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Baobab reconnection at Durban Summit
By Moses Mbasu
Durban, South Africa: Ever since the founding of Baobabconnections.org in 2001, its partners and its staff got the opportunity to meet and interact during Your City International Crime Prevention and Cities Summit in Durban, South Africa.
The youth summit, which is supported by United Nations Habitat and the Government of Kwa Zulu Natal Province in which the city of Durban stands, brought together hundreds of young people from all over the world to share their experiences from their organizations’ perspective and their communities. Of course, Baobabconnections.org being the youth facilitator, it was only good to have a lets know each other session before things got heated.
At least 30 of us converged in the Durban International Conference Centre Exhibition Hall at the end of day 1, formed a round table and just build on different issues such as introductions and sharing of encounters. The session started out with a brief hip-hop freestyle session and was led by Baobab Amsterdam head office staff member Suzanne Bessem. She started out by introducing the staff and partners and eventually opened the circle floor for our friends and supporters. It was so great to finally connect face to face with all those talented dynamic individuals who had brought so much to Baobabconnections.org.
It was at this forum that we all got to know how each one looked like, smiled and even how they spoke. My editor Sumeera, was in joyously amazed at our Director, Yehudi: “I really thought he was taller than he is,” she shyly joked. It was a manifestation of how young people can really transform the world without necessarily being in contact physically. With the power of positive use of technology, resilience and constant appreciation of the world and its givings, we had finally come together as one big family. Those who had travelled the furthest were Don Popo from Colombia bringing with him lots of youth from the Ayara project.
Others were Gavin Sheppard from the Remix project in Canada who also brought with him a truck load of dynamic youth with all sorts of ideas and energy. While it was great to get to meet all partners from different countries linking in one space, it was even greater to see a whole lot of new members that had recently joined the global network.
A lot of connections were made but the biggest achievement was the ability to put smiles on the faces of many by allowing us to interact in person.
Baobabconnections.org - keep on keeping us connected.
During the Your City International Crime Prevention & Cities Summit, the Baobab team and the 20 winners of the competition are reporting live from the summit premises! Keep checking back for daily updates.
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