The GYC kicks off on Monday!
Excitement is in the air as the third annual GYC kicks off on Monday!
The Global team, Youth Committee and intern facilitators have been busy getting everything in order for what will be their biggest conference yet.
It’s not often that young people are given a platform to express their opinions on important world issues or given the opportunity to seek practical resolutions to build a better future.
But the GYC provides this opportunity, and more.
Bringing together 130 young people from across the world, spanning 18 different countries, the GYC will this year focus on building a sense of global citizenship in these young people.
The young people will be split into groups and attend two workshops each. This year’s workshop topics are gender equality, cultural stereotypes and racism, fake news and climate change. These issues each have their complexities and elicit many different opinions from people around the world. Therefore participants will gain a deeper understanding and learn different perspectives on issues they may have previously not considered.
In this way, participants will begin their journey as global citizens, understanding the importance of taking in different perspectives and learning about other cultures.
Timothy Koh from Singapore participated in the first ever GYC in 2015 and has returned this year as a GYC facilitator.
“Coming back two years later and seeing how the conference has grown has been really mind boggling,” he says.
Tim explains the benefits of spending time with people from other cultures goes deeper than just making new friendships.
“I feel that the exchange of ideas helped me to broaden my world view,” he says.
“Too often we have a certain view of the world or a set way of thinking because of the way we grew up, or because of things that we have experienced. However at the GYC, we are able to discuss these views with other people of different backgrounds. Doing this helps us see things differently, and can help us reach a better solution when trying to improve ourselves, or the world around us.”
Tim is working on the fake news workshop, and hopes that participants will leave feeling better equipped to critically analyse the news they read and see.
“The facilitators have worked really hard on the content and activities for their workshops, and we’re excited to bring them to the participants.”
The GYC this year is held at both Osaka YMCA headquarters in Tosabori and the YMCA Global Learning Centre at Mount Rokko, from 7-11 August.