World Peace Caravan - Giving Youth a Global Voice for Peace
Children of the Earth to Collaborate with the World Peace Caravan
Children of the Earth (COE) is delighted to be partnering with the World Peace Caravan (WPC) to help trumpet the youth voice for peace. COE’s mission to inspire and unite young people to create a peaceful and sustainable world coincides beautifully with the intent of the WPC’s Youth Ambassador Program (YAP), a web-based, multi-media, solutions-driven educational program based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals that is being undertaken by the WPC’s 12 international Youth Ambassadors in the year leading up to the caravan this December, 2015.
About the World Peace Caravan
The World Peace Caravan is a 12-day camel caravan for World Peace that will retrace Queen Sheba’s peace journey to King Solomon 3,000 years ago. Scheduled to depart Petra, Jordan on December 15, 2015, the caravan will travel by camel, horse, and foot to Jerusalem, Israel, retracing the steps of this early peace movement along parts of the storied Frankincense Trail. The caravan will be spearheaded by the World Peace Caravan Youth Ambassadors (twelve youth leaders, ages 16-24, selected from a global pool of candidates) and anchored by two landmark events, the World Peace Caravan Peace and Health Conference on the Dead Sea in Jordan and the World Peace Caravan Concert for Peace in Jerusalem. A uniquely embracive movement, the World Peace Caravan will engage participants physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually while inviting people of all cultures, faiths, and backgrounds to come together to demonstrate and promote peace, harmony, compassion, and a greater understanding of one another.
Twelve dynamic, bold, and purposeful young people from ten countries have been selected as Youth Ambassadors for the World Peace Caravan (WPC), 2015. They are Jeetan Khadka (24) from Bhutan/Nepal, Simran Vedvyas (16) from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Antonio Roca (24) from Guatemala, Yesid Lainez (24) from Honduras, brother and sister Jeremiah (23) and Naomi Mwangi (19) from Kenya, Mandukhai (Manda) Bataa (18) from Mongolia, Anum Nawaz (24) from Pakistan, Evelyn Apoko (25) from Uganda, Cat Hudson (22) from the United Kingdom, and Larissa Peltola (18) and Kyle Wright (18) from the United States.
These 12 youths will spearhead the caravan and will be the voice for youth at its two-day Peace and Health Conference. Their presentation from the conference will be streamed live to a worldwide audience. In the twelve months leading up to the caravan, the ambassadors will participate in the Youth Ambassador Program (YAP), a web-based, multi-media, and solutions-driven program designed to empower the WPC Youth Ambassadors and its Youth Community to invent and implement solutions to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the soon to be identified Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Based on The Dream project, a socially conscious curriculum that has been implemented in elementary and high schools in Los Angeles, Louisiana, Ohio, and Florida with much-heralded success, the YAP will make use of the latest technology and social media networking to create a lively, interactive, virtual think tank where these twelve ambassadors will brainstorm actionable solutions to six of the Development Goals: Eradicate poverty and hunger; Achieve universal primary education; Promote gender equality and empower women; Ensure environmental sustainability; Attain healthy lives for all; Reduce inequality within and between countries. In its novel use of reverse problem solving, the YAP will inspire creative and imaginative ways in which to tackle these lofty goals by facilitating access to the “dreaming” part of the mind where, according to Albert Einstein, the solutions to any problem reside.
Guided by Kelly Sullivan Walden, the creator of the Dream Project and the YAP, the ambassadors began the 12 month program on January 14, 2015. They have each been assigned a goal to tackle and will begin by visualizing a time in the future when it has already been realized. Working backwards from there, they will research the circumstances and history that have contributed to the problem at hand, brainstorm actionable solutions, and apply them within their respective communities. The ambassadors will meet with Walden bi-monthly via teleconference to collaborate and share their progress. The teleconferences will be recorded and broadcast online at the World Peace Caravan website for the world to view, participate in, and support.
“The core premise of the World Peace Caravan Youth Ambassador Program is that each person is born a natural genius. We seek to evoke that genius, and fan the flames of their greatest potential with the purpose of making a unique, positive, “out of the box” and sustainable contribution to the world. With this program we have an opportunity to make a life-changing difference in the lives of young people around the world…and create a lasting legacy of peace.” Kelly Sullivan Walden
The WORLD PEACE CARAVAN is founded by the international D. Gary Young Foundation, a 501 © (3) non-profit organization. The foundation is looking for like-minded partners who share in the vision of a world at peace and welcomes anyone who is interested in sponsoring the Youth Educational Program and/or one or more of the Youth Ambassadors.