IYC MEMBER AMR ASHRAF AT THE 2010 THREE DOT DASH CONFERENCE

We are extremely please to announce IYC member Amr Ashraf's participation at The 2010 Three Dot Dash Conference. Amr has put together a statement about his experience in New York:

10 days trip to New York

"When I compare myself two years ago to what I became now, I find a huge difference. It is natural to change over time; especially if that time is two years. What is kind of weird is how I changed over those ten days I had in New York! In 2 weeks approximately, I met people and experienced feelings I would have had in years. I knew what it feels like to be in a “diverse environment”. Through comparing between my country and the US, I clearly drew my path through my future. " "It goes like this: in the end of 2007, I started a youth-led initiative called “Prevent Air Pollution” which aims at building connections among individuals, organizations and policy makers around the world to solve the problem of Air Pollution through awareness programs and forestation campaigns around Egypt. We managed to have an online platform (website, facebook and twitter) and we carried out one awareness session and one forestation campaign. In 2009, I knew youth activists from the “International Youth Council”, an NGO in the US, who were impressed by my work and told me about the chance of nominating me to “We Are Family Foundation” to participate in “Three Dot Dash initiative” which is holding the “Just Peace summit” in New York from the 19th to the 27th of March 2010." "So, I applied, but with little hope that I would be chosen. So did many teenagers around the world in the age of 13 to 20 years old but only few were chosen. By the end of 2009, I got the acceptance letter of joining the summit. The WAFF (We Are Family Foundation) chose only 25 teenagers, namely 25 Global Teen Leaders, from thirteen different countries and four continents around the world to represent their countries and share their ideas. " " The Just Peace summit is all about gathering the most effective teenagers to teach them how to carry their ideas to a larger scale. In this 7-days summit, I and the rest of GTLs (Global Teen Leaders) had the chance to have workshops on film making, photography, storytelling, journalism and written communication, social media, Public Relations, marketing, peacemaking and conflict resolution, vision and Action Plan. Also, I met a bunch of the most famous specialists in those fields in the US: Jamal Joseph, Nile Rodgers, Teun Voeten, Bob Herbert, Jeni Stepanek and Ketchum Co. "In addition to that, I got the chance to record a “Viral Commercial” (a one minute maximum video showing the vision of my idea) and have it on youtube and my online platform. The whole idea of having such a foundation “We Are Family” started after the catastrophic events of 9/11. Nile Rodgers, a musician and producer, gathered the most famous figures of sports, cinema, theatre, politicians, policemen, social activists and put them together in one studio to sing the famous old song “We Are Family”! After that, the idea evolved to be a foundation and this foundation heard of the very famous young boy Mattie Stepanek. This thirteen years old American poet and peacemaker who changed the world and made politicians re- think their decisions in a very young age. " " Born in 1990, Mattie did not have much of a chance to live long. He had a fatal muscular disease that put him to death in 2004. Before his death, he wrote seven poetry books under the title “Heartsongs”, which all became New York Times bestsellers. He work intimately with Jimmy Carter and went on Oprah and Larry King talk shows to share his message with the world. He inspired his mom, Dr. Jeni Stepanek, to continue the struggle after his death and carry his message to the world." Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPR5QgeWORw "Arriving at New York on Thursday 18th of March, I had the chance to meet the other 25 GTLs and know their cultural backgrounds. The twenty five of us were from USA, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Ukraine, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kenya, Gambia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Botswana and only me from Egypt and the MENA area. We were five Muslims, one Non-believer, two or three Jewish and the rest different types of Christians. We were different ages; the youngest was 13 years old and the oldest was 20 years old. The average age was 17 years old. Our projects were chosen to be addressing one or more of the basic needs defined by WAFF: Environment, Education, Water, Food, Health and Shelter. " " With all these differences, we had one thing in common. All of us were in New York to bring Peace back to our countries and share the vision of Mattie Stepanek and learn the wisdom beyond it. We were eating, sleeping, going out, attending sessions and sharing feelings together for the whole week. Only we and the WAFF staff were the people we could be in close touch with for seven days. We insisted on doing everything together and accepting each other as we are; we were very tolerant and open minded to go for our common purpose together despite any conflict our countries or cultures might have together." " Despite being a freshman student at the American University in Cairo, that was a totally new experience for me. I dealt with people from different cultures before, but I never had the chance to stay all that time and deeply understand them as I did in this summit. I learned that a person who lives is life in one culture, never thinking of viewing another one different from him is “Born to die” I believed that the essence of life is in diversity and the joy of life is us living among all these changing factors and clashing backgrounds with the ability to hold to our values and principles along with adapting those background."

The 25 GTLs: http://threedotdash.org/legacy/Summit_GTLs_Class10.aspx
We Are Family Foundation: http://www.wearefamilyfoundation.org/