabilities.” All finalists were awarded financial support for their projects.
(5) Project NCT｜Rica B Marfil from Philippines – YouTube
IAYSP hopes that through seeing these innovative solutions to today’s problems, young people around the world can feel inspired to take the initiative to fight for the issues they are passionate about!