GLAD
TO BE OF SERVICE
On completing their education,
Baha'i youth are encouraged to spend a year in voluntary service
in their home country or abroad.
Some serve at Baha'i schools,
radio stations, literacy or socio-economic development projects,
while others work with non-governmental organisations such
as the United Nations or VSO.
In the past three years,
British Baha'i youth have spent a year of service in Brazil,
western Samoa, Chad, Israel, South Africa, China, Canada,
France, Swaziland, Zambia, Honduras and Germany. Barry Thorne,
a Baha'i from Pershore in Worcestershire, spent a year in
Ecuador. He writes of his experiences, and those of some of
his fellow volunteers:
"I arrived in Ecuador
on January 21 - the day that revolution reached its height,
overthrew the president and put Gustavo Naboa in his place.
I was about to start my year as a volunteer, teaching children's
classes in one of the most rural parts of the country.
"Many Baha'i service
projects focus on children's education. In Brazil, some of
the British volunteers have helped out at the international
'School of the Nations' in Rio. The school is run on Baha'i
principles of developing each child's capacity for knowledge
within the context of service to humanity.
Over 30 nationalities and ethnic groups are represented in
the student body, forming a beautiful sea of human colour
and diversity every day.
"Schools across Africa
have also received visits from British Baha'i youth. Some
have graduated as teachers, but others offer their skills
as musicians or artists, while others help with supervision
and maintenance."
Many British Baha'i youth
choose to volunteer at home rather than abroad, Barry says,
or find a way of combining both.
"One of my friends
divided his year between Germany and his native Scotland,
teaching break-dancing workshops," he says.
"The dances are incorporated
into plays about issues that challenge today's youth - such
as racial and gender equality, the dangers of drug abuse,
and the importance of overcoming prejudices - and youth who've
been through the workshops can perform them in schools to
engage the interest of other young people in overcoming these
challenges."
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