Rotary Youth Leadership Award Programme

January 28 th , 2006

Khandala

The Rotary Programme for Youth Leadership was an exciting interaction at Khandala in January. A youth based engagement where exchange of knowledge and ideas is always maximum.

We were invited to work with a very active and thoughtful group of college students who were fresh inductees into Rotaract club, attending their first outstation training. They were looking forward to a learning experience which made them get off their chairs and get involved! And we had that on offer.

The objective of the programme was to introduce to the group the skills and the understanding of community issues so that they can participate in society. We presented to them our session ‘Living Democracy' which explored various dimensions of active citizenship:

•  Skills of participation, negotiation, recognizing and acknowledging minority views, making space for dissent, expression, building consensus and practicing representation.

•  Issues of individual freedom, responsibility, war, boundaries of governance, interests and stakes of multiple groups, ethics and the education system.

Our day was spent in the midst of animated discussions, debates, personal expressions and an ownership by the group of the issues and most of all the understanding that democracy is what we make of it and not an alien concept we can afford to ignore.

This was our first programme without the contribution of our colleague Leslie and the presence of music, which meant new strategies and making up for a perspective lost but it was fulfilling all the same.