YES!'s 2002 World Youth Jam
Confirmed Participants (a partial list)


Thi Lan Anh Ha, 17
Voices of the Youth, Vietnam
Lan Anh has been a child's rights activist from the age of 13. She is the President and Coordinator of YOJO, a group of 300 youth who broadcast nationally, reporting on news pertinent to youth, including the environment, gender issues and youth empowerment. The programs air twice weekly to 30 million listeners. Members of YOJO actively support Street Voices, a youth-directed paper which hires street children as reporters, broadcasters and journalists. Lan Anh has won numerous awards, and attended many large conferences because of her dedication and work, but prefers action to declarations and proposals. She loves "adventures, music, people, culture, stories, dreams, and inspirations."

Jennifer Corriero, 21
TakingITGlobal.com, Canada
Jennifer is an innovator and leader, bringing tremendous insight into understanding, reaching and motivating youth. Jennifer's experience includes developing and driving youth programs related to technology, collaboration and entrepreneurship. Jennifer has recently been selected by the World Economic Forum as one of the Global Leaders of Tomorrow for 2002. In 1999, she co-founded TakingITGlobal, a non-profit that inspires, informs, and involves young people around the world through technology. She is an advisor to the Ontario Science Centre, the Canadian Association for AIDS Research, Pollution Probe, and the Youth Employment Summit.

Barak Turovsky, 26
Faces Of Peace, Israel
Barak is involved with several local and international human rights and peace-promoting organizations. He works to overcome racial hatred and prejudice, though many fellow Israelis consider activists to be the "enemy's assistants." Barak is a co-founder of National Union of Israel Students - a Peace Group that promotes human rights, especially among the Palestinian population. Currently he is involved with Faces of Peace, a project which organizes common events and activities for Israeli and Palestinian youths, as well as university exchange programs. Over 1,000 have been a part of Faces of Peace.


Hafsat Abiola, 27
Kudirat INitiative for Democracy, Nigeria
Hafsat is a 27 year old human rights activist from Nigeria. Her father, M.K.O. Abiola, won Nigeria's Presidential election in 1993 but served out his term incarcerated by the military dictatorship, eventually dying in prison. Her mother, Kudirat, was a democracy leader who organized major strikes and marches until she was assassinated in the streets of Lagos. Continuing in her parents' footsteps, Hafsat founded and directs KIND (Kudirat INitiative for Democracy), which strengthens civil society and promotes democracy in Africa. She has written articles for the New York Times, Time, and Newsweek. Hafsat is part of several global networks that support youth, women, and spiritual transformation, is a Fetzer Fellow, and serves on the board of the Institute Of Noetic Sciences (IONS).

Raj Singh, 18
L-CDIU, Cambodia
Raj is the co-founder and initiator of L-CDI, quite likely the only organization in the world which does as much on a per province budget of only USD 50 a month. In each province in Cambodia, L-CIDU provides 70-100 youth from backgrounds of extreme poverty with full time boarding and education, at no charge. L-CDI focuses particularly on educating women, a segment of the population traditionally less formally-educated. Raj has been working full time for what he believes most in, which is education is for everyone. Raj is also the youngest Computer Systems Engineer in ASEAN, and at 16 he was the youngest Certified Professional in Cambodia.

Aluoka Otieno, 30
Youth Association for Rural Development (YARD), Kenya
Aluoka was born to a rural family in Western Kenya in 1971. He grew up surrounded by issues of poverty and social injustices, and at an early age became motivated to political action. In 1992, he joined the student government at the University of Nairobi and later graduated to work in the local civil society movement. In 1995, he joined a number of young Kenyans in street activism and contributed to the founding of an alternative political party, SAFINA, to push for social change in Kenya. As the national coordinator of Youth Association for Rural Development (YARD), Aluoka's present focus is on empowering youth of all economic backgrounds with knowledge and skills to become the leaders of the future. He also coordinates Dialogue Africa, a philanthropic foundation that supports sharing and community building amongst diverse constituencies.

Bintou Kamara, 26
Youth in the Media, Gambia
Motivated by issues of gender, race and class, Bintou began working with Youth in the Media, an association created to support young journalists. Despite her lack of training in the field, today she is a broadcaster and reporter for a news program, which she presents in both French and English. Bintou helps implement training courses for women's empowerment and depicting women's perspectives. Her future plans include founding a group to help uneducated youth to fulfill their ambitions.


Jimmy Hurrell, 20
Tolerance in Diversity, England
Jimmy is a founding member of Tolerance in Diversity, a community-relations organization aimed at creating awareness and acceptance within communities, particularly in areas of racial tension. TiD initiates interactive peer education programs within youth settings, creating spaces to share personal experience and perceptions. Jimmy is also the National Youth Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative, a group dedicated to creating cultures of peace and understanding. URI works on building genuine relationships between people of diverse backgrounds and situations. Jimmy believes that self-reflection and education helps one learn valuable lessons, but believes in action after this process.

Teanau Tuino, 29
Independent Media Collective, New Zealand
Teanu is a Maori activist working with for Maori Tino Rangatiratanga (self determination). Teanu is qualified as a lawyer but chose to reject the profession because of corruption he witnessed. Teanu works at the local Independent Media Collective, and is starting work on a National Indigenous IMC, putting together a basic zine. Teanu followed his mum, a trade unionist, into activism, and has been actively organizing since the age of 19. His passion is the ongoing struggle of the people who continue to resist the pressures of colonization and cultural and economic genocide.



Tad Hargrave, 26
Youth Jams, Canada
Tad has been a full time youth activist since he was 19 when he founded The School Revolution which empowers students with resources to transform their schools through day long workshops across Alberta. He served as Development Director for Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!) starting in 1996, in 1997, he founded YES!'s Facilitation Trainings and in 1999 he founded Youth Jams. He is an accomplished magician, musician and improv comedian. He is a funny guy. Really.


Karun Mahat Koernig, 26
Environmental Youth Alliance, Canada
Karun is Manager for the Environmental Youth Alliance, a group that recognizes the interconnectedness between environmental and social justice struggles. EYA actively works with queer, First Nations and street-involved youth, as well as youth of color, in empowering young people to build a healthier environment. Karun aims to influence those around him to live more sustainably, utilizing alternative media, workshops, presentations and political work. He also serves as one of two North American representatives to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Youth Advisory Council.

Agnes de Oliveira Franco, 22
Workers Party of Brazil, Brazil
Agnes became active in high school, shaking up the institution by founding a student organization dedicated to the improvement of education. She is a key member of the Workers Party of Brazil, and is actively involved in environmental and student struggles. Agnes facilitates a variety of workshops and meetings on subjects such as art and music therapy. The youth center, where Agnes volunteers, has recently adopted a variety of new programs she submitted on Tolerance, Peace Culture, Enterprising and others.

Billy Wimsatt, 29
Adventure Philanthropy, USA
Billy is a journalist, lecture, and author of two books (Bomb the Suburbs, 1994 and No More Prisons, 1999), both of which have received much praise and respect in activist and punk communities. In 1996, Billy was the youngest person to be named a "Visionary" by Utne Reader. Billy is cofounder of Active Element Foundation, Adventure Philanthropy, and Self Education Foundation, and he serves on the boards of More than Money, WireTap and The American Story Project. Billy believes that learning and building together as humans is critical.



Li Li, 24
China Green Student Forum, China
Li Li is the Coordinator of the China Green Student Forum, a coalition of 250 student groups working together to exchange ideas, information and resources pertaining to the environment. Li Li is pursuing a career in environmental activism, with the goal of integrating environmental concern into the school curriculum. She believes that in order to live and work peacefully, mutual understanding between cultures is necessary. She is enthusiastic about learning of the accomplishments and activities of youths in other countries.

Shilpa Jain, 25
Peoples' Institute for Rethinking Education & Development, India
Shilpa was born and raised in the USA but left an "upper middle class life in America [and] a Harvard education" to work for social justice in India. At Shikshantar: The Peoples' Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, Shilpa is a 'learning activist'. That is, she is primarily concerned with how and what people learn, but also that she is always learning herself. With this group, Shilpa researches, writes and edits for the quarterly bulletin, facilitates workshops and engages in creative expression with children, among other activities.


Nabi Eldar, 20
Humanitarian Center, Azerbaijan
Nabi works in the Humanitarian Center, helping young people find a way of living, not as spectators, but as directors of their own lives. Nabi works with youth on many different issues including those surrounding education, immigration and the environment. Nabi is getting his Master's in Law, and works with a group of other law students to teach constitution and law in refugee camps. He is involved in organizing and facilitating many other activities such as lessons on sustainable development, and an upcoming Regional Forum on Youth and Drugs.


Evon Peter, 26
Neetsaii GwichÕin Chief, Arctic Village, AK
Nativemovement@hotmail.com
Evon is the youngest ever chief of the Neetsaii GwichÕin tribe of Arctic Village, a remote village accessible only by small plane in northern Alaska. His primary responsibility is for the well being of his tribe. This entails recovery from the impacts of colonization and oppression while bridging the relationships with the contemporary global community. Revitalization and sustainability of language, culture, and world-view are fundamental in this effort. He is a well-recognized advocate of indigenous peopleÕs rights and responsibilities, and is active as a speaker and facilitator within the State of Alaska, nationally, and in the international community.

Abigail Sarai Canche, 18
Los Angeles Indigenous Peoples' Alliance (LAIPA), Los Angeles, USA
Asarah16@aol.com
Abigail works as a volunteer with the Los Angeles Indigenous Peoples' Alliance (LAIPA) where she works to help woman to survive in this world. Through conferences and weekly circles for young women called "Xinachtli" (Ages from 13-18) the participants gain strength to deal with the realities of their lives and communities. Abigail Canche is a person that likes to challenge herself with new things and projects. She is a girl that likes to help a lot of people to feel better about themselves. She believes that a person is capable of doing anything as long as you believe that you can do it. She is a girl that will challenge herself to help others how no one can help them. She is a girl that also likes to open her heart to anyone that is able to hear what she can say.

Alma Rosa Sivla-Banuelos
Young Women United, New Mexico, USA
almarosa6@yahoo.com
Alma Rosa is a dedicated activist that brings global issues to a local level. She works with youth of color and contiues to do anti-oppression work in her communities and region. She is also a bridge builder amongst different communities and on the US/Mexico border. In all of her work she lives and works for the seven generations, our transformation, and for the vision of our new world. Alma Rosa is a part of the core group of Young Women United (YWU),is a new organizing project created by and for young womyn of color/non white womyn in the Albuquerque area. Their goal is to build a powerful community of teenage and young adult womyn of color so that we can support each other, educate ourselves, and take action to: reduce the violence around and against us, and protect and build our health and strength as womyn of color. Part of Young Women United is the Circle of Strength which is a free year round leadership development and community organizing program for teenage womyn and girls from 13-19 working on issues of health and violence that teenage womyn and girls deal with daily.

Fanta Tounkara, 30
Institute for Popular Education, Mali
Fantatounk@yahoo.fr
Fanta works with various groups, including the Institute for Popular Education to fight mis-education and further educate people who have had little formal schooling. Fanta creates modules and activities to suit young people in these programs. She also facilitates training sessions on issues such as reproductive health and gender. One of FantaÕs projects is called Youth and Astronomy. This initiative involves over 300 young people, with the goal of demystifying science in low-income communities.

Celeste O. Faison,
21st Century Youth Leadership Movement, New York, USA
www.21cyouthmovement.org
Celiey@aol.com
The daughter of civil rights movement activists, Celeste was taught early to think outside the box and that stepping out of her comfort zone was the only way to create social change. At the age of 14 she joined 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement (21C). Through her work with 21C she has traveled to Mali to set up an international conference on education. She attended the UN/NGO conference on racism as a youth delegate, where she headed the youth tent. While there she was on a team which started the UN International Youth NGO network; and was elected as the UN Representative for the network. She currently serves as 21C's youth camp director heading and creating 21C workshops and curricula on the Prison Industrial Complex and environmental racism. She is trained in the Kingian Methodology of non-violence. Celeste currently serves as 21CÕs youth camp director.

Enei M. Begaye
Black Mesa Water Coalition
enei_begaye@yahoo.com
Enei is Dine and Tohono Oodham from the Navajo Nation. She is an environmental justice and indigenous rights activist/organizer. As an organizer and spokesperson of the Black Mesa Water Coalition she has been working with other inter-tribal inter-ethnic young people to protect mother earth and build sustainable communities. The Black Mesa Water Coalition is dedicated to stopping the wasteful use of pristine ground-water by Peabody Coal Company for mining operations on Navajo and Hopi lands in northern Arizona, and to building sustainable communities through the promotion of renewable energy, water and energy conservation, and cultural preservation. Enei is also involved in Dine Bidziil, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and Sierra Club's environmental justice program. She has studied geological and environmental science with a focus on hydrology.


the facilitators:

Malika Sanders is director of 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement in Selma, AL, an organization created in 1985 by civil rights movement veterans. 21st Century helps youth (primarily in the African-American community) to be skilled community leaders, empowering themselves and their communities for positive change. Malika was 16 when she organized 100 students to shut down Selma High School for four days in an ultimately victorious protest of the school’s racist "tracking" system. She also helped organize the "Joe Gotta Go" campaign that recently unseated the 36-year reign of racist Selma mayor Smitherman. She serves on the board of several organizations, and won the 2002 Reebok Human Rights Award.

Coumba Toure is coordinator of the Youth Leadership Program at the Institute for Popular Education (IPE) in Mali. Coumba works for women’s empowerment through popular education, and has facilitated hundreds of educational workshops. She speaks regularly at college campuses and conferences internationally, and she also works with 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement to organize numerous exchanges between African-American youth from the Southern United States and African youth from throughout West Africa.

Ocean Robbins founded Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!) at 16, and has served in a leadership role with YES! for 12 years. He is co-author of Choices for Our Future, has spoken in person to 200,000 high school students, and has facilitated 29 week-long camps for young activists from 42 countries. At 14, Ocean facilitated global youth summits in Moscow and in Washington, DC, presenting for Mrs. Gorbachev and numerous US Senators in the process. He has served as a board member for Friends of the Earth, The Tide Turning Coalition, and EarthSave International.

Puma Quispe Singona is founder of CUSI HUAYNA, an indigenous youth institution that empowers youth and protects traditional folklore and wisdom of the Inca Culture in Peru. Puma is an Andean Medicine Man in training, and since he was a child he has been practicing global healing and herbal and pre-natal care. He is a Council Member of Indigenous and Non Indigenous Youth Alliance (INIYA) and actively works with Youth leadership Council.

 

photographs by Maryam Roberts