Caucasus is unfortunately not famous by only it’s beauty and friendly society, this is the region, which is mostly known worldwide for the conflicts. Despite the fact that most centuries this people lived together, created similar cultural traditions, look alike and live alike, sometimes they find it difficult to communicate and cooperate. But sometimes there are the ways, to get people closer, let them discover each other, discover how alike they are.

Youth is the force which might find a way to solution. With this idea strated the project Caucasus, three countries, one story.

At the first stage project coordinators from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, who already had some experience in doing small voluntary projects together, started to collaborate, how to show society, that we, youth from Caucasus have one story, we live the same way, act the same way, have the same problems and are happy about the same nice things.

For this Project team found out that there was a need of more open minded people, who were brought together in Tbilisi in February. unique team was created with the youth from different regions of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. they spent 5 days together, working during the day time on the flash movie idea, writing scenario, distributing the roles, planning the movie shooting. after each day participants had a chance to talk about their culture, differences and of course similarities, and after this 5 days they found out that yes, they are more alike then different, and that yes, they can work and live together. That is what is shown in a flash movie created by this excellent team:

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A kid smiles an average of 400 times per day but as adults it drops to around 20 per day.  Where did those 380 smiles per day go? What happens between the ages of 5 and 25 that makes this happen? The curiosity of this question grows by the day for me and I don’t know if anyone has a perfect answer for it.

 

In a country with a lot of diversity, conflicts and intolerance are very probable to happen. Ethnic conflicts and nationalism are the most terrifying things that can happen to a country and its people. These issues are not something that can be solved over night, but they require a long term education, initiative and work with the people. When these problems appear the most important thing to do is not to allow the young generations to be infected by the stereotypes and the bad ideologies. Continue reading »

 

An interesting initiative by HP India to bring education to masses. The HP Lab-in-Box comprises a shipping container that has 15 HP multi-seat thin client workstations, a multifunctional printer, wireless connectivity, electricity, furniture, fans and air conditioning. This approach allows multiple users (students in many cases) to be connected to one machine, which maximizes space and resource utilization while reducing cost and complexity. Continue reading »

 

Last year I attended training for human rights and art of performance called “Let’s perform it with Socrates”. I didn’t know anything about art of performance but soon I found out the profound meaning of it. Art of performance means courage to stand up and shake the society with your movements, a powerful tool for telling stories in a way that everyone can understand them, in a universal but a unique way as well.

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Imagine if “someday” was today for Millions of people who claim that “someday” in the future they plan on doing something to make the world a better place. We can no longer let these people off the hook for the things they say, we need to hold people accountable for their claims of helping the world. This planet needs us to do more!

 

MKAC Volunteer Maryam

When we talk about volunteerism we always say that a volunteer is changing the lives of others and making a difference. This is definitely an undeniable truth, but how about the people whose lives we are changing, in return they are helping us to change as an individual? What if they are the ones who start to add extra meaning to the life that we are living and help us become better as a person?

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet up with a regular volunteer, her name is Maryam. Maryam is a Temasek Polytechnic student in Singapore, who shared with me her beautiful journey to the world of volunteerism. She was going through a difficult time emotionally for several years which landed her in depression. She was struggling to come out of it and make herself feel better. In the year 2010, upon receiving advice from her counselor Maryam choose to do something different so as not to dwell in negativity any longer. She decided to become a volunteer.

 The Muslim Kidney Action Association (MKAC) in Singapore conducts a program called Passion for Education.  The Programme is specifically directed towards helping children with their education, whose parents have been diagnosed with kidney diseases. Due to their difficult situation these families are also financially challenged and are in need of help. Maryam became a part of the program, with little confidence as she did not posses any kind of tutoring experience beforehand.   Having no prior skills in teaching and with only the goodwill of the people at heart Maryam moved on with her choice to make a difference.  

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Working to get it down

Wandedoo (fictional character), a Tiv man from Ajio (in Benue, Nigeria, West Africa), goes back to his village in the new car that he has bought. The trip from the city which is about four hours has been very tiring. The bad roads have not helped issues and if he thought that the trouble stops in Ajio, he is in for a shocker. He takes a turn by St. Martin’s Parish and notices the erosion eating the road. As he makes his turn, his car has difficulty due to the part that has disappeared. A few more rains and we are going to have no road, he thinks to himself as he continues on. He has a hero’s welcome in his grandfather’s tse, kindred compound, and after the stay heads back to the city. Once again, the entire bad road scenario occur beginning with his previous end. He turns at St. Martins into the road, noting that there could have been culverts there. It is obvious that these roads have been a problem to his people. What is the Government doing about it? He is tempted to stop and take a closer look at the road. However, he has to attend a meeting of his Non Governmental Organization, a developmental oriented one at that.

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My mom keeps telling me since I was a child that we all have our own train rides – once they go away and you are not in, then you cannot go back and undo it. Metaphorically speaking, train rides are those unique and rare moments when we face an opportunity – we either take it, thus, take the train, or we don’t. Those moments define us as human beings and shape our identity. It is impossible to predict such moments, or spend your time waiting for them to come – the train rides are earthquakealy unpredictable. You know it just two seconds before it actually happens, or usually after it happened. This is how I would describe my first volunteering experience.
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Our world has a story. A dreadful past that many of us do not like to visit. I would like to share with you what I have I learnt about our world’s story through my studies in law. The purpose of the law is to stop and punish wrongdoings. Likewise, international law has the same purpose, only on a larger scale. Although international law amplifies the ideals the legal system aims to achieve, its failings and injustices are also magnified. I do not profess to know the schemes, political strategies and interventions that will answer the issues which arise periodically throughout our story. Issues derived from over seven billion people who are choosing to neglect one another. Issues that span cultures, religious boundaries and countries. Issues that you need to know exist.

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