Our Heritage

This blog was borne as a requirement for one of my undergrad classes. It's been a long time since I added an entry. Now that I have some free time,perhaps it's high time I start writing again... just for the heck of it... ^^

Friday, July 28, 2006

Youth and Technology Towards Peace Building

Facing the reality of ongoing wars in the world, the United Nations International Children's Education Fund (UNICEF) launches a program that taps the potentials of the youth as ambassadors of peace.

The project is called Peace Tech 2006. It is geared to unite the youthof the country to promote understanding in war torn countries in hopes of achieving the coveted peace. Starting in the Philippines that is home to "People Power", Peace Tech uses technology to attain its goal of promoting dialogue between the Muslim, Indigenous and Christian youth of Mindanao and Luzon. "It will give them a unique opportunity to express, listen and unite over concerns about the future and their country's future.", explains the project manager Robin Pettyfer.

Pettyfer has prepared a seven part video conference series for the six year project. It started with a work shop last July 22 at Palma Hall of the Univerity of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. A general overview "Peace Tech" served as the introduction in the said event.The workshop also became a training for an estimate of 60 young ambassadors of peace who will be facilitating the first video conference on July 31.

The conference entitled "Moving from Conflict to Understanding" will be hosted by Bam Aquino and Baicon Macaraya. It will be held at ULS Convention Hall in Mindanao and at the NISMED Auditorium in Up Diliman for Luzon. The speakers from the Arm Forces of the Philippines (AFP), former fighters, peace builders and victims of conflict, poverty and discrimination, will be sharing their experiences that will later be analyzed by the participants.

Most of the conferences in the "Peace Tech" series will focus on the different kinds of conflict and the analysis of the steps the comunities are taking to resolve the problem. The series will run from July to December of this year with the University of the Philippines Baguio hosting the conference on October.

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