by Matty Maslen
For the final two weeks of September this year, I was lucky enough to be in Mexico. Thanks to the generous support of SPARK, Pax Christi, and the Rotary Clubs of Winchester and Westbourne, I attended the 19th World Summit of Nobel Laureates for Peace in Monterrey.
I attended with the PeaceJam Foundation, as a member of their UK Youth Team through which I’ve run a social action project and helped put together and mentor at peace gatherings for young people.
In Mexico it was incredibly surreal to attend panel discussions by people who are known around the world for the tangible impacts they’ve had on peace, justice, and sustainability.
Along with other delegates from around the world, I took part in workshops, listened to talks and panel discussions, participated in Q&A sessions, and learnt from world respected experts and activists.
One of the most powerful elements of the week, for me, was the youth-focus. The day before the official Summit began, we held a Youth Day, run by Luke Addison, also from PeaceJam UK. It was a great opportunity to get to know fellow youth delegates from around the world and to amplify the expertise and knowledge that young people being to the table.
Throughout the rest of the Summit, we had opportunities to attend workshops run by Nobel Laureates, experts, NPOs, and youth. It was truly inspiring to learn directly from the likes of Rigoberta Menchú, Leymah Gbowee, Kailash Satyarthi, Shirin Edabi and Tawakkol Karman.
During the second week of my visit, myself and Fay Pretty, PeaceJam UK coordinator, travelled to Mérida with the local PeaceJam delegation. As part of our trip we represented PeaceJam UK at the Universidad Tecnológia Metropolitana and the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatan.
I learnt from Fay how to run conflict resolution workshops: empowering young people to think about issue areas they care about, solutions to overcome them, and the power of community through team building exercises.
My trip to Mexico was an incredibly inspiring and empowering experience. Not only did I learn from Nobel Laureates, but I was once again surrounded by young people who’s passion and drive to make a positive impact for people and planet was tangible and invigorating.
I will leave you with a question that Leymah Gbowee asked us in one of her talks that has stayed with me:
‘I see you. The question I want to ask you is, do you see me? Do you see your neighbour?’
See more about Matty’s visit on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7244408782099742721/?actorCompanyId=104740498
