Welcome to our first newsletter for 2008! The last few months have been a very busy and exciting time for World Youth International. We would like to thank you for your continued support, and we hope you enjoy reading the latest news from us at WYI.

Kind regards,

The WYI Team

The violence following the disputed elections in Kenya has killed more than 1,000 people and displaced an estimated 600,000 more. Thousands of people are without basic needs such as food and clean water because the cost of necessities has skyrocketed. World Youth International has been working in Kenya for a number of years and we have many friends and staff members living there. We are grateful to report that none of our staff, project partners, sponsored children or volunteers were injured in the violence. However, the situation has still had a devastating effect in many of the communities we have worked in.

It has also impacted WYI financially as the violence has forced us to temporarily stop all volunteer programs to Kenya. Without volunteers, it is difficult for us to fund our operational costs. Our CEO, Rob Kalka, is currently in Uganda setting up a new program so we can offer an alternative African destination. In the meantime, we need your support.

Please support our upcoming fundraising events:

Pedal Against Poverty (National Bike Riding Event)

Chance for Change Trivia Night (NSW)

Or support WYI and Kenya in other ways:

Implement a Workplace Giving program at your office, make a donation to World Youth, sponsor a child at Owiti Children's Home situated in Kenya, ask your employer to become a corporate sponsor or support the struggling communities in Kenya through our Gift Catalogue. Please contact us for more details.

In November, three dedicated teams travelled to Peru, Kenya and Nepal to participate on the Overseas Action Program (OAP) with World Youth International. The OAP is a team based volunteer program which runs for between and 5 - 10 weeks with a professionally trained Australian Team Leader. Teams work on building sustainable structures in rural villages while they live and play with the local community! The construction projects are always designed to facilitate positive change in the areas of Primary Health Care, Income Generation or Education. Find out more

The team in Kenya, led by Chloe Morgan, were working in the village of Katolo when violence escalated following the elections. They bravely continued their program in their second village, Budalangi, but after battling dangerous road blocks it was decided that the situation was too unpredictable and they were forced to end their program a week early. One of the participants, Belinda Brennan, was interviewed on Radio National the day after she returned to Australia, and she explains more about amazing experience their team had. Listen to the interview here

The Peru OAP was led by Shane Roos and the team lived and worked in the remote village of Huaran, where they constructed an Internet Room at a local Hacienda to increase tourism to the village. Their second project was on Amantani Island where they built a new classroom for the Inti Wawacuna School among several other projects. The team in Nepal was led by Deb Miller and they worked in the villages of Suntakhan and Chaturale. Read about the OAP to Nepal

WYI now has a brand new website, located at a brand new address: www.worldyouth.org.au. The website contains all the information on programs, has a great new photo gallery, and it also features an online shop to cater for our very popular Gift Catalogue! To make this website a success on Google, please consider adding our page as a link on your own website. We will do the same for you - please contact us for more details.

Team Leader in Kenya/Uganda June - August 2008

World Youth International is looking for one dedicated volunteer to lead our Overseas Action Program to Kenya/Uganda in June 2008! The program will run for 10 weeks, and the team leader will be responsible for a team of volunteers and the success of the projects. All expenses are covered by WYI. This is an amazing opportunity! If you are interested, please download the documents below and apply by March 30, 2008.

Team Leader for WYI's Teenage Program

Become a team leader at World Youth's first Teenage Program, "Breaking Free" in Narromine, NSW! We plan to make a difference to the youth of Narromine! Would you like to be part of the Front Line of Change? We are looking for nine powerful, inspiring team leaders! Our teenage program will be run in Narromine (about a five hour drive from Sydney) on May 1st-3rd, 2008. Team Leader training day will be in Narromine on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008. If this sounds like you, download the application to apply!

 Download Teenage Program Team Leader Application

We would like to welcome three new board members to World Youth International. Miss Julie Shearn, Mr Rob Bednall and Mr Neil Anderson recently became members of the already high calibre team! In January, Julie, Rob and Neil joined the rest of the Board in Adelaide for a Board Meeting and Strategic Planning Day. The two-day meeting produced some exciting directions for the future of WYI, including a brand new recruitment process for Team Leaders for our Overseas Action Programs. You can see our first advertisement above, and keep your eye on our new website www.worldyouth.org.au for more details on Careers with World Youth International!

Jazz in the Park was held on an unseasonably cool evening in February on Rymill Island, in the east end parklands of Adelaide. The empty lake (due to water restrictions) did not deter our 300+ guests who were entertained by the artful melodies of Liz Tobias and the Mamajazz Quintet, as they indulged (and in some cases over indulged) on the fine selection of wines and beers!

Combined with the great food, drinks, music and atmosphere was the vast array of silent auction items. In excess of $15,000 was raised on the night which will greatly assist the WYI projects in Nepal. Be sure to check out the March issue of SA Life Magazine to see if you made the "social pages" (but beware of the typo stating we only raised $1500)! Thank you for your support of this fantastic WYI event, and look out for it again in 2009!

13 year old Katie Thorburn has been raising money for World Youth since 2004, and her story is inspirational. Every year for her birthday, she gives herself a present - sponsoring a child with World Youth International. Katie says, "I see this as being a far greater gift than any present anyone could ever give. If everyone for their birthday could receive such a great gift as mine they would be as happy as I am and the world would be a better place because of it".

Read Katie's Story

Sponsor a Child with World Youth International

Recently I organised for Tom Kime, celebrity chef and author of 2 award winning cookery books and television shows both in America and England to come and do a two day cookery school in Berry.

Ed Butler donated his beautiful home and kitchen and 22 people cooked 30 delicious meals over two days and devoured them! What was left was taken home in doggy bags!

Tom demonstrated and cooked and chopped and taught us and made us laugh. We all had chopping boards, knives and our aprons on, and working in pairs, we cooked up a couple of dishes each. And Tom never shouted, unlike those celebrity chefs you see on TV! We learned a great deal, even the experienced chefs amongst us, and had a lot of fun. (And ate until we could hardly move!)

We raised $1100 for World Youth International and, in addition, one generous lady committed to sponsoring one of our orphans!

How can YOU raise funds for World Youth?

Visit Tom's website: www.tomkimechef.com

The World Youth International School in Nepal has just released their first newsletter! To download and view it, please  click here

Thank you to all those who continue to support the WYI School in Nepal by sponsoring a child. If you would like to know more about sponsoring a child in Nepal, click here.