Just In: More Than 100 Youth Travel to Kenya, China and Mexico

We’re having an awesome summer in the International Trips Department. More than 100 participants are currently making their way home from destinations all over the world: Kenya, China and Mexico. Participants volunteered in local communities teaching English, building schools and creating long-lasting friendships.

In September we will have a complete report on all of the summer trips, and we will announce the 2007 summer trips. Stay tuned to the Leaders Today website: www.leaderstoday.com.

We are also working hard to make this year’s Take Action! Academy in Toronto the best yet. Now in its 7th year, the Academy empowers young people to take action to make a positive difference in the world. This year, we are offering an exciting new program called Take Action! Day, where participants will take their passion and the new leadership skills they acquire at the academy and go out to volunteer in the Toronto community.

Check out some of the highlights of Take Action! Day at this year’s Academy:

Become a Junior Journalist:
Do you love to write? Spend the day with experienced journalists learning how to become the best journalist you can be. Your day will include a small-group writing workshop with journalists from Canadian Living magazine and a tour of the Toronto Star newsroom.

Learn how to use theatre for change:
Learn to use your dramatic talents for social change. Limber up alongside a professional theatre troupe from Mozambique that uses their art to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS, and then create a short performance piece of your own!

Build a house with Habitat for Humanity:

It’s time to hammer, haul and saw your way to a world where every family has the opportunity to own a home. Spend a day helping to build a new house for a local family.

Free The Children
Spend a day at the Free The Children International Office and see where the magic takes place. Leave the office with your own Free The Children action plan, and get ready to make a positive social impact in your community.

Other issues to be tackled include environmental activism, child labour, AIDS awareness, TV Media and Equal Family Rights!

If you haven’t already signed up for the Take Action! Academy, it is not too late. There are still a few spaces available. Email academy@leaderstoday.com today.

Have an amazing summer,

The International Trips and Academy Team

Mexican Teen Migrants

Hola amigos,

I just returned from eleven days at Free The Children’s Arizona Wind-Song Leadership Center. Through this amazing leadership training experience I have come to understand many of the complex social, political and economic issues surrounding the United States/Mexico border and what I can do to help. As part of a group of 14 youth from across North America, I travelled from the Center in Arizona to Nogales, Mexico, where we came face to face with issues of immigration and poverty.

We visited a migrant shelter for Mexican youth—these youth had crossed the border illegally, been caught by the border patrol and then sent back to Mexico. We learned that these youth usually leave to get jobs in the United States to help support their families back in Mexico. Sometimes these teenagers travel from their homes in the south of the country all the way to the United States border by themselves.

To cross the border they face a long, hot trek through the desert, often ending up being caught and brought back across the border, far away from their families in the south. These youth are left to fend for themselves, and without shelters like the one I visited, they would have nothing.

This experience has changed my view of international borders, the regions surrounding them and the people living in them. I would encourage all youth interested in a perspective-changing experience to sign-up for the Arizona Wind-Song Leadership Center today.

With peace and hope for the future,

Lara Seberras

Kenya: The Honesty of Human Encounters

A great teacher of mine always told me that you can learn more about a person in one hour of play than in a year of conversation. I learned the truth of my teacher’s words in the moments of carefree play with the children of the Enelerai Primary School in the Maasai Mara of Kenya.

While I loved the schoolbuilding and teaching we did, I learned more about myself and about humanity during these informal and intense encounters than any other part of the trip.

I’d like to share one experience during the trip that had a profound impact on me. Below is my journal entry from that evening.

May 26, 2006

Today started out a day like all others, but turned out to be like none of the rest. I woke up to what sounded like a thousand birds chirping. I felt the cool breeze of Kenya’s winter and I climbed out of bed and greeted the day. Breakfast was as usual—cereal, warm toast and fresh fruit. Today I tried passion fruit for the first time. It was delicious!

This morning we were invited to be a part of Friday morning prayer service at the school we’re working at: Enelerai. As we approached the buildings, we could hear a multitude of young voices belting joyous words into the clear morning sky: “We are one in the Spirit,” they chanted. They sang and clapped and praised in Kipsigi, the local language.

We entered the crowded classroom and made our way to the back. Most of the children were about six years old and watched us intently. I will never forget the feeling of having all those little hands holding on to mine as I looked into their bright, joyful eyes. One by one, we each thanked them for allowing us to be part of the service, and I could see the eyes of my trip-mates well up with tears. The strength and tone of the young female service leader astounded and captivated me, even though I did not understand what she was saying.

As we left the service, a group of the smallest children pulled my hand—four on each arm—taking me to their classroom. They laughed so much and I laughed. I sat with them and we played, tapping our hands until the teacher finally came. I greeted him, said goodbye and walked toward the schoolbuilding site. The effervescent joy created by such human encounters touched my spirit and made me want every human encounter I have to have that level of honesty.

I’m pretty sure I helped build a school for the rest of the day, but after my experience with those little ones, everything was a blur.

~Annamaria Enenajo