December 17, 2018. Mumbai---TThe intent of the SAYC series is to build a shared context about South Asia, a capacity to engage with peace and connections that last for a lifetime. Talking about the Conference, Abhishek Thakore, Co-Founder, and The Blue Ribbon Movement mentioned “SAYC has transitioned into the able leadership of mid-20s youth. With this edition we are moving towards a collective that will co create the future direction of the conference and the movement.” 
 
The participants discussed about the crisis and issues facing South Asia highlighting issues like gender inequality to individualism and from radicalization to sustainability, etc. 
 
On day two, through an experiential learning game participants discovered that inspite of being leaders, their actions were not always peaceful. This reflections opened up aspects of historical injustice and the challenges of building trust.
 
Rajni Bakshi facilitated a session and  shared the historical connections that South Asia held since the ages. The conversations deepened the understanding and transitioned into participants sharing about their initiatives. These initiatives were mapped with SDGs helping them see the link with the larger picture.
 

YESPeace India partner, Pravah and CYC facilitated a session around creating 5th spaces that enable safe, deep, dialogue that lay the foundations for conflict resolutions.
Ms Meenakshi, the facilitator opened the session opened with the statement "Violence is justified for the right cause." This statement was planted in the room as delegates were asked to break into two groups: the ones who agreed and the ones who disagreed with the above statement. This was followed by a discussion among the differing groups about the reasons behind their stands and the values on which those reasons stood. Through this activity, she helped the delegates derive that the lack of dialogue feeds conflict as we already approach other people with our set of assumptions. “Every human is an iceberg. We need to create safe spaces that nurture open dialogue, deep self-awareness, build deeper engagements that eventually lead to collective social action,” saying this Meenakshi closed her session.

Akanksha Thakore did a session on building an emotional vocabulary. The session opened with Akanksha reading ‘The Guesthouse’ a poem by Rumi. The session explored where one stands with his or her emotions, labelling them, articulating what one is experiencing and how that is important in intra and inter-personal communication. With effective communication, one can build empathy with oneself and the other. Emotional vocabulary builds empathy which then acts as a bridge for conflict resolution. 

The next session was on random acts of kindness in the streets of Mumbai. The session enabled delegates  to push themselves to connect to a new place and its people. They took this challenge up to talk to the locals, play with street kids, talk to the roadside vendors, clean the garbage and install garbage collection box. Some beautiful stories of connection emerged and some new understanding was built. The evening was spent in the city travelling and exploring as tourists. ‘Doing Acts of Kindness on streets of Mumbai, helped SAYC delegates to connect to the localities, understand the challenges of the metropolitan city and be a part of impacting their daily lives. Some gave tips on how to talk to children, some on earning better livelihood hoods and so on. This enabled them to be part of the global movement of kindness and change in a completely new context and city’  mentioned Kejal Savla, Convener, SAYC 2018.
 
The fourth day was to look at alternatives. It opened with a session by Ashish Kothari of Kalpavriksh talking about Radical Ecological Democracy. This was followed by Shreya Jani from STEP Trust , a partner with YESPeace India, doing a workshop sharing various frameworks on peace. Shreya urged delegates to be imaginative with Peace Building work they are doing. She provided various frameworks like, Critical Yeast, J.P.  Laderach’s Moral Imagination, Paradoxical Curiosity/Thinking, etc. The delegates were asked to evaluate their work in the context of these frameworks. 

“The session worked wonders for me as I could objectively evaluate my work using the frameworks, which I hadn’t done until now. I learn that there won’t be substantial impact if there isn’t a marriage between grassroots work and its contextual placement in the global scenario,” says Sumaia Akbari, a delegate from Afghanistan.
 
The cultural night in the evening brought forth flavours of different countries through singing, dancing and poetry.
 
Delegates shared their dreams and wish list like, visa free travel for youth and greater participation in governance.  “Other countries are our enemies- that was my earlier belief. After attending SAYC, I saw that people are good at heart and can become friends. It is the media that has been showing negative images. If the positive narratives are shown, the South Asian region will become friends,” says Asmita Dhakal, our delegate from Nepal.

Another delegate Manisha Gangode from a village in Nashik, India said, “The primary language of the conference was English and I was reserved, quiet and apprehensive that I will be left out from the processes. Yet I didn’t feel excluded. The SAYC family looked out for me and translated everything that was possible and included me in the process. By day 5, I was opened up and was able to communicate with everybody irrespective of the language barrier. As learnings, I am taking away a lot from the conference; the sessions on emotional intelligence, have given me insights and tools that I can use for my work back in my village.”

On the final day, participants shared their learnings and reflected on the future of SAYC Series. The next SAYC may potentially be hosted by Bangladesh which will continue the journey of the South Asian youth Movement. The delegates would take the learnings from the Conference and implement them in their work back home, virtually and physically try out potential joint projects and also take the #KindnessMatters campaign forward in their respective countries and organization. 

For more information write to:
Mr. Abel Caine: a.caine@unesco.org  
Ms. Piyali Sarkar p.sarkar@unesco.org
Ms. Deepika Joon: d.joon@unesco.org