Guten Tag from Vienna!
Just landed in the beautiful Austrian capital city, and seeing, for the first time in my life, SNOW! (Allow me a reflective moment of pure bliss...)
Ah, now then, a little exciting news!
The reason for being in this delightful cultural city? The most humbling honour of attending the United Nation's Alliance of Civilisation's (UNAOC) Annual Global Forum, as well as the preceeding Youth Event.
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The UNAOC is a political initiative of the Secretary General of the United Nations, its primary aim being to improve understanding and relations among people throughout the world and by doing so, hopefully counter polarisation and extremism. The global forum is the main event of the year where issues of importance to UNAOC's agenda (youth, media, education and migration) are discussed and presented, to then inform activities and initiatives globally as well as potentially be implemented by UNAOC itself.
The Youth Forum is designed to ensure that the youth perspective is communicated; young people aged 18-35 from around the world come together for a day or two to discuss the relevant topics and present a communique to the larger global forum.
The topic this year is quite interesting - 'Responsible Leadership in Diversity and Dialogue'.
Given the times we are living in, the question of what exactly 'Responsible Leadership' is, is an apt question indeed...
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As a representative of Youth Without Borders, I look forward to the experience being a productive, challenging and inspiring few days and hopefully one with outcomes which we can action and use to empower others. Whether through the UNAOC framework or through our own organisations, it is important that activities such as these produce viable and tangible benefits for communities.
I will be keeping you all updated via my twitter (@yassmin_a) and this very blog, so stay tuned to learn all about all the latest, including interesting ideas, discussions and people at the event! It will almost feel like you were there...
Bye for now.... or Auf Wiedersehen!
