Youth Festival 2006: an event to promote the concept and practice of responsibility among the youth

The Philippine Team facilitating the Charter of Human Responsibilities is organizing a Youth Festival on December 1-3, 2006 in a camping site in Taytay, Rizal, in the outskirts of Manila, Philippines. A total of 100 participants aged 15-20 from all around the Philippines shall join the event.
The large majority of participants shall come from underprivileged sectors like indigenous peoples, fisher folks, urban poor, rural poor, peasants, workers, and public school children. Participants shall be chosen among community or school leaders who are committed to share the lessons and experience of the Youth Festival to their colleagues.

Theme of the festival is: “Weaving Responsibilities to Respond to the Challenges of the Times”.

The general objective is to promote the notion and practice of responsibility among youth leaders, in connection with advocating for a Charter for Human Responsibilities.
The specific objectives are:

1. To come up with a Youth Covenant on Responsibilities outlining how the young can respond to the challenges facing society today.

2. To raise the consciousness of the participants on environmental, education, peace, rights and identity issues.

3. To promote cultural and social exchange among young people from diverse socio-cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.

4. To start the process of advocating for the Charter for Human Responsibilities among youth organizations.

The Festival shall tackle four themes to be discussed by four workshop groups. These themes include environmental sustainability, peace and rights, education for all, and identity.
The workshop on Environmental Sustainability shall discuss global and national issues that lead to environmental degradation and disasters, and strategies by which to take care of Mother Earth. It shall also pinpoint the relationship of environmental sustainability and the sustainability of the human race and other living things.
The workshop on Peace and Rights shall discuss issues of conflict, justice and peace on a global and domestic scale as well as issues on human rights and rights of a child.
The workshop on Education for All shall include issues on the quality of education the youth are receiving in the home, in school and in society-at-large. It shall also delve into issues on access to education for all and the relevance of education to life skills and becoming a responsible and productive citizen of society.
The workshop on Identity shall include questions on national identity, cultural identity, gender identity, identity as a young person as well as issues on modernity and commercialism.

The methodologies shall include visual presentations, team building activities, cultural presentations, division of participants into four workshop groups and division of these workshop groups into three smaller discussion groups to ensure greater participation, using creative forms of presenting workshop results, ice breakers, sharing sessions, solidarity night, orientation, video presentation, and daily evaluation of activities.

Speakers to the Festival shall be child advocate Ms. Amihan Abueva of ECPAT-Philippines (ECPAT is the acronym for End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), sociologist-feminist Dr. Sylvia Guerrero of the Center for Women Studies, University of the Philippines (U.P.), environmentalist Jun Quicho of Tanggol Kalikasan, educator specializing in children-friendly education Feny delos Angeles-Bautista of the Community of Learners, feminist-trainer Nini Tolentino of the Zone One Tondo Organization, and social development specialist Aleli Bawagan of the Department of Community Development, College of Social Work and Community Development (CSWCD), U.P.
Facilitators include artist and specialist in indigenous oral traditions Grace Nono and social worker-academician Joyce Caragay of the Department of Social Work, CSWD, U.P.

Youth participants shall be bringing with them exhibits of their crafts and products and photo-documentation of their work Output shall be a Youth Covenant expressing the responsibilities the young people are willing to undertake for the betterment of society.