South Asia Youth Summit

The 2010 South Asia Youth Summit: Developing Leadership in Young People to Transform Communities (SAYS) will bring eighteen youths ages 15-18 and three adult facilitators from Nepal, Sri Lanka, and The Maldives to Pittsburgh to learn about American culture and explore issues of youth leadership and community development. This 20-day program will also focus on subthemes of drug and alcohol abuse prevention as well as environmental health. Through the SAYS program high school students will develop the necessary skills and abilities to exercise their rights, improve their situations, and become agents of change in life, school, and in their communities.

The primary goal of SAYS is to develop the leadership of youth to advance positive systemic changes in their communities.

This goal is met through a curriculum that combines instruction and service-learning with opportunities for in-depth exploration of the topics of community health, civic education, transparency and accountability, and national identity. The South Asia Youth Summit curriculum creates a living-learning environment that emphasizes teamwork, leadership, collaboration among youth and adults, a systems perspective, community members’ roles and contributions, future thinking, and reflective learning. The interconnectedness of individual physical and emotional health, education, personal empowerment, and political representation will be the framework through which a whole community’s wellbeing is viewed. The following objectives reflect the goal of SAYS, and are met through the curriculum and related activities.

SAYS Objectives for Participants:

• Demonstrate increased understanding of civic responsibility and activism and the multiple roles citizens can play to encourage key elements of democracy, informed citizenry, and responsible participation
• Build and exercise individual and collective leadership skills through the development of key, transferable community development concepts
• Understand elements of civil society through community service, exploration of diversity, and sharing cultural experiences

Through the 20-day program in Pittsburgh, PA and five-day program in Washington D.C., delegates and their adult facilitators have the opportunity to participate in site visits to local community agencies and student-led organizations, attend skill-building workshops, shadow Pittsburgh high school students for a “typical” school day, interact socially with local Pittsburgh youth, and engage in community service activities. SAYS participants are expected to develop a community-based project that they will implement upon returning home and to share knowledge learned through South Asia Youth Summit with other youth in their community.

South Asia Youth Summit, implemented by Magee Womancare International and Amizade Global Service Learning, is made possible by a grant from the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.