Dear Friends of GYPA,

Over the past several weeks we've received your email inquiries about GYPA Summer 2008 Immersions. We are thrilled to learn that our work has reached new students, campuses, and friends of Africa. Fortunately, we are pleased to inform you that we are in the process of designing our 2008 Summer Immersions.

Check back in with us here at www.gypafrica.org during early January for the official announcement and application. This summer is sure to be one of the most unique and powerful Immersions yet.

Many thanks,

GYPA

I was thrilled to receive an invitation and update from my friends Andrew Krakower, documentary filmmaker and Courtney Spence, founder of Students of the World with whom I traveled to Uganda late Summer 2003.

On Tuesday, November 13, 200 at the Houston Jewish Community they are hosting a preview of "exclusive clips" from "The Children's War" a feature length documentary film about the conflict in Northern Uganda.

If you happen to be in the Houston area, I encourage you to attend this event, and if not, I encourage you to support the film through donation, spreading the word and visiting the websites.

Yours,
Jeremy Goldberg

FROM THE CHILDREN'S WAR WEBSITE:
In 2003, members from the non-profit organization Students of the World traveled to Uganda to learn more about the HIV issues and grassroots initiatives in the country.

Filmmaker Andy Krakower accompanied the group with the intention of shooting a feature-length documentary film focusing on the country characterized as the birthplace of AIDS. Reported widely as having the direst of orphan conditions in the world, Uganda was being praised for claims of successfully implementing awareness programs that made Uganda the first country in Africa “to reverse its rate of infection.”

On Krakower’s first day in the capital city of Kampala, a local took him to Namuwongo Zone B—the slums. He and his companions were shocked at the appalling filth and squalor in which these people barely existed. They were told that most of these people had fled from the war “in the North” of the country. It was then that they learned of the children’s war, a 21-year-old war in Northern Uganda.

On October 18, 2007 Halle Butvin, GYPA Advocate, Friend and Ambassador Extraordinaire, launched One Mango Tree.

According to the website, One Mango Tree works to improve the lives of women in impoverished and conflict-ridden areas of the globe. Our first project is now underway in northern Uganda, a region devastated by more than twenty years of armed conflict. The war has taken the lives of thousands, displaced more than two million, and destroyed the once-vibrant local culture and economy

For more information about One Mango Tree and to purchase products visit: www.onemangotree.com

CAMEROON

Young leaders want National Youth Council
19 October 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200710191197.html

YOUTH leaders have proposed the creation of National Youth Council as a
panacea to the proper implementation of the national youth policy.

The proposal came during a participatory workshop to identify the main
guidelines of the youth plan that held in Yaounde from October 16-17.

Eugene Ngalim, President of the Cameroon Youths for Peace, CAMYOSFOP, said
a national youth council would bring together youth leaders to examine
challenges faced by youths, come up with projects and propose solutions to
the ministry to be implemented by the Council.

He said the Youth Council would have to be autonomous in decisions they
take and in the finances, which has to come from the Ministry and
donors.He emphasised the need for structures that would deal directly with
youths, piloted by the Ministry of Youth Affairs in collaboration with
other ministries. "We need to see physical structures put in place, to
ensure financial and moral support," he said.

The Minister of Youth Affairs, Adoum Garoua, presiding at the ceremony,
situated the youth plan within the context of the ministerial council of
September 9, with the prescription of a youth policy to enable a deeper
examination of the problem of youths in Cameroon.

Adoum said, taking in to account the crucial situation of youths, his
ministry will continue with programmes in place for youths such as the
literacy programme, support programme to rural and urban youths.