The journey has just begun with an amazing start, through the help of the Global Changemakers. Learning so much at LACYS 2010, I came back to my country, Trinidad and Tobago with mountainous energy to do much more for the youth of my country. I was infected with the positive virus and I didn’t knew until I infected others.

Time to Grind!

Fueled and Inspired, I set out to form something(didn’t know as yet) that would help the youth of my country become more involved in helping others but what..

Acquiring even more experience from the Summit, I sought to start my own Non-Governmental Organisation, which would aid in my goal, to develop the potential of the youth of Trinidad and Tobago. Literally scratching my head to get a name that would epitimize what I wanted to do, who am I going to infect with my positive virus, where I want to make the change. The name took a while to come around but it did after tickling my medulla oblongata; I decided to go with was International Movement for Change (IMC). Which seeks to develop Social Entrepreneurs.

British Council Projects

Currently I am working on two projects sponsored by the >Global Changemakers through the British Council. One is called Brother By My Side (BBMS) where we go into battered boys and girls homes, being the male positive influence in their lives. Training these youth to become future Social Entrepreneurs by giving back to the community what was bestowed upon them. They in return will go to other batterd homes and be role models and thats how the cycle will continue.
The other project called a Regional Action Project (RAP) which is based on Social Inequities in the region. Currently I am working with various Global Changemakers from Latin America; where we teamed up to battle these inequities in our various countries.

Together WE ALL can MAKE a DIFFERENCE!

Cristo Redentor!

The final, final day is finally here. So many good byes, so many tears but we have had many cheers because of our new found GCM family. The moments we shared was priceless and the bonds we made are unbreakable.

My last day was spent with three of my friends had and extra day in Rio! We had the privilege of seeing the Cristo Redentor Christ the Redeemer (statue). It was an amazing site to behold. People from all over the world venture to see this magnificent statue.

History of the Cristo Redentor

Christ the Redeemer (Portuguese: O Cristo Redentor, formerly Portuguese: Christo redemptor) is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; considered the largest Art Deco statue in the world.The statue is 39.6 metres (130 ft) tall, including its 9.5 meter (31 feet) pedestal, and 30 metres (98 ft) wide. It weighs 635 tons (700 short tons), and is located at the peak of the 700 metres (2,300 ft) Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city. It is one of the tallest of its kind in the world (The statue of Cristo de la Concordia in Cochabamba, Bolivia, is slightly taller). A symbol of Christianity, the statue has become an icon of Rio and Brazil.It is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone, and was constructed between 1922 and 1931.

Its back to our various homes now. Time to impart, infect and impact positive change in our communities, societies, countries, region and the rest of the world. Global Changemakers making that needed difference in the world!

My LACYS Experience

Since the first day I never knew, at LACYS
That 60 people will become like glue
Day one was an introduction to something grand
I was amazed by the God’s master plan,

One by two we trickled in, to the scene
Where we met Roberta and Louise, the facilities
Was amazing, even a guy name Shane from Zimbabwe was dancing,
While drinking some juice and eating sweets I met a girl name Sharie
From Jamaica we go straight to Saint Kitts and Nevis Von Dez was a stitch

Unto the bus we go from Hotel Novo Mundo
To Teresopolis with my first senorita Yasmin
From Egypt to Bogota , I met my first mama sita!
Maria from Colombia was fantastic just as Olga.

A phototakerouter was just as beautiful a person as in her pics, intruded,
By Shekeb always in my pics, but an energetic dancer
The life of the party, Leo on we go till My Beatiful Face sang by Andy comes on
Till dawn, he goes sing that same song. But I didn’t burst his bubble
What trouble did we all get into when we went to bed after two.

Tired as hell, couldn’t wake up until we hear Jermain’s trumpet
In the hall rushing to do our morning’s energizer by John
What fun, it was socializing with everyone, event a Pet
Piper, was Lucia’s Baby nothing came between that beautiful team,
At lunch we caucused about the issues we discussed at our group meetings.

Speaking about factors that affect us in our society,
So we separated and my group had an IDENTITY,
Problem in the Latin America and Caribbean community
So we wrote a song and sang it from our hearts thong,
We impressed Heather our peer facilitator who thought we flowed light as a feather

The LACYS group was Matheus the pianist,
MEME the drummer and Javier the guitarist and Ignacio the saxophonist,
Trinidad, Felipe the monologues
Ruth and Myself the Singers. We so rocked the house!
That back by popular demand we had another performance

Sadiq the tech addict but overcome it with help of his friends
Alonso J Lizaraz, Calleigh Perry,Camila Laurentino,Camila Trigo
Clara Pedroza,Claudia Zegarra,David Riveros Garcia,Diana Quintana Roo
Edmilson Rodrigues, Fabrício Barbosa, Federico Queirolo,Fiorella Belli
Gabriela Aragão, Ghian Tjandaputra Muhammad, Gonzalo Sebastian H
Nicole Szucs G. Maria Huerta, Luis Felipe Kitamura and Lucy Gillett.
Lucas Bulgarelli, Laura Zarta G, Janssen Villian, Jecel Censoro
Italo Ribeiro, Ignacio Rodriguez Hernandez,Angela Maria Strader
Bernardo Busel, Thaís Queiroz, Talita Alves,Uyen Nguyen, Victoria de Mello
Vívian Magalhães Rodrigues, Romina Cabrera,Nimesh Ghimire and Samar Samir Mezghanni
Finally he coped with all that assistance from the amigos

The Journey has finally come to an end and
I made some special friends Hannah Mcveigh,
My scarf is with you and my blessings. I would miss Ireland
And the Caribbean Carly Perryman, Arvis Elaine Mortimer
Jae Nelson, Ashaney Footprints James,
Zuriel Francique even though you weren’t there your spirit was
Sharie Brown, Well “Not Vinny”
Lives in My country so I would not miss he

It was awesome to see the unity amongst we
It has come and gone but not forgotten
Working on RAPs and CAPs helps us connect with each other like clothes to a button
Though so far yet so close our bond is forever.
Global Changemakers!

All Good Things…

Time sure goes quickly when your making a change! Our wonderful journey is coming to an end. I feel so sad and happy at the same time. I have gained so much wonderful, beautiful, intelligent and that I don’t want to part from them. But all good things must come to an end.

LACYS Family

The best moments we share in life are the moments we spend with loved ones. Who would have thought? I would have never thought that I would have gained such a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious family at the Latin America and Caribbean Youth Summit 2010. It has been amazing sharing and learning with my fellow LACYS crew.
The countdown is on for our final days at this beautiful summit. A “Sigh!” echoed through the air whilst my fellow Global Changemakers were making their connections that would be missed in about a 24 hrs. The days flew faster than my plane trip to Rio!
Tonight would be our official final dinner with the rest of the Global Changemakers family. Our venue was the Museum in Rio it was magnificent! The group ventured upstairs where we began to socialize. The place was wonderful, the food was great and the people to be loved.

Real Life Problems

The development continues and I am feeling richer as each day goes by. Sharing ideas and working on sketches. These sketches that we did were presentations based on social issues that are real life problems in Latin America and the Caribbean. We had healthy conversations trashing out our ideas and opinions about these issues.

A Feeling of Inferiority

The group I was apart of had this issue: “Is there a feeling of inferiority in the Latin America?” We went back and fort, up and down with this issue. Some of us agreed that there was a sense of inferiority while others totally disagreed. Riding on the Roller-coaster of knowledgeable opinions, we came to a stop and realized that the main issue is not a feeling but a perception.

People perceive that they are inferior because society makes it like that. We are quicker to believe other opinions of us than our own. That we are not good enough to be accepted as high standard or even considered as a competitor. We (Global Changemakers) also realized that we (Latin America and Caribbean) have adapted most non-native cultures and have replaced it with our own. Our dress, our language and our music are no longer something originated by us but by the stereo types. We completely adapt other cultures as ours as a result we don’t know our own IDENTITY. Our identity is who we are, it is our history, our origin, our people and our skin..When we adapt cultures of which they are not of our own we LOSE our Identity.
 

 

LACYS Song

For the sketches we had some fantastic presentations. The group that I was apart of came up with a song that was that was endorsed as the LACYS song. It was about our identity, if we let people say who we are and believe it our if we are what they think we are. We also had a special from one of our very own GCM’s Matheus Ortega. In his own ministry he represents Christ in a meaningful way.
 

 

Festa Junia

The final highlight of the day was the Festa Junia, or the Junine party (one of many typical Brazilian feasts) where all the Global Changemakers took time to relax and have fun, as well as to celebrate their final day in Teresopolis before heading out to Rio the next day for the final two days of the Summit.

Social Entrepreneur Market

I am learning so much at this summit that my brain is overloading. Yesterday we (Global Changemakers) went to the Social Entrepreneurship market and got a few items to develop ourselves. So far I have developed skills in Proposal Writting, Media Relations, Project Management and Presentation skills. Everyday is like a fresh rose waiting to be open by the rays of the sun . Having new experiences, meeting people from all over the world, learning about youth activism in other countries.

How others do it?

Today, we had the chance to hear Eugenio Scannavino, a Brazilian Social Entrepreneur, talking about his own experience. He describes himself has a “problematic” person! He contextualize us to the visits to Brazilian organizations in the favelas.
 

Brief History of Afro Reggae

I had the pleasure of attending Afro Reggae.
The Afro Reggae Cultural Group (GCAR) was initiated in January 1993 with a newspaper called the Afro Reggae News – whose objective was to create a means to diffuse information aimed at valorizing and spreading black culture, specifically for youth connected to rhythms such as reggae, soul, hip hop, etc.

In 1993 we inaugurated our first Culture Community Center in the favela of Vigário Geral, which began to develop our social projects aiming to have a direct intervention with the Afro-Brazilian population. Soon after, this same center was consolidated through its first programs that included; dance, percussion, recycling, soccer and capoeira, which later opened the door to new commissions.

Since the beginning and until the present day the objective that defined our institutional mission was clear: To offer a cultural and artistic formation for the youth living in the favelas (shantytowns/ slums) as a means for them to create their own citizenship and have access to alternatives to narco-trafficking and menial jobs, and to furthermore transform themselves and empower other youths along the way.

With the passing of time, the projects began to be perfected, an institution began to grow, and results began to appear. In 1997, Afro Reggae inaugurated the Afro Reggae Cultural Center Vigário Legal, which was an important step in our history. With a physically well-structured space in our community, our work could be developed with bettor quality and planning. In this process this initiative became an attributing socio-cultural practice in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Afro Reggae
 

I was so inspired by what I have seen here, the social changes that these people are creating and developing are phenomenal. Youth from all over the favelas came to hear and view the “Afro Reggains” in their full color and when I say color I mean color. It was a marvelous sight to behold and to be in there presence was an experience I will never forget.

Germination of Knowledge

As each days passes, my knowledge and excitement increases, and I am really enjoying all of my new experiences here in Brazil . Today we separated into the various youth activism groups in which we wanted to get involved in and learn more about it and how it affects others regionally. Also based on yesterday’s sessions, the group decided on the issues they consider most urgent and most accessible for youth activism.

Expanding our Boundaries

Some of the groups were: Social Empathy, Social Inequity, Access to Education and Poverty. These were some of the issues selected by our peer facilitator. This programme created an oppourtunity for everyone to consider issues which may not be the main focus of their activism, but have a bearing or influence on the work they do.

“The world celebrates every 60 seconds the death of another HIV victim. We chose to celebrate every 30 seconds an inspiring experience in an elevator pitch.” said Samar Mezghanni.

The Gift of Gab

We had a fantastic time learning and training ourselves for media and also drilling ourselves with the elevator pitches. Practising to sell our ideas in 30 seconds was difficult but not an impossible task for a Global Changemaker.

El Profesor

The Global Changemakers welcomed a guest: Prof. Jacques Marcovitch from the University of Sao Paulo.

Professor Jacques Macovitch enlightened the Global Changemakers with a lecture. We had the pleasure of hearing his views about how to bridge the gap between the issues on the ground and the bigger regional picture.

Cultures Galore!

It was so amazing learning about different cultures that exist all over the world and also about their activism.
 
Today we departed for Hotel Alpina, located in Teresopolis, in the mountains of Brazil , where to official GCM work begins. We delved deeper into what is a Global Changemaker, Community Action Projects (CAP´s) and Regional Action Projects (RAP´s). There was also brief about media interviews and should we present ourselves during the summit.
 

 

Speed Dating!

Today was the first day I have ever attended a speed date! An Activism speed date that is.
 

We were two equal circles (the inside circle facing the outside circle) each person opposite one another had a minute to talk about their socail and community projects. After 2 minutes the bell went and they moved round the circle to form another pair and repeat the process. It was really fantastic and fun learning and sharing our desires and hopes. It felt like a real short date. It was amazing!

Community Issues

Later in the afternoon we engaged in healthy discussion about issues in our various communities. We worked on sketches which were on the topics of these issues and created both lively discussions, visual displays to express what we discussed.

Brazilian Art of Capoeira

The day wrapped up with the Capoeira dancers , a traditional Brazilian dance which combines martial arts, music and dance.
 

The rhythms of the dancers and the atmosphere of the Changemakers were hard to resist. The history of the origin of Capoeira was truly astonishing.

Message from GCM family

“Welcome to the Latin America and Caribbean Youth Summit! We are very much looking forward to spending the coming week with all of you. Although we feel we already know a little through your application, the biographies and pictures you sent in and through , we look forward to getting to know you better and to working with you during the next few days .”

For those of you who are getting to know Brazil for the first time, our host country is a facinating place indeed- one of the wold’s fastest growing economies, it’s diverse population numbers over 190 million (about 190 times bigger than Trinidad & Tobago! )- and is the fifth largest country in the world.
 

 
Brazil is rich in history, culture, art, music, geography, wildlife- and has its share of problems as well, including a 20% poverty rate (all the more need for Changemakers to roll up their sleeves and get to work). For this week I hope that the visits that we make in Rio and the surrounding areas will give us at least a sense of the facinating and complex place it truly is- and that it will inspire us to do more in our own communities. Brazil’s current President, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (known as Lula) is the 35th President of Brazil (and ran unsuccessfully for office three time before being elected- an example of not giving up on one’s dream). For the politics buffs among you, Roberta, Graeme or Jim for more details!”
Click to view slideshow.
The Latin America and Caribbean Youth Summit is a tremendous opportunity for us and we should make the most of it! We are here to work and also to get to know one another and have fun. Lets chat and say how our first day was? What was it like being in Rio? Was it your first time? What have you learnt thus far?How was your night at Hotel Novo Mundo ? Lets share with the world!!!

We have all traveled; many of us from far and near; to be with our fellow Global Changemakers familia. Countries like Egypt , Northern Ireland , St Kitts & Nevis , Colombia , Bolivia and off course Trinidad and Tobago are representing in their full colors. El lugar es muy Magnífico (The place is very Magnificent), well while I’m here why not learn a lil spanish.

So my fellow GCM, lets tell the world about our experiences; how was our travel plans organised? What flights did we take? What airline we took? How many hours we were in the air? What new places we visited? What new cultures we learnt? What challenges we face? Also who are the most influencial people you have meet thus far and why are you intrigued by their precence at the Global Changemakers Latin America Youth Summit 2010. Rio we are here!!!
Click to view slideshow.