GYV wins Digital Storytelling contest!

WOW! Global Youth Village won 4th place in the TechSoup Global Digital Story Telling Event for our video entry 30 Ways to Create Peace. Check it out! The video screened in SF last night and they announced winners. From 105+ entries. GYV was one of 5 winners.

Watch it ….30 Ways to Create Peace

Face of Human Trafficking

Human trafficking  is defined as  being tricked, coerced or otherwise removed from a home or country, and then compelled to work with no payment or on terms which are highly exploitative. The practice is illegal in most countries. The victims of human trafficking can be used in a variety of situations, including prostitution, forced labor and other forms of involuntary servitude.

Due to poverty and lack of economic opportunity some people are more susceptible to fall victim to empty promises of job opportunities in other countries. Many of those who accept these offers find themselves in situations where their documents are destroyed, their families threatened with harm, or they are bonded by a debt that they have no chance of repaying.

The prevention of human trafficking requires several types of interventions and community action.  One way that you can help is to start an awareness campaign in your community or local high school! Amnesty International is a non-profit organization that focuses on human rights.  Learn how the youth in your area can start an AI student group at the local high school and recieve an activist toolkit

Saving Lives in Africa

On January 11, 2010, as part of our 30th anniversary, Legacy awarded Dr. Harold Robles, Chairman of Our International Board of Directors, with our 30th Anniversary Service to Humanity Award. More than 25 years ago, Dr. Robles founded the Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities.  After meeting Dr. Albert Schweitzer,  Robles realized his responsibility to the Global Community. He says his inspiration for all his past, current and future work stems from his first meeting with Albert Schweitzer at the age of 11.

In 1999, Dr. Robles co-founded the Medical Knowledge Institute. MKI is a non-profit organization that believes and treats health care as a human right rather than a privilege. Dr. Robles believes that the future of medicine around the world is prevention thru education. An astounding fact is that 10 million children under the age of 5 die every single year from CURABLE diseases. According to the World Health Organization, for each General Practitioner there are 194,000 patients. MKI’s trainers give vital skills to people to treat and prevent diseases. For example diarrhea the number one causes of death to small children in impoverished regions. 13% of the children die from diarrhea. By empowering the people with knowledge today, you are saving the lives of tomorrow. Now that is peace worth building.

Dr. Robles endorses the Global Youth Village as a place where young people can concieve of themselves as social innovators.  All social innovation starts with a goal or dream. GYV is place where you can start to discover your vision and find out how one person can make a difference.

Come to GYV and you can meet people like Dr. Harold Robles.

Support women living with HIV/AIDS by purchasing YOELL exclusive jewelry hand crafted by HIV-infected women in South Africa.  With the money earned they are able to become economically independent and to support their own family.

Common Ground

Oliver from Hungary tells his Global Workshop how he views the election of Obama. During the Salsa dance elective, Rocio and Vicky from Brooklyn teach new moves to their friends.

Every summer in Virginia, at Legacy International’s 80 acre campus with beautiful trees, streams, and cabins, you find young people making friends and finding common ground.

A young man from Baghdad talks about some of the challanges he feels face his country  while Liam from Massachusetts listens.  Jason, a staff member and former college football player, teaches a group of US and internationals American football.  The Green Your World workshop plants a fast growing vegetable in the garden and learns how this plant is grown in the mountains in Indonesia. Amanda the counselor maintains her crown as Queen of Ping Pong despite some heavy competition.  Experience it all at GYV.  Legacy International has been showing youth they can be global citizens for the past 30 years.  Check out the Program Choices.

Essay Contest Rules

Global Youth Village Scholarship Contest

Official Rules

Contest may only be entered in or from the 50 United States and the District of Columbia and entries originating from any other jurisdiction are not eligible. This Contest is governed exclusively by the laws of the United States. You are not authorized to participate in the Contest if you are not located within the United States.

How to Enter the Global Youth Village Scholarship Contest. To enter the Contest, first read the Official Rules below.  Then submit you essay on “How I can use technology to change the World”  with your contact information via mail or e-mail to gyv@legacyintl.org or mail to 1020 Legacy Drive, Bedford, Virginia 24523. The contact information should include your name, mailing address, phone number, birth date (including age), e-mail address. Global Youth Village holds this information as private and will not distribute to any other parties. If you do not include all of the above contact information, you will not be eligible to receive a prize. Sponsor reserves the right to cancel or modify this Contest in the event an insufficient number of entries are received that meet the minimum judging criteria. Winning essays may be posted online at www.globalyouthvillage.org and may be used in Global Youth Village and Legacy International promotional materials.

1. The subject matter of your essay must answer the question “How can I use technology to change the world.” All entrants must have a valid email address. Limit one (1) entry per person and only one entry for the same essay. All entries become the sole and exclusive property of the Sponsor and receipt of entries will not be acknowledged or returned. Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, illegible, stolen, incomplete, invalid, unintelligible, postage-due, misdirected entries. Only fully completed entry forms are eligible. Proof of submission will not be deemed to be proof of receipt by Sponsor.

2. Start/End Dates. Contest begins at 12:01:01 Eastern Time on February 15 and ends at 11:59:59 PM Eastern Time on April 10, 2009.

3. Eligibility. Participation open only to legal residents of the fifty United States or the District of Columbia who are between the ages of 15-18 as of June 30, 2010. Void outside of the 50 United States. Employees, officers and directors of Legacy International and their immediate families (parents, children, siblings, spouse) or members of the same household (whether related or not) are not eligible to enter. You are not authorized to participate in the Contest if you are not located within the United States or the District of Columbia. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply.

4. Judging/Judging Criteria. Judges reserve the right, in their sole and absolute discretion, to disqualify any essay Submissions that are inappropriate for any reason, including without limitation, for depicting or mentioning sex, violence, drugs, alcohol and/or inappropriate language. All essay submissions will be judged by a panel of judges that have the required knowledge and experience to apply the judging criteria. All essay submissions will be judged based on the following judging criteria: (a) overall creativity (20%), (b) content for your proposal on how you can use technology to change the world (70%), and (c) overall grammatical and structural fluency (10%). By entering the Contest, entrants fully and unconditionally agree to be bound by these rules and the decisions of the judges, which will be final and binding in all matters relating to the Contest.

5. Prizes. One (1) Grand Prize Winner will receive an $800 scholarship towards the tuition of the Peacebuilding Program at GYV upon completion of application. One (1) First Runner Up will receive tuition scholarship valued at $550 towards the Peacebuilding Program at GYV upon completion of application. All remaining submissions may be considered for GYV programs without financial aid upon completion of an application. Prizes are non-transferable. No substitutions will be allowed except by sponsor who reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value for any reason. Limit one (1) prize per person.

6. Notification. (changed a bit) Winners will be notified by email on April 15, 2010 and will be required to sign and return completed application within ten (10) days of prize notification. If any winner cannot be contacted within five (5) calendar days of first notification attempt, if any prize or prize notification is returned as undeliverable, if any winner rejects his/her prize or in the event of noncompliance with these Contest rules and requirements, such prize will be forfeited and may be awarded to the Essay Submission with the next highest score. Upon prize forfeiture, no compensation will be given.

7. Privacy and Use of Data: Sponsor will be collecting personal data about entrants online and will not share this information with any third parties without authorized consent.

8. List of Winners. To obtain a list of winners, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope by April 10, 2009. to: Global Youth Village Essay Contest, 1020 Legacy Drive, Bedford, VA 24523

9. Sponsor. Legacy International, 1020 Legacy Drive, Bedford, VA 24523