Youth and Service
Perak, Malaysia— The RYS volunteers worked on two distinct locations as participants painted two Bethany Home Residential Quarters and also repaired a residence for a family of 4 handicapped children including the construction of an outlet drain in the vicinity of Bethany Home.
Kassa, Nigeria - “The Religious Youth Service has leaped where others could not dare,” commented a journalist who followed the participants as they spent five days in May 2005 doing work in the village of Kassa in Plateau State, site of much destruction caused by religious conflict.
“Football has an incredible power, which can be used to make this world a better place in which everyone can live," according to FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the worldwide governing body football/soccer). its Fair Play Code includes the advice: "Use this powerful platform to promote peace, equality, health and education for everyone. Make the game better, take it to the world, and you will be fostering a better world.”
RYS Annual Report 2005—In 2005, we brought the RYS spirit of healing and reconciliation to areas such as Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Indonesia and Thailand, sites of recent religious and ethnic strife.
Patawan, Philippines - Participants in a Religious Youth Service project in Patawan, Philippines, Oct. 20-24, 2004, distributed medicine to four villages, painted a school building, distributed reading materials and visited religious sites.
Religious Youth Service's first project in the Middle East was arranged in cooperation with Jordan’s Higher Council for Youth. This project had been selected from several proposed by the city of Salt, north of Amman. The work involved clearing the grounds around a disused building and redecorating it so the building could be used as a skills training center for local women and the garden made into a safe play area for their children.
Jakarta, Indonesia— The 5th RYS drew participants together under the theme of “Building a Culture of Peace and Volunteerism.”
United Nations, New York— RYS International Director, John W. Gehring was invited to be a speaker and panelist representing the Religious Youth Service at a UN DPI/NGO interactive workshop, entitled “The Role of NGO’s in Overcoming Poverty through Education”.
It was a great privilege for me to the International Peace Sports Festival (IPSF) as staff, accompanying teams from Delhi, Chennai and Sikkim, representing three different states and regions of India. In total there were 68 participants from India. Our individual participants performed well.
Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala—Religious Youth Service Guatemala 2004, took place in the beautiful lakeside town of Santiago Atitlan. This was the 19th Friendship Americas Project and its main focus and theme was “The Role of Youth in the Creation of Global Peace.”
Georgetown, Guyana—Guyana, while hosting its first RYS, provided a warm welcome for participants at the City Hall through the cooperation of Mayor Hamilton Green and the Interfaith Council of Guyana. Majority of the work surrounded around fence construction, painting homes, and environmental cleanup.
Bayan-Ulgii, Western Mongolia—The 3rd RYS project in Mongolia focused on promoting cooperation between the Muslim and Buddhist population in Bayan Ulgii, located in the Western part of the country.