! CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS !

THINK AGAIN!

A PUBLICATION OF AFRICA'S SUCCESS STORIES BY AMERICAN AND AFRICAN YOUTH

Dear Friends,

 

I am writing to you regarding an innovative initiative affording the opportunity to teach the world about something the world has little understanding, or recognizes far too often….African Success. We believe that it is up to Africans to solve African problems, but we believe Americans have a responsibility to do our best to learn, understand, and support our friends in Africa in the quest for solutions. Therefore, we are asking you, Africans and Americans to write up a story that you witnessed, participated, know of that exemplifies African success.

 

As you well know, the international media often projects Africa as a failed continent with famine, crisis and chaos abound. THINK AGAIN! the title of this initiative seeks to instill greater understanding and appreciation for Africa.

This educational text-book, think-piece, and motivational force will supplement our educational programs and curricula across high-schools and universities across the United States. We believe this publication can cut across boundaries and misconceptions of Africa.

 

Once complete, the publication will be sold in the United States internationally to well-wishers and friends of Africa and to friends and partners that are yet to be found. After careful review of options and possible recipients, 50% of the proceeds from the sale of the publication, which cost has not yet been declared, will go directly to various projects GYPA supports and that are associated with THINK AGAIN!

 

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

All Africans and Americans living in the United States, Africa, or studying abroad, or living overseas between the ages of 18 – 30 yrs.

 

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

1 page narrative that includes

1. Your name
2. Age
3. City,  State, and Country
4. What is your example (individual, organizational, project, or other) of an African success?
5. When/where did you spend time in Africa? What cities, countries? When?
6. Photograph of you ?

 

Should your first language not be English we ask that you please have your narrative translated.

 

DEADLINE

Submissions: April 1, 2006

Author notification of selection of publications: May 1, 2006

 

GYPA reserves the right to edit all submissions which are approved for publication. However, GYPA will edit with the obligation to represent the individual authors appropriately.

 

For more information about the project contact: Jeremy M. Goldberg at: Jeremy@gypafrica.org

 

Global Youth Partnership for Africa

Global Youth Partnership for Africa (GYPA) cultivates American youth as global citizens and partners in peace and development in Africa. GYPA provides opportunities for student leaders at American universities to travel to Africa, interact with young leaders there, and participate in community based development programs. GYPA also creates opportunities for these students to organize awareness and educational events on their campuses when they return. GYPA grew out of Project Namuwongo Zone B (PNZB), a site-specific humanitarian relief collaboration between Ugandan and American youth near Kampala, Uganda. Starting in August 2003, PNZB addressed the morally unacceptable health and education humanitarian disasters that had infiltrated this community. Staffers recognized a far-reaching desire amongst students to reach beyond their borders to find solutions to global problems and set about creating opportunities to make this possible. www.gypafrica.org

Jeremy M. Goldberg, Founder/Director of GYPA and Diana Duarte, GYPA Women's Program Coordinator participated in the 2nd Annual Washington International School Symposium on Poverty on February 27, 2006.

Each year the symposium focuses on a significant global issue. This year it is poverty. Schools send teams (no more than four people) made up of teachers, administrators and students (grades 7-11 only).  Each school develop an action plan to address poverty by taking action in their schools and communities.

Jeremy and Diana presented to 3 roundtable groups of 20 people that included Elementary, Middle-School and High-School students and teachers about GYPA program options in the classroom and outside of the classrooms.  "We were intrigued with the enthusiasm and interest displayed by students and teachers at the WIS Symposium," Jeremy said, "We had been searching for an opportunity to expand our THINK AGAIN! program to younger students in the US and in Washington, DC.  It is thrilling that WIS invited us to participate and look forward to nurturing this new partnership."

For more information about the WIS Center for International Education visit: http://cie-wis.org/symposium/about.php

LOCAL ACTION FOR THE WOMEN OF NORTHERN UGANDA!
As as college campaigns work to empower women and combat the epidemic levels of violence and abuse against all women, the George Washington University Feminist Leadership Alliance performed the Vagina Monologues for the Washington, DC community.  Each year the Vagina Monologues are performed on hundreds of colleges campuses to raise awareness in local communities, and funds for groups that help combat violence against women.  GW's  performance attracted over five hundred students and members of the  community, raising over $3000  This year's cast has chosen to donate $1300 of the profit to Anyira Gweyo, or Girls Kick It, a comprehensive sports program for young  women and girls living in areas of North Uganda.

For More Information about Anyira Gweyo contact: Anna Phillips at Anna@gypafrica.org

Evanston, Il- On Saturday, February 25th, Jeremy (GYPA Founder/Director) and I presented at the International Youth Volunteerism Summit at Northwestern University. The Summit brought together an impressive group of several hundred students from 20 countries and 30 universities to explore "the pitfalls and potentials of international engagement."

We led the Global Service Learning Workshop, where we presented GYPA's program AFRICA: WHATEVER YOU THOUGHT, THINK AGAIN! This program focuses on telling the positive and innovative stories coming out of Africa that transcend the overwhelming negative imaging and stereotyping that we see in mainstream American media. THINK AGAIN! fits into one of our larger goals, which is to fundamentally change the way that Americans think about Africa.

There was a lot of energy in the room, and I think that is partly because other Africa related group at the Summit were asking students to join them in helping to end unspeakable human tragedies and extreme human suffering. It was interesting to have the conversation with our friends from Genocide Intervention Network and Uganda-CAN, who are doing incredible work, about finding the balance between hope and outrage while dealing with African pandemics. It is my belief that the efforts to end suffering in Africa will be bolstered when we recognize that Africans are often times providing innovative solutions to their own problems.

- Josh Goldstein, GYPA Associate Director

Women's Program- Namuwongo, Uganda

In January, the group of twenty-five young American and Canadian students returned from the Global Kimeeza Youth Summit, where they had met with twenty-five of their Ugandan counterparts.  Having had the opportunity to discuss the issues facing many Ugandan and African societies, such as the challenges facing IDPs, women, and those infected with HIV/AIDS, they have come back inspired to continue their engagement with these communities.  Involvement in the women's program represents a major avenue for contribution.

In the coming weeks, interested students will be organizing on their campuses and coordinating events to benefit the community of Namuwongo.  Currently, there are six students who have expressed the motivation and commitment to serve as advocates for the women of Namuwongo, and specifically to sell their craftwork in the U.S.

Additionally, if you live in the DC area and would like to get involved, we will be contacting members of Friends of African Youth, a group of young professionals and supporters of GYPA, to participate in developing events for the women's program.

How you can get involved:
-- Donate at www.gypafrica.org
-- Attend a GYPA event.
-- If you are interested in selling craftwork made by the women of Namuwongo, on your campus or in your community, please contact us.
-- Spread the word! Tell all your friends!

Diana Duarte

Diana, the Women's Program Spring Intern for GYPA, graduated in May 2005 with a bachelor's degree in comparative colonial history.  Previously, she spent 16 years in Africa, as a dependent of a Foreign Service officer.  As a GYPA intern, Diana will communicate with volunteers in Namuwongo and with student global ambassadors in the U.S., and also organize events in the DC area.
Contact Diana: diana@gypafrica.org

Friends-

The space below is the locus of our exciting post-Kimeeza projects (including Gomo Tong, Project Namwuongo Zone Bs, Campus Events, ect...) Check back for updates and to learn how you can get and stay involved!

We consider the Kimeezers the life blood and center of energy for GYPA.  I truly believe that together we can do amazing things, for both ourselves as a community of globally linked, forward thinking practitioners, as well as those we aim to work with in Northern Uganda.  - Josh Goldstein

Gomo Tong (Bending the Spears) project is now underway under the leadership of Jaime Alvis Kimeeza-Alumni and  American Unviersity MA Candidate, local leaders from Uganda, and the GYPA staff.  For more information on the status of Gomo Tong contact Josh Goldstein at: josh@gypafrica.org

Stay tuned for the kick-off to Gomo Tong, "Bending the Spears Campaign" on March 25 at Staccato in Washington, D.C, where the funds raised at the door will go toward supporting the efforts of communities in Northern Uganda to maintain and sustain Gomo Tong.

We are also organizing a roundtable in the spirit of the GYPA town hall series Africa: Whatever You Thought: Think Again .  The roundtable, YOUTH ON THE BRINK: The Crisis of Citizenship in Post-Conflict Societies: Successes and Challenges will bring experts in the field on youth reintegration and reconciliation to discuss best-practices in the field on this important topic of youth community-building.   
Also of significance are the plans for Jaime Alvis to return to Uganda this summer to work on the Gomo Tong and continue to  link with the Ugandan support system in the North.   This is tentatively planned for July-August.

Friends:

Hello from Global Youth Partnership for Africa (GYPA)! We are back from the extraordinary successful Global Kimeeza: US/Uganda Youth Summit, where 24 Americans, 1 Canadian and 25 Ugandans came together to create the 2006 US/Uganda Youth Alliance Action Statement. In this extraordinary 10-day Summit, we created a tangible partnership for youth to participate in the vital activities necessary for peace, reconciliation and reintegration in the 20-year conflict in Northern Uganda.

As we prepare for the next newsletter, I wanted to keep you up to date on some very exciting opportunities coming up with GYPA. Below you will see some our innovative upcoming travel opportunities, but as always, we prefer traveling with students who have organized with us on their campus. We believe that creating informed policy discussions and awareness through art are the best ways to change our community's attitude towards Africa. We have mini-grants and event planning guides to help create these spaces on your campus. Do join us for one of our two semester initiatives...

ORGANIZE WITH GYPA

Africa: Whatever You Thought, Think Again

"Because the media focus so much on catastrophes within the African context, Africans may come across as being passive or helpless. In fact, when I visit African communities I meet people who are courageous, determined to improve their lives, and energetic in the face of all sorts of adversity."

- Peter Bell, President, CARE, at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School

Throughout the media, images abound of African failure. Genocide in Darfur, famine in Niger, tyranny in Zimbabwe, and oil and diamond exploitation are just a few. However, as GYPA participants know firsthand, the continent abounds with young leaders who are taking the lead with innovating community-based organization, market based solutions and more.

GYPA's new town hall series aims to bring students, professors and practitioners to tell these stories of success and optimism in Africa. Themes can be specific to community interest and have included 'Opportunities for Peace in Northern Uganda' (02/07, Puget Sound, WA), 'Eradicating Poverty Through Profits' (03/07, College Park, MD), 'Successes in Post Conflict Peace Building' (03/07 Washington DC).

Email Campus Affairs Director Michela

Students Saving Lives with AIDS Medication (SLAM AIDS)

GYPA's continuing event series is spreading awareness the local and international HIV/AIDS pandemic. All funds raised by this series go antiretroviral (ARV's) in Uganda, including the Kairos Medical Clinic in Namuwongo. This event, which in the last 12 months has visited Cambridge, New York, Philadelphia (x2), Washington (x2) has brought together some of the most talented up and coming slam poetry and hip hop talents, including Carlos Gomez, Brent Shuttleworth, Delica Andrews and others.

P.S. We are looking for a new National SLAM AIDS coordinator, so if organizing events and working with accomplished and dedicated hip-hop artists around the country is your thing, email a cover letter and resume to Josh.

TRAVEL WITH GYPA

Student Global Ambassadors (SGA) Uganda Immersion

JUNE 11 – 24, 2006

With the recent National Elections in February 2006, Uganda faces many challenges. What has Uganda done to fight and prevent HIV/AIDS and where is it going? What has been done to eliminate the 20 year conflict in Northern Uganda? And what role do Ugandans see for the international community in ending this conflict? Other questions abound about the role of Uganda in regional stability of the Great Lakes Region, as well as issues of refugees, internally displaced persons and orphans.

The Student Global Ambassadors program will seek out educational understanding, among other areas, while interacting with the people of Uganda. This includes interaction in the grassroots with cbos and ngos, people living in Namuowongo an urban slum community near Kampala, traveling to the Gulu District in Northern Uganda to meet with civil society leaders and explore the IDP camps and reintegration programs.

Application Deadline: March 15th, 2006. Email Josh for an application.

Student Global Ambassadors (SGA) THINK AGAIN! JOURNALISM AND MEDIA Uganda Immersion

AUGUST 3 – 20, 2006

The Journalism and Media program for undergraduate and graduate students will focus on describing the realities of Uganda, including showcasing the enormous courage and dedication of youth who, often without resources, have made life better in their communities. Participants will also meet with Ugandan media leaders, from press to public relations, to examine the role of Ugandan media. This GYPA program will allow young journalists to discover and document new trends emerging from youth leaders who are the future leadership of Uganda, and future world leaders.

Participants will be selected from a wide range of media capacities, editorial, news writing and reporting, photo-journalism, bloggers, video/documentarian, news anchors. All participants will have the opportunity to meet with Uganda based media outlets that include: television, print-journalism, internet/web-rings, public relations/media firms, radio and university press.

Application Deadline: March 15th. Email Josh for an applicatoin.

VOLUNTEER WITH GPYA

Community Fellows Program: Uganda

Summer 2006

GYPA is looking for dedicated volunteers to work in the Namuwongo community in Uganda this summer. Here are the positions we are looking to fill...

Helping Hands Medical Fellowship to provides medical education and treatment to those living with HIV/AIDS, and other diseases and illnesses. Provides counseling services to those infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS, including education to pregnant women who are HIV-positive.

Access to Education (x2) to provide youth with yearly educational sponsorship, technology training, classroom beautification, reading programs, and sports and recreation (Namuwongo Youth Football and Basketball League).

Email Jeremy for more information.