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[YFS holds youth organizing exchange]
Youth for Food Sovereignty (YFS) successfully held an exchange workshop on youth organizing last October 29, 2018. It was hosted
by the Southern Peasants Federation of Thailand (SPFT) in their
collective cultivation area in Klongsai Pattana Village, Suratthani. The
exchange was attended by 26 participants representing 12 organizations
from seven countries. It was held after the back-to-back assemblies of
Asian Peasant Coalition and People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty,
both of which also supported the exchange.
Sandy
Ame of Pembaru (Indonesia) began the session by sharing the orientation
and a short history of YFS. Lester Gueta (Philippines), YFS secretary
general, then delivered an input on the general situation of the youth.
He highlighted the urgent need to organize and mobilize the youth for
food sovereignty amidst a global crisis as seen in the rise of
militarism, and worsening poverty and hunger.
Regrettably,
participants from Cambodia had to leave early because of conflicting
flight schedules, leaving 17 participants to finish the workshop. Each
participant then shared about the situation of the youth in their
country, their efforts in engaging them, and the challenges they face.
The
problem with militarism was affirmed by the participants. Saad Dagher
of PAF (Palestine) pointed out how the Palestinian youth have become the
“main blood” in the political struggle against Zionist occupation.
Amidst this, he shared how some have been trying ecological agriculture
as a way of resisting the rule of chemical companies in food production.
Another
common issue is the rise of urban and overseas migration among the
rural youth. Shibli Anowar of LRC (Bangladesh) laments how even parent
farmers dissuade their educated children from farming. Efforts LRC has
been doing in addressing this include providing agricultural trainings
and other capacity-building programs to rural families. Anowar describes
as a challenge however the sustaining of students’ support to farmers
as many forget their advocacy after graduation.
Ame
addressed this in his sharing by focusing on the necessity of closely
integrating students with the struggles of grassroots peasant and worker
organizations, in order to concretely build a sense of service among
the youth. Gueta affirmed this in his explanation of the dynamics of the
youth movement in the Philippines. Student leaders and lawyer-advocates
supporting SPFT (Thailand) agreed with this. They also shared
particular issues faced by students in schools such as the repression of
their rights to organize and to speak.
Myo
Thant of FAN (Burma) expressed the same concern and initiated sharings
on what strategies other participants has been doing in order to build
and advance their youth movements amidst political repression.
By
the end of the workshop, everyone expressed firmer commitment in
concretely and collectively working to address the common problems of
the youth. Participants without much youth engagements particularly
committed to working towards building rural youth organizations in their
countries.
A young
leader from the SPFT Youth closed the program by stressing that the
youth is a main force for changing a society of injustice and poverty.
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