Religious Youth Service
UPF chapters organize Religious Youth Service projects that offer service-learning opportunities with a special focus on developing personal leadership and peacemaking skills. Through living together and providing altruistic service in a community, participants demonstrate that it is possible for our global human family to come together in peace for our mutual well being.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: RYS-Sri Lanka
Colombo, Sri Lanka – To mark the United Nation's "International Day of Peace" on September 21, 2008, the Western Province Schools of Sri Lanka organized a talent contest amongst the school children. Many of the participants were RYS alumni. The competition was held from September 12-19, 2008 in Colombo. The theme of the competition was simply "Peace."
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: Religious Youth Service-Cote d’Ivoire
Amanvi, Cote d'Ivoire - A Religious Youth Service project at a school in eastern Cote d'Ivoire Sept. 8-14, 2008, included building a bridge and a house for teachers, visiting local communities and businesses, and sightseeing.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: RYS-Sri Lanka
Colombo, Sri Lanka - In the midst of impoverishment, a large crowd of people of mixed origins and ages gathered for the ceremony to open the Religious Youth Service project in Sri Lanka, August 23-30: building a new preschool, the only one of its kind to accommodate Tamil children with other local children.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: RYS-Sri Lanka
Colombo, Sri Lanka – In the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka, in the midst of impoverishment, a large crowd of people of mixed origins and ages gathered for the ceremony to open the RYS Sri Lanka '08 project - the building of a new preschool, the only one of its kind to accommodate Tamil children with other local children.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: Carol Pobanz, Director of Peace Parks, Religious Youth Service
Newark, New Jersey - Religious Youth Service projects in Newark, New Jersey during August 2008 included a basketball fundraiser, Scholars for Ballers, and building a mosaic bench to encourage conversation and understanding at St. Peter's Recreation Center.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: Religious Youth Service-Suriname
Brokopondo, Suriname - Twenty-one Religious Youth Service participants spent Aug. 15-26, 2008 clearing bush and debris from the war-torn community of Brokopondo, clearing a path to a multipurpose court which had also been abandoned since the time of the military coup in 1980, and restoring playground equipment.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: Religious Youth Service-Suriname
Brokopondo, Suriname - Testimonies from two Religious Youth Service participants about their experience in Brokopondo, Suriname.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: RYS-Ghana
Asofa, Ghana – Kerim Tseney was honored by the management and directorate of a Ghanaian NGO - Peoples Environment Culture and Tourism (PECAT) to give a talk titled "The Role of RYS in Community Development" during the launching of the "Green and Clean Initiative," at Harlem International School Complex, in Asofa, a suburb of Accra.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: Carol Pobanz, Director of Peace Parks, Religious Youth Service
Utrecht, Netherlands - An intercultural youth project brought national and international participants to a Moroccan and Turkish immigrant section of Utrecht to help promote integration of immigrants into the Dutch culture July 7-17, 2008.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: Religious Youth Service-Guatemala
Antigua, Guatemala - Global Peacemakers and Religious Youth Service organized a project in Antigua, Guatemala, July 1-11, 2008 that included learning peacebuilding skills, doing light construction work at a school and visiting historic sites.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: Mario Salinas, Educator, UPF-Honduras
Two alumni of Religious Youth Service organized programs for middle school students in Choluteca, Honduras June 20-21, 2008, that included HIV/AIDS prevention education and planting 300 trees to counter deforestation.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: RYS-Jamaica
Portland, Jamaica - RYS joined hundreds of students and community members in Jamaica to celebrate the National Labor Day Project, May 23. The group worked tirelessly to plant over 500 vegetable 12 seedlings and 70 fruit trees, as well as to erect a greenhouse shed at the Buff Bay High School in Portland.