The AfricaAmericaExchange (AAX)-Visit our web site

The AfricaAmericaExchange (AAX) is the first project of YNW. Beginning with a pilot project in Fall 2004 linking six schools each in the USA and Burundi, Central Africa, AAX will grow to include schools throughout the USA and the Great Lakes region of Central Africa.

Host Country Focus-Burundi & Central Africa

The peoples of the more and less developed nations have much to learn from one another. Youth from industrialized countries can share their scientific knowledge, technology and financial resources, whereas African and other peoples closer to their indigenous roots can share their ethic of community and interdependence with the natural world. Weaving the legacy of these great traditions together will move towards repairing the personal, social and environmental fragmentation which lies at the heart of the world's most acute problems.

The first area of focus for YNW will be Burundi and the central African countries of the Great Lakes region-namely, Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania. YNW regional affiliate Jeunesse en Reconstruction du Monde en Destruction (Youth in Reconstruction of a World in Destruction ) (JRMD/YRWD) is coordinating YNW activities in the area. JRMD/YRWD engages youth in sustainable peace-building through helping refugees from decades of ethnic wars to rebuild their homes and restore the environment.

Students from Brenda McKinney’s English
class at Skyview High School, Vancouver, WA.

The AfricaAmericaExchange will create service learning partnerships linking secondary schools in Africa and the US, with our first partnerships between Washington State and Burundi. School projects entail inter-cultural exchange via letter and Internet communication. Curriculum for students will integrate themes for peace and sustainability within the framework of existing learning standards, and will be supported by classroom presentations by Prosper Ndabishuriye from Burundi and Mike Seymour from the USA.

Students from Burundian school Lycee Municipal Kinama

US schools will engage in fund-raising to support African initiatives. The specific focus of giving will include family sponsorships to assist in home-building and Burundian school sponsorships to provide resources for students and schools. Specifically:

• a) Helping 800 refugee families (many are orphans and widows) to rebuild their homes in the Carama district of Bujumbura Province where all the homes were destroyed in the ethnic wars of the last decade.
• b) Provide texts, computers and other educational materials needed for Burundian students to make progress in schools with scarce resources. Many classrooms with 40+ students have only one (1) text/class and almost no schools have computers.

Trips to Burundi and other parts of Africa are possible through our program called WholeWorldJourney, with our first trip to Burundi will be November, 2005.

The Mandala Project-Visit our web site

The Mandala Project is dedicated to promoting peace through art and education. As a universal expression of wholeness, the mandala offers a visual demonstration of both the unity and diversity among all life.

In our educational programs, mandalas are used as a holistic structure and format to present academic content in a way that reveals the interconnectedness of all things. The mandala pattern offers a central hub through which all educational subjects can be taught.

We offer teacher workshops and inter-cultural art projects connecting students from various parts of the world.

Global Friends

Global Friends will encompass a variety of projects around the world which work for peace and a sustainable society. Our first Global Friend is a non-governmental organization in the Central African Country of Burundi called Jeunesse en Reconstruction du Monde en Destruction (JRMD) (Youth in Reconstruction of the World in Destruction) (YRWD). Founded in 1994, JRMD promotes reconciliation, forgiveness and peace through rebuilding homes and traumatized hearts which were caused by the effect of ethnic wars, injustice and divisions. JRMD holds peace conferences, distributes literature on peace and has conducted a music outreach to foster harmony. JRMD is an inter-ethnic and inter-faith organization, without political bias.

Whole World Journey (WWJ)

True journies are never just outward events, but can be deeply inward and transformative experiences. Our WWJ trips to Burundi and other places where we will develop partnerships are designed to engage the heart and transform the mind in life-changing ways.