In conversation: Counsellors on youth and social transformation

you're listening to the Baha'i World's new service during a conference at the Baha'i World Center groups of Continental counselors joined in conversations that were recorded by the Baha'i world news service for a series of podcasts on Youth and social transformation the advancement of women and on behind moral and spiritual education programs in this episode counselors musonda kapuselen cell from Zambia they realize that actually their true identity is that of being a human being and that of being Noble from Greece we all see what happens when you Empower youth Rafaela Capozzi from Italy we are building a new way of thinking about the future Bob ale from Samoa these youths are at the heart of this process engaging in the lives of young people as well as their families from Azerbaijan it was amazing to see how you space is created in various communities and Aya for aya4 from Canada we have whole Generations from 10 years now who are accompanying each other through the process explore the ways youth are contributing to social transformation in their communities through engaging in Baha'i initiatives for moral and spiritual education so much of society is about maybe sometimes seeing youth in a negative light seeing them as somehow rebellious or apathetic or um you know and and yet I think we've all experienced we all see what happens when you Empower youth how they have this thirst um for knowledge and learning about the world they want to contribute don't they to a better world and they have also this passion for justice and so when they're somehow given the space and you know help to sort of look at how can they contribute then we just see these amazing amazing outcome and I'm sure you've all got experiences where you live of that kind of things it's interesting you mentioned that because we we see it in all many of the communities where traditionally the voices of Youth were suppressed in a sense you know you're you're not um you don't speak unless you're asked but um through the educational process the youth were able to explore Concepts such as service whether selfless service and when they started to express this their understanding of selfless service into action the community especially the leaders gave them recognition so for example in some of these settings the the pandemic really exacerbated this sense of hopelessness and many families were in a way deprived of Social Services um but youth had this resilience and and you know they they as you mentioned the I said what's office of apathy just um it took initiative yeah they took initiative they saw what the needs of their communities and because they they had this understanding of being able to to contribute um and they saw the needs you know quickly they they um wanted to explore with many other families the concept of mutual cooperation or existed for example and it's interesting uh like food security was a was an issue in you know Islands um ships weren't coming in because of the pandemic and many families were struggling to make to meet um their needs but just by socializing with with other families talking to them what would it look like if our families combine our resources so it's interesting how they they initiated this and then they they identified uh you know passive lands with these families um and and and you know when we also learned is that youth created the space um and now the community is taking ownership of that space because they saw the the benefits of families coming together uh to talk about their aspirations talk about the needs and to work together to meet those needs um and just just in a recent months they had the Harvest um and and they they wanted to sell it but when reflecting some of them they said that not men not not all the families benefited from from this Collective Plantation so they said okay how can we engage more and and when I was reflecting with one of the the new family that has recently joined they said because of this there's a sense of love love you know amongst the community but also there's this sense that um true love means creating room for others to to join foreign [Music] I think we were reflecting earlier many of us have seen many of these young people who've come up and in fact defining learning to Define their Identity or realize recognize their identity through the process of helping those who are younger than them so you have a young person who comes into a program in the summer for example and at the beginning they're envious of their friends who are playing soccer or different things but then by the end of the summer they're holding they're teaching children's classes teaching Junior schools I mean we have young people who every day of the week they're coming back after school and they're dedicating a lot of time to working with with those who are younger than them and not thinking about it as a burden it's just become part of who of what they are I was going to say something about youth coming together like even in large numbers is so encouraging for the Youth because they feel that they somehow you know the support they give to each other um whereas um a lot of the time they have had this isolation not just because of pandemic but just generally you know um just feeling quite alone not being able to find a friendship group and now being in a larger group and feeling part of a movement a youth movement and then how the conversation changes and maybe at the beginning the conversation is about a lot of their problems and the things they're dealing with and then there's like this switch is made the moment they start to look at how they can be of service whether that's doing voluntary work for the environment or whether it's very concrete things like I think you mentioned also like helping young younger kids with their homework with their schoolwork offering some kind of support to the younger generation and we found that that just gave a whole sense of purpose to a large group of Youth who felt that time is very precious and how can we actually make our time worthwhile we had a really interesting experience where at one point with the youth we were speaking about the subject of prayer and it's it was very alien to many of the youth and so quite a few of the youth were saying you know I'm atheist another one was saying I don't believe in prayer I've never done prayer you know I've never been comfortable with it or they they Associated prayer with a very specific format you know and um and then they started teaching children's classes and helping with the spiritual and sort of moral empowerment and education of children and in within that framework they were talking to the children about prayer you know and suddenly you see these youth coming back and reflecting and going I need to learn about this subject I need to you know how can I talk about it if I'm not you know moved by this or I'm not trying it and we saw a lot of this kind of transformation where then youth would come and say actually prayer is really cool I I use it in my everyday life now and it was because of the children that are used you know got inspired to use to use prayer and how now some of these youth are thinking about even taking a year out before they go to university and um staying in the neighborhood and really offering um like a year to help these processes become stronger and yeah it's really beautiful beautiful transformation I think that there is this natural aspiration of nobility in human being and then for youth is quite fast to realize that this is inside us that human beings have this wonderful qualities and talents and the real power that we have is Power of Love Power of justice so you can use this power can change the world very quickly and this is something that is not so present in the society so when you look at human beings as an animal and they can't do much more than think about their own interests and you can change completely the perspective these change of the entire picture so it's so exciting to see that this can be very fast you know Raphael you just mentioned something about nobility and it's one of the things in for instance where I come from this question of equality of men and women and how women are not considered equal to men because it is felt like their capacity is much lower in in this Village we the youth have been learning you know about how to ensure that the the male youth do not leave the women's youth behind it was of course discovered that there was such a disparity you know between the the the male and the female in the village and so the youth made it such a bit such a conscious effort that whenever um whatever program for instance that is empowering youth as much women or as much young ladies you know are included and in this particular Village before when you when you visit they would be in a space there would be mostly male Youth and also the male youth will be the ones who would go a little bit further in in terms of education but now because of this consciousness of that you know of the equality you know of men and women we have seen so many young ladies who have these aspirations you know to become educated and they're actually pursuing their education and when we visited we we asked them so what what are your aspirations and you know they say that society looks at them as empty brains you know but then whilst whilst they they were engaged in this process they discovered that their actual gems and their in the gems of inestimable value they are also protagonists you know of changing their community and so they know that they have uh just as much capacity as the boys have and you can really see in this community that there's such a transformation at the level of culture because uh even the parents now are seeing that oh our girls do have the same capacity as our boys so another thing is when we're having conversations with these young girls before would be when you ask them like what for instance when you finish studying um your your secondary school we call it secondary school back home what would you like to study and a lot of them are speaking about you know I would like to study something that will make me um benefit you know my community so I would and I don't want to leave my Village because I want to make sure that I contribute to those who are um to the life the uplifting the spiritual and the material life of the community so that those who are coming behind me can also have the same aspirations and contribute to the community so they they would like to study most of them would like to be teachers because they feel that the role of a teacher in society is very important and really the teacher is the one who instills you know a lot of um desire you know for Learning and so some of them would like to become um Farmers but then using the good technology farming as well as a traditional technology or farming so you can see that really the conversation is really changing in this community and everyone is seeing themselves as equal and and that everyone has the capacity to contribute to the to the betterment of that community foreign powerful to see material and spiritual progress in the same pattern same perspective I was thinking also for the Youth in our society how important it is to see the science and religion that go together because we of course we have a lot of trust in a scientific solution of many problems like environmental problems and healthy health problems but then we are starting observing that the spiritual part is missed and they use immediately realize how important it is to have these spiritual and the spiritual principles and qualities that are needed to solve problems so it's not possible it's not that we don't have the scientific solution of the problem big problems that the world have but if we don't use capacity of collaboration Unity of mankind the Justice in the world it's impossible to solve the problems and for them is so clear that in a few minutes they are able to identify next steps and again find New Hope for some challenge challenge and problems that we are facing we want the betterment of the word in the in both perspective and this is one reality is something that I really appreciate and then it's easier to think education in the same in combining with service Family Life economical life many things of their life that can become one I think all these things are touching on on this question of how Society is advancing the advancement of civilization which of which the young people are the four so like the principles of consultation working together as a whole group and and in the thing in consultation is that when you have a group of people who are working together and they're they're looking at all the dimensions coherently it's like my what I have to I need help with my homework also I need to study I need to work with others and we accompany each other and when they face obstacles they consult and the consultation allows them to chart a path forward based on certain principles and those principles can be scientific but the principles are also based on spiritual teachings and as you mentioned the qualities that they the race so that the power of the youth movement is is is not just that the youth are are becoming enlightened to their capacity but they're becoming enlightened to their capacity together working together as a group and they're under and as they're doing it because they're doing it with a generation that comes after them and then it's like generation upon generation that is building and it's it's kind of building on the shoulders of each other because we're not going to consult about a problem multiple times we'll solve it I will move ahead but we will we'll encounter other ones and then we and but then we've built our capacity to to address the other ones [Music] I would never forget one story while mother shared that she was suffering with her kids in her home and she was trying to be perfect mother the child for each or for three children do everything for them pack lunch and have like cook have home and also say at the same time try to read something and then at certain stations so that this is something is is wrong then these two mothers came together let's come together during certain hours during a week and how our common space children are together we're doing many things together and how we help each other so we felt that children they brought some quotes from children classes to those spaces and then everybody started caring about each other how I do I care about my mother when she is tired what like how can I participate or what they can do to help my young sister with with her house the homburg that mother can have more time for herself or to spend some to cover her basic needs or on the amazing change for me was how fathers getting in coming to this area we know that fathers are all day they are trying to particularly in The Villages try to assist with the with income but having them as part of that conversation they actually help them also to be closer to their children to fill their children more and also help them also to overcome that uh gap between ages and build constructically door relations so I enjoyed visiting that Community I mean the children came are we coming to consult about I have topics to start with so when previously when I visited I I did not see this kind of change when child comes with idea what we can start conversation about an SOC um this these efforts but a youth to help the younger generation and engage in conversations with the parents is is helping in many of our settings and neighborhoods and Villages redefine what family means so like one example of of a family in one of the neighborhoods in San Juan um the the daughter was just didn't have this inspiration to go to you to school anymore and um an animator I've been having conversations with this um you know Junior youth about the reasons why and she felt because her grades are low and you know all these and and other people's inner family they're they're illiterate and so why should I make an effort you know uh this is this it's like this is my identity this is who I'm going to be uh and so and the animator immediately went and and had a conversation with the parents and then the parents realized that many other families have the same issues with their and then they created this space this Gathering of families of the same challenges and then the animated so it's very interesting you know this how we've come to realize that when when these youth are at the heart of this process engaging in the lives of young people as well as their families they they see them as their own so they become one big family in a sense it's interesting because in very different realities we are the same so many youth engage in the same way yeah I think one of the um the things that the youth also uh before this movement we're struggling with is this question of identity and having this identity crisis but then of course having been engaged in this process of uh spiritual material transformation they realize that actually their true identity is that of being a human being and that of being Noble you know and they realize that the whole world is is is is is going towards this uh Oneness and thinking about how the identity really should be the identity of Oneness of of humanity and so we're really seeing now the youth not struggling so much about you know the tribe they belong to or the the their color their ethnic ethnicity or even um in this regard back home gender and this struggle you know for for for for for an identity that is imbued in in Prejudice um I think we have seen that the movement has really created in the youth this Consciousness that we are all one and that everyone has capacities everyone has capacities which need to be unlocked and everyone has something to contribute to this Divine civilization which I for had had referred to earlier on and I think this is as a as a way to move forward the youth as if we bring in more and more use to have this Vision you know for Humanity then of course we will see a communities neighborhoods Villages really flourish um on on the principles you know that will bring about this Oneness you're listening to the Baha'i world news service approaching on major developments and Endeavors of the global Baha'i Community for more information visit news.baha'i.org [Music]

Channel: Bahá’í World News Service

Views: 9,874

Keywords: Bahai, News, Bahai World News Service, Bahai Faith, BWNS, Counsellors, Youth, Social Transformation, Podcast, Conversation, Roundtable, Discussion

Id: 5oNESSsc_bc

Length: 23min 35sec (1415 seconds)

Published: Tue May 23 2023