 Global Youth Service Day
[GYSD] is an annual event that brings together youth from around the
globe in volunteer and service learning activities. GYSD aims to:
- BUILD the capacity of an international network of organizations that promotes youth participation, service, and learning;
- EDUCATE the public, the
media, and policy-makers about the year-round contributions of young
people as community leaders around the world;
- MOBILIZE youth and adults to meet the needs of their communities through volunteering; and
- LEARN and share effective practices in youth service, youth voice, and civic engagement in the world today.
iEARN youth and educators from around the globle
organize, coordinate and carry out community service activities for
their schools, local communities, charities and more. Students
feel empowered by volunteering their skills in order to make a better
community. For more information about GYSD, visit http://www.gysd.net/home/ |
GYSD 2006 iEARN ACTIVITY
 iEARN Egypt Students Volunteer for 7 GYSD Events: Beginning
in March, iEARN Egypt youth joined forces to celebrate GYSD by lending
their hearts, skills and talents to local organizations and
charities. Students volunteered their time to work with orphans,
cancer patients, help with illiteracy, and more. Coordinated by iEARN
Egypt staff and teachers, students engaged in activities that helped
them realize and understand the power of giving back to one's
community. The seven events students particpated in are (Click HERE for photos from iEARN Egypt's GYSD events):
- Giving a Hand - visit to an orphanage and senior home.
- Draw a Smile - visit to a medical research facility for cance patients.
- For a Better Tomorrow
- visit to El Salam Charity where students met with staff to discuss
the illiteracy problem in Egypt. Also for this event, students
participated in a tree planting day, and collected donations for
children in need.
- Orpan Day
- an event where students spent the day with 50 orphans. Students
partnered with RLS Good Doers, and brought orphans toys, games, and
sweets. Students also invited the orphans for a lunch.
- Welcoming Neighbors
- Victory College invited iEARN youth for a day of learning.
Students visited the school and took part in discussions, explored the
school's facilities, and visited the school library.
- Illiteracy Elimination - Zahran Schools worked with illiterate woman teaching them to read and write.
 The iEARN team from Hafez Ibrahin School shared the following after their GYSD Giving Hand Event in Cairo:
"We didn't have
any idea that a simple visit from us to the senior citizen home and the
orphange could cause all this happiness not to them, but also a great
joy for us. It was extremely joyous for us to be with them because we
discovered that giving is such a wonderful thing to people who really
need it. So we have taken more steps in this matter to complete our
mission through giving more feel like one family..."
 Pakistan Students Visit Quake Affected Areas:
This year, GYSD was a special event for not only celebrating youth
coming together for service  learning and activity; but also celebrating
the kindred
hearts youth felt for their peers affected by the 2005 earthquake in
Northern Pakistan. Beginning in March 2006, students from the
Qadim Lumiere School in Peshawar and schools in Islamabad visited quake
affected areas. Groups consisting of 10 students and two to three
teachers each visited a site and engaged in a variety of service
learning or volunteer activities such as youth teaching children
painting, singing songs, dancing, community clean-up, and reading and
writing. A total of 40 students and approximately 10 teachers
took part in service activities in Peshawar.
Click HERE to read GYSD student reflections.Click HERE to watch iEARN Pakistan's GYSD video. (64mb)
 Lebanese Youth Organize 5th Annual Environmental Conference:
As part of GYSD 2006, 13 schools across Lebanon organized and
participated in a youth conference focused how technology can help the
environment. Using the iEARN project YouthCaN as a platform,
students produced plays, facilitated workshops, and discussed the
benefits of online collaborative learning. Workshop topics
included: Magnetic Fields, Solar Energy, Water Pollution, the Bird Flu,
Global Warming, Recycling, Impact of Tourism on the Environment and
more. Each workshop shared various community service activities and
awareness campaigns that youth in Lebanon can engage and take part
in. A total of 29 presentations were delivered in addition to two
live videoconferences between youth in Lebanon and students in Egypt and
the United States.
YouthCaN students
continue to carry the GYSD theme throughout the year by organizing
nature hikes, providing information sessions about the environment and
how to help and engage students in online discussions through iEARN project
forums. To join the YouthCaN Project or for more information,
click HERE.
 Bahrain's Khwala Girls' Secondary School Distribute Food and Clothing:
20 girls from the Khwala Girls' Secondary School volunteered two full
days to distribute clothing and food supplies to those in need.
Prior to GYSD, several presentations were given school-wide to announce
GYSD and explain its goals and meaning to youths around the globe.
Students of the Khwala school also organized fundraisers to help raise
money to purchase the food supplies, and families donated clothing for
distribution. On April 20th and 21st, these 20 students were able
to help 15 families in Bahrain in need of assistance.
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Global Connections & Exchange Program (GCE) is made possible through support and funding from the US State
Department's (DOS) Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). It
is a part of iEARN-USA's BRIDGE project which is committed to
connecting students and teachers in the US to those in countries with
significant Muslim populations |
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July 12-18, 2008
Bukhara, Uzbekistan
All are welcome to attend.
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