OUR BIGGEST ASSET IS THE PASSION OF OUR STUDENTS, AND ITS ENORMOUS RIPPLE EFFECT. MEET SOME OF THE LEADERS OF GENERATION HUMAN RIGHTS WHO FUEL OUR BELIEF IN THE BEAUTY OF TOMORROW.
Sarajevo International Peace Conference
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire met with Elana Haviv at the Peace Conference to shared her inspirational story of starting the Peace People in Northern Ireland with the youth.
Generation Human Rights took part in the Sarajevo International Peace Conference. GenHR was able to not only lead youth workshops in the city but we were also able to bring youth to Begov Han, a recently flooded village to bring art-relief to children. On May 20th extreme floods affected Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia and left cities and villages under water and triggered over 3000 landslides.
International youth took part in hands on training about taking oral histories and developing their listening skills. They were able to take these new skills and immediately put them to use when they met the children of Begov Han who had only just lost their homes to the floods and land slides. In Begov Han the youth led art healing workshops along with local psychologists and trauma counselors.
Youth were also able to meet with Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire who shared her inspirational story of starting the Peace People in Northern Ireland.
“Some others from the Youth Camp and I travelled to a village with Elana from Generation Human Rights to run an art and creativity workshop for children who had been evacuated from their homes and villages due to flooding in Bosnia. I was amazed at how finding a common platform between people, such as art, allowed us to communicate and interact despite the language barrier.
This gave me the opportunity to put skills which I had previously only discussed in theory, into a real life situation. Reflecting on this made me realise the importance of listening. The parents of these children felt so much hope in that people had heard them and had travelled from so many different areas to listen and be there.
This has taught me the valuable lesson that humanitarian work is far more than simply giving. It is about listening, communicating and caring to gain a presence of people who are all working towards a common ideal. I feel that these means are vital to move into a society of peace.”
“The peace camp was an amazing experience to meet people in the field and people who have contributed so much of their life to inspiring peace in the world.
The most rewarding experience was helping the children in Begov Han village. I had so much fun playing with them and doing some art work, even though I spoke no word of Bosnian and they could only speak a few words of English I oddly didn’t find the language barrier an issue. It was great to see the women so grateful to us for coming, which was surprising because I was just grateful to them for letting us come and put on a workshop for their children.”
