Around the "world" in search of peace: The Peace by Piece Youth Summit
“Does everyone have their passports and boarding passes?"
Elaine and Denzel, having just finished their opening address to their peers—about 160 from across Toronto—make sure that everyone has their “flight intenerary” for the experience they are all about to have as they travel around the world, across several countries.
They plan to do this without leaving Toronto. How is that possible?
The Peace by Piece Youth Summit, an annual conference bringing together over 160 youth from the Youth Leadership Development (YLD) and Newcomer Youth Leadership Development (NYLD)programs, is in full swing. Youth ranging from 11 to 17 years old are excited to spend time with their friends, make new ones, and learn about the many aspects of health, the theme for today’s summit, based on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and identified by the staff as a piece of the larger picture of the ways that peace can be implemented in every day life.
As for those passports? Those are their admission to the workshops they’ll be attending on nutritional health, sexual health, physical activity, and drug awareness, among others. Those workshops are named after the countries where the YMCA of Greater Toronto has international partnerships—Ghana, Colombia and Liberia, for example.
There’s no doubt that one of the most popular destinations today is “Colombia”, where the ever enthusiastic Spencer (a YLD advisor in Mississauga) gets everyone to learn about nutrition, food security and food distribution—by getting them to blindfold their group members and race for cards depicting various food groups (carbohydrates, water, protein, fats) to get the most points and win the game. The interactive discussion that follows definitely has them thinking about what they eat every day—and where it comes from, as Ghazal, 15, says.
Niharka, Sadaf, and Yalka, a shy but friendly trio of friends from the Etobicoke NYLD group, are learning more about health today at the conference than they have in the last years of their young lives. As they have a combined 5 years in Canada from their native countries (Iran and India), they are eager to learn everything they can about their new homeland, including learning about and talking with their friends about subjects like sexual and nutritional health. “we don’t really talk about these things where we come from, but I think it’s important to know about, just in case.”
Once everyone’s travels are completed for the day, everyone gathers again in “Canada” to congratulate 9 of their friends, who are receiving Health Champion awards (and cool Peace Week T-shirts) for being examples of practicing peace through healthy activities in their communities. As they leave to get on the buses to go home, it’s easy to see that they’re not only taking home their passports filled with stamps and notes, and tons of selfies on their phones with their old and new friends, but the knowledge of how they can be peaceful ambassadors in their own ways, in their own communities.
