In this interview, meet Keshav Gupta.
On 16 January, we are celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. How has the Turning Point Summit been inspired by him?
The Turning Point Summit has been instituted by The World House Project – Youth Working Group and The Dais to bring together young people worldwide to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi & Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. We believe that educating and enabling youth to take nonviolent action can become a turning point for the present and future generations.
Young minds are more open to the difference in others and less inclined toward conflict. Youth are most likely to seed the change today that will make a better world tomorrow. A single person can ignite change that spreads to the whole community. The Turning Point Summit aims to provide youth participants the education and tools to take action in their local communities toward a positive nonviolent change in their lives and communities.
The Turning Point Summit has mobilised a strong network of organisations and individuals committed to human rights and nonviolence. How is this important to fulfil your mission?
Turning Point Summit aims for participants to identify and develop their commitment to nonviolence as actionable steps. Thus, the young leaders engage, learn, and empower themselves to facilitate meaningful and inclusive participation in global and local nonviolent action. The participants may become a global network that fosters bridges with each other and toward intergenerational solidarity that continues the work started at the summit. To that end, the summit’s goal is to create a platform for the continuing development of youth leadership and their commitment to make a nonviolent, peaceful world.
You are organising an event during the LearningPlanet Festival, can you tell us more about it?
During the Learning Planet Festival, we are hosting a follow up and showcase session for the Summit on the 26th January, 04.30 PM CET.
The Turning Point Summit and the Pre-Summit engagements reached out to youth, academicians and activists from 17 countries through the Workshops, Youth Assembly, Co-Creation Session and Artistic Performance on the theme on Nonviolence, Peace, Human Rights and Social Change. The key outcomes of the Summit included a Youth Declaration on Nonviolence and a Youth led Strategy on Nonviolence, both developed by the participants through their collaborative efforts and was a great example of the benefits of intergenerational solidarity. The follow up and showcase session will see the organizers and participants present the outcome documents and implementation process for the summit along with the key learnings.
Do you have any big news to share with us?
The participants from the Summit are working towards creating youth-led workshops on Nonviolence to sensitise, engage and mobilise more young people to lead nonviolent social change and enable peer to peer learning. The pilot program for the workshops will be implemented over the summer of this year.
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