Newsletter. October'09|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --->Welcome Back Event. April 2nd <--- 
-
What's happened so far - The Workshops
expanded upon these Valuable Lessons: -Mmm
Mmm Turkey! What’s
happening- How
can you help?
What’s
going to happen-
NGA Report
- What's new. Oct 23, 2009 
What’s
happened so far - NGA
experience in Africa. 2009
 VisionA letter from Director The
hope for NextGen Academy International is to widen the consciousness
of American youth and deepen the connection of heart to each other
and to the world, while offering a very tangible good in places
that need assistance. Introduction
Kenya
Tanzania
 Audrey
Martin, Sarah Curry, Aquina Aiga, Chris Groenendyk, Devlin WillisOver the course of our four weeks in Tanzania, our team taught, using Universal Peace Federation’s (UPF) Character Education Curriculum, at a total of 10 schools and NGOs. No matter the school or age group, exchanging ideas, opinions, and even games were some of the most valuable experiences; a process through which empowerment was both given and received and an unforgettable dialogue started. Nursery Schools/Orphanage/Special Needs School For kids of younger ages, we had three lesson plan formats which were easily adjustable and adaptable to each environment. These lesson plans were given at each of the schools (two local schools, Dik Dik International school, Applied Behavior Analysis [ABA; the special needs school], and an orphanage). However, with a nursery school we connected to through an NGO called Zoe Skills Development Foundation, we implemented an additional project started in the States by Raechel Wong in partnership with West High School (WHS) in Torrance, CA called Likeness of Love. Pictures were taken of each of the children in this particular school; the photographs were then sent to the art students attending WHS; the art students will then draw portraits of the kids in Tanzania and send the portraits back with a personalized note/letter on the back, the purpose being to create a connection between students in the States and students in foreign countries. Secondary Schools/Youth-based NGO Though we did teach lesson plans with a focus on leadership, altruism, and long-term vision, a great deal of our focus was to start a dialogue. Many sessions, especially with an NGO we connected to through Youth in Action called the Rafiki Talent Center began with a question or a series of questions to start a thought process about things these youth may have never been given the opportunity to think about or speak openly about. The director of Youth in Action in Tanzania, James Wandera, was especially interested in continuing Character Education and even creating a partnership between NextGen Academy and Youth in Action in Tanzania. Discovering Leadership Seminar Our Discovering Leadership Seminar was an intensive five-day, five hour/day seminar focused on empowering the youth in Tanzania to become leaders in their communities. Each of the members on our team taught a full day focused on one of five aspects of leadership and team building: leadership, mission statements, teamwork, communication, and relationships. We have received a couple requests to return teach the same material to other groups and organizations including a political party. A set of Character Education books and materials were donated to the Tanzania Youth Coalition Library. “We walked through the gate and the whole atmosphere changed. We walked single file along a narrow path that wound around tombstones and through overgrown grasses. We stopped before a huddle of graves marked with the UC symbol, two of them so small. So small. It was the anniversary of the death of our guide’s son who died at a year and nine days. His name is Sungmin. He is a BC. As we prayed in unison, I thought of all the graves we passed, so uncared for, so neglected, so forgotten. In America, Africa is used as a statistic. One can’t think of Africa without attaching loaded words, consciously or not. Africa has become a land without a face, a heart, a soul, a problem that needs to be fixed. I can care about Sungmin, but what makes him any different than anyone else? How many more have been forgotten? Being in Africa opened my mind and heart to the bigger picture. It’s so easy to shrink down and be limited by the boundaries of my own life. These four weeks helped me expand my vision, to see beyond my life, and to dream bigger.” -Audrey Martin (19, 2nd year volunteer) Zambia  Matt
Hill, Jacob Shaw, Johanna Pecarsky, Keisuke KibeMission: To inspire people to start making a difference. We knew it would be challenging but we loved it. We taught a curricular called character education (CE) and set up clubs. These clubs would keep teaching and also doing service projects. We went to a total of twelve schools and held two leadershiptraining workshops. Teaching: The first thing we did was setting up appointments to teach at colleges, primary, and secondary schools. We would talk to the headmaster or a representative about the what, why, and how is character education important, in hopes to inspire them about our vision. This was a great foundation for our project and the future. Over the next two and a half weeks we taught at five colleges, four primary schools, and three secondary schools. We taught a variety of lessons a few examples are freedom, responsibility and teamwork. We always made a focused effort to have fun and connect as friends. Through all of this, many people were inspired and came to our big leadership workshop. Leadership Workshops: The leadership workshop was a collection of student from the previous colleges we taught at. We had two different leadership workshops with over 70 people attending in total. The workshop was based on leadership skills, teaching CE, and creating clubs. The purpose was to inspire people to make a difference in their communities and give them the skills to do that. Each workshop was eight hours long and packed with activities and lessons. The first workshop was based on leadership skills and a call to action. The next one was based on how to teach and creating clubs. It turned out very well. Clubs: During the second leadership workshop we created a club called Z-CANGA (Zambian Collegiate Association of the NextGen Academy). It was fit with a chairman, vice, service coordinator, CE college, CE primary/secondary, and a treasurer. The purpose was to keep making a difference in society, through service projects and teaching CE. This club is working on setting up more clubs at more colleges; working on top of the foundation that we laid. It is so inspiring for us to see that our work can keep going. “For me, Africa was about loving people and connecting to their heart. It was so amazing to really make a difference in peoples lives. I remember one day I went outside to play football with the Tiwitanae team and everyone was cutting grass. This was a little out of the ordinary a football them cutting grass, but I decided to join them. We started joking about different things, just random things but in that moment I realized how we had actually become friends, real friends. I was no longer the kid that was always the center of attention because I was white and foreign. I was just their friend. That’s what I feel could make a difference, just that love as a friend, a real friend from all the way around the world. I know I'll go back one day, but until then I'll use what I gained a step closer into God's love. The adventure is over but I'm sure a new one is about to begin.” -Jacob Shaw (19, 2nd yr volunteer) Rwanda  Manae
Pisano, Josh Schanker, Danniel Baer, Ariana TaylorKnown as “The Land of a Thousand Hills,” Rwanda is lush, fertile and incredibly exotic. Although it has a heavy and tearful history, the culture and people there are truly alive and thriving. My name is Manae Pisano (19 Washington) and I ventured with three others (Josh Schanker, Danny Baer, Ariana Taylor) to Rwanda for 28 days. Our experience was epic and indescribable, and our foot prints of legacy truly inspiring and powerful. As a team our desire and goal was to spark and initiate empowering character education to the youth of Rwanda through using the Universal Peace Federation Character Education Curriculum. We as a team gave various presentations ranging from “Communication and Respect,” “Leadership,” “True Love and Marriage,” to “Gratitude” and “Causes of Family Breakdown.” We hosted two, four day workshops with university students and community leaders in Kigali and Butare Rwanda. Offering various presentations and train-thetrainer sessions to empower and inspire our workshop participants of the necessity and preciousness of character education in young people’s lives. We participated in secondary school sports events and helped facilitate the creation of clubs aiming to continue offering character education to the youth of Rwanda. In addition we worked with a government program called S.C.U.R (Student Club for Unity and Reconciliation) to aid their educational humanitarian efforts of bringing awareness, peace and unity to the people of Rwanda since the 1994 genocide. Rwanda is truly a special country. It is and always will be dear to my heart. A powerful lesson that the whole world can learn from the people of Rwanda is how vital and imperative relationships are, even above money and time. From living and befriending many survivors of the 1994 genocide revealed to me how relationships are what has healed and sustained their spirits. For relationships and communication clears away stagnation, isolation and internal hell and leads to freedom, restoration and deep understanding. God Bless Rwanda and You! Manae Pisano Motoi (19, 2nd year) Report
from RWANDA.
(from 21 Feb'09)
 "There’s a noticeable difference between Burundi and Rwanda almost as soon as we crossed the border. The farming seemed more abundant, the economy more vibrant and there are a greater number of Mizungus (white people, pronounced: muh-zoon-goo – first word in Swahili that we learned as we hear it so often – especially from the kids)." Kigali makes Bujumbura look like a small village but it still has an old-world feel as the streets wind around 3 major hills. We were brought first to the Youth Council, where our dear friend and driver Jean Bosco, from the Burundi Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture was friends with his counterpart here. We arranged to meet with the Minister of Youth, but it didn’t work out as we weren’t able to connect during our short stay.  We went to the New Hope School, a vocational school built by Womens Federation for World Peace in the 90’s. They have a one-year program teaching a practical skill, such as tailoring, cooking or hairdressing and insert some moral education along with it. The Director, Annunciata is really passionate about giving opportunity to those who have none and to redirect the culture of Rwanda to a real culture of heart. There are many emotional, spiritual and physical wounds from the genocide of 1994 but it is clearing up and the different ethnic groups are determined to never go back to that tragic time. We were asked to give a presentation about purity to the New Hope school students and, after some songs, an intro to Character Education by NGA director Jeff Adshead and a talk by Laura Hinkle on the status of purity in the US, Tesia Bobrycki gave a very entertaining and lively skit about protecting her purity using a flower and it’s petals to represent purity. The auditorium of about 150 students and teachers were very uplifted and they decided to hang this flower in their classrooms as a reminder. 
We stayed with the President of Womens Federation of Rwanda, Georgette
Umubyeyi. She lost 11 members of her family in the genocide with
only her and her brother left. It’s hard to fathom what
kind of spiritual burden that can have on someone. However, she
sees that God spared her and is guiding her life.At right: Laura learning to cook – making chips (French fries) - in the traditional outside kitchen. Our guide is a deep-hearted man named Moses Rusa who've been doing public work since early 80’s. He’s a teacher and speaks English, Swahili, French and Kin’Rwanda. His wife is a faithful Catholic. 
We met with the Itorero Organization which is run by the former
Minister of Education. Itorero is the name of the traditional
school system of old Rwanda before the European system came in.
It uses traditional story, song, dance and art to teach about
morals and values. So, they were very inspired by the link or
commonality the CEI has with their philosophy or methodology.
They are just launching in March, so they see our participation
in their development as excellent timing. They will also connect
us with the current Ministry of Education. While at the airport in Dar Es Salaam a couple of weeks earlier, we met a young man from China named Yu Zhu. He works for a cell phone company and is based in Rwanda. He loves Kigali and told us to visit him when we get there. So, we called. He was really happy to see us and took us out for pizza! Mr Zhu is hilarious – he’s been here a year, but hasn’t learned any of the local language, hasn’t been outside of Kigali and, when asked if he eats local food, he said: “Oh sure! Once.” Or “are there many Chinese restaurants here in Kigali?” “Yes, lots. Well, three”. We had traditional clothes tailored for us as well. You pick out the fabric, then bring it to a tailor to custom fit a dress, or shirt, in my case. We went to a tailor who graduated from the New Hope School a few years ago. 
On Saturday, we were asked to give a presentation to the local
community. So in the morning we spoke for about four hours essentially
just answering questions - about NGA, about raising young Generation
and guidance about marriage, in general. We also did a couple
of activities with them to spice it up. In the afternoon, Laura
and Tesia played games and activities with kids in the community.
Many parents sat in and watched.We caught a bus to Kampala early Sunday morning. It was cramped, bumpy and hot, but it was safe and the only real threat was the guy at the border trying to collect 50cents ‘cleaning fee’ to use the very unclean toilet. I feel like Rwanda has a lot of potential. A lot of NGO’s have invested in the country since 1994 and there is a real effort being made to give Rwanda a makeover – especially in the eyes of the international community. Pictured: the hotel made famous in the film: ‘Hotel Rwanda’  Rev
George (who is brother of Moses Rusa) is very happy to have NGA
to come. He, along with Anunciata, Georgette, Marcel (who runs
a newspaper and encouraged us to broadcast CEI on the radio),
Moses and others, made our welcome very warm.They are all eager to learn what we have to offer and to help us accomplish our goals. (left: standards are a bit more loose around here… …Actually it’s where the cold, boiled water is kept.) God Bless! Jeff Adshead. Director, NGA Burundi:
2nd installment.
(report from 10 Feb'09)
 Burundi
was magical. We didn’t want to leave – it was such
a heart-warming experience. We really connected deeply to the
‘Community of Burundi’ School – a boarding school
for Batwa students. The Batwa are a marginalized ethnic group
that has all but been forgotten. We visited two of their villages
– straw huts, dirt floor with a family of 6 living in a
hut about 4ftx10ft. I’ve never experienced such poverty
in my life – and I’ve been in a lot of countries with
poverty. The director of the school where we are staying is Everiste
(pictured below on left with Jean-Claude, our awesome translator).
He came from one of these Batwa villages and got a break as a
teen to be able to attend a Catholic secondary school. He attended
university and from there, petitioned the government to give land
to his village so they could build more solid homes. It seems
that Batwa villages are moved often as the government takes over
the land so they are always having to move and build straw huts
to live in. 
Not stopping there, he connected
with Honorable Liberate a Batwa member of the Senate and AFP
to establish a home for Batwa students and provide for them
to go to school. The Community of Burundi was established last
September and houses about 50 students, sponsored by individuals
and churches in the US. Liberate also houses about 20 orphans
and impoverished kids in her home from each of the three ethnic
groups that make up Burundi Hutu, Tutsi and Batwa. She is working
to raise leaders who see each other as family no matter where
they come from. These people are truly remarkable.  The
Government of Burundi is very open and willing to help. Rev Mwololo
has made good inroads with various officials. We gave about 4
presentations to different government officials. We had a meeting
with Minister of Education there are 3. We met the Minister
of Higher Educ who takes care of universities and teachers college.
Rev Mwololo didn’t know him, but he was very receptive and after
our presentation, he offered whatever help we need to get this
curriculum into the schools. He said he would talk to the other
Ministers (for Primary and Secondary education) to open the door
for us to teach anywhere. 
The Ministry of Youth,
Culture and Sports was particularly friendly. The Minister had
just returned from the ILC in New York and agreed to see us the
next day. As our team wants to start a sports festival, we wanted
to introduce the idea to him. He, and a few other members of his
ministry offered to help. Jean Bosco, the Speaker for the Ministry
and Advisor to the Minister invited our team to stay in his house
when they are there in March. He also drove us to Rwanda. Going
through the border was a painless process as he shook hands with
many officials and got us through very quickly. Bosco, pictured
here on the left, exchanging money with some very sketchy money
changers at the border. But, back in Burundi, at the beach, we were tossing Laura’s volleyball around and met 3 members of the Womens Burundi National Volleyball team. They challenged us to a match we beat them the first game (which they said was their ‘welcome gift’ to us) then proceeded to cream us the next game. The third was pretty close though. It was a lot of fun and we became fast friends. We told them about the Sports Fest and they leaped at the idea of helping to organize it. Interestly, a couple of days later we randomly met the head coach of the team who is from Egypt. I greeted him with Salaam Alaikum and he also encouraged us to connect with him when we return. In fact, he said: ‘let’s play right now. What do you want to play? In my car I have volleyball, squash, football’ … Haha. He was great!  Every Saturday, the whole country gets spends the morning doing some community service work, including the President. We couldn’t find out until that morning where he was going to be so we drove around asking the massive amounts of armed soldiers at roadblocks “Ou es le President?”. We finally found him upcountry in a tiny village down a very rough dirt road, but we were a few minutes too late. He waved at us as he drove by the lone Mizungus (white people) in a crowd of thousands of Africans standing in the Burundi countryside. We then got a flat tire in the middle of the countryside within minutes, there was a crowd of people ready to help and then headed off to visit the Batwa village described earlier. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack the video camera and Laura’s camera battery died, so we have no tangible record of any of this. On our last night in Bujumbura, we sang songs with the Batwa kids, taught them “Blessed Be Your Name” and gave them all bracelets. It was a fond farewell. They’re really precious kids. I wish we could do more for them. 
  
5 show div5
|
Teddy
Sylte, Lisa Anne DeGooede, Alissa Miller, Lisa Anderson, Addison
Smith
Andrew
Edgerly, David Lapres, Vanessa Anderson
“Working
in Kampala, Uganda with Rev. Moses was truly a blessing. Of course
life in Uganda is not easy or comfortable compared to what I am
used to in the US, but with a focus on positivity and service
for a higher purpose, our hearts and minds opened to what the
Peace Embassy had to offer to my life of faith. I am at a point
now in my growth where I am asking a lot of questions with difficult
answers. One of which was: “Why am I going to Uganda?”
I had a hard time figuring out what experience I should expect
or look for. And, as many figure out from experience, I realized
Heavenly Father works in ways we will not expect. But as a father,
He absolutely, and desperately wants to give us the answer we
are seeking. In my five weeks in Africa, I was able to receive
the at least the start to many of those answers, one of which
I will briefly share: I experienced our newest coined phrase,
“One Family Under God!” I drew this picture many times
in my head since the trip. David Lapres and I were spending the
night in a village at Rev. Moses house and I remember closing
the day with Rev. Moses and two other first gen brothers. From
that alone I was overwhelmed by emotion and love. Here I was,
on the other side of the world in a country I never dreamed of
visiting, and yet I felt so at home. I was standing before the
same picture I have at home in Lexington, Massachusetts. The same
flag was hanging from the rafter as the one that waves on our
NGA porch. But what was more familiar and welcoming than the picture
and flag, was the love and warmth of heart. I know we preach about
one family under God but it hit me then and there that our True
Parents really are creating peace and family everywhere.”
Ana
Reid, Melissa Gontijo, Mike Perkins, Sam Roberts
