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: 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.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: RYS - Indonesia
Indonesia - Sixty volunteers took part in a Global Youth Service Day project April 23-27, 2008, in Indonesia, sponsored in part by Religious Youth Service, that included leadership training, visits to religious sites, building a multifunction hall and organizing a cultural evening.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: RYS-USA
Montclair, New Jersey, United States – Students at Montclair State University took part in an RYS project in conjunction with Service for Peace’s “Peace on Earth Day” celebration, which was highlighted by the unveiling of their Mosaic Peace Bench.
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: Religious Youth Service- Ghana
Elubo, Ghana - By the conclusion of a Religious Youth Service project March 21-April 3, 2008, that included building a canteen for students at a school in Elubo, American and European volunteers had learned to sing local songs including the traditional national anthem in the vernacular - "Yen Ara Ya Asase Ni."
- Religious Youth Service
- Written by: Religious Youth Service
Netherlands - Seeking to pass on the Religious Youth Service methodology to a younger generation of leaders, a "Train the Trainers" program was led by Drs. Ron and Sherry Hartman-Burr in cooperation with Carol Pobanz at a university in the Netherlands March 16-19, 2008.