TYO Recommends: Friday, July 20

 

This week, TYO looks into creative projects bringing young people together around the world. From boxing to poetry and tech to martial arts, today's youth continue to work towards mutual understanding for tomorrow!

Boxing Isn't a Fight, it's a Sport. That's what one teenage Israeli boxer said of his semi-final opponent, a Palestinian from the opposite side of town. BOXING allows teenagers to let out their aggression and in Israel, it also brings them together to cement life-long friendships outside the ring. "It's not important what the name of the boxer is. You can be Moshe, you can be Muhammad, you can be Dmitri," one leader said. "We [are] one team."

Tae Kwon Do Breaks Down Barriers. Boxing isn't the only contact sport to shatter divides. Communicating with mutual Korean hand-signs, American and Iraqi teens broke down more than just the language barrier as they took part in mutual TAE KWON DO training exercises this month, and also applied their new skills for cultural understanding!

A Different Kind of Goal. Soccer is just one more sport bridging cultural and gender divides. A group of female Egyptian athletes and coaches visited Washington, D.C. this past month, engaging in soccer games and lessons with underserved city youth to promote SOCCER skills, girl power, and understanding between peers!

Poetry for Peace. It's not just sport that brings people together. A recent collaboration by Iraqi-French and Iraqi-Israeli poets, spanning multiple languages, cultures and themes, is an ode to Baghdad, but also to mutual understanding. Inshallah, the writers say, their POETRY collection will be a worldwide success!

And Technology, Too! TechGirls, a project which brings young, tech-savvy, entrepreneurial young women together from across the Middle East, kicked off a conference this past month at Harvard University. The TechGirls shared interests, websites, projects and stories with their American peers, bonded over the challenges of being women in TECHNOLOGY, and worked together on a series of innovative new projects. Well done, girls!

Strong Girls. How are women so adept at bridging these divides? What makes them so strong and innovative? The Women's Refugee Commission tells the stories of some of the world's most disadvantaged women, and how they've found the extraordinary courage to persevere.

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