WANGO Annual Conference 2005

Good afternoon Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates and guests, ladies and gentlemen.

We have participated in a beautiful conference on a beautiful island here in the land of baseball – home of Juan Marichal, Pedro Martinez, Sammy Sosa, Vladimir Guerrero and other baseball greats. In baseball, the highest score you can make at one time is a grand slam home run. A grand slam home run is when the bases are loaded and the fourth batter hits the ball over the fence and out of the park. It takes a lot of teamwork to get everyone on base, but I believe we are poised to score a grand slam home run in concluding this, the fourth annual WANGO conference.

Sixty years ago, the United Nations made a solemn commitment to its children of the world to save them from the scourge of war – and while it has generally kept that promise in avoiding the ultimate catastrophe of a nuclear war, the scourge of war remains and is increasingly being compounded by other “scourges,” such as malnutrition, lack of education, forced labor and forced induction in armies, and above all, the loss of families and hope.

Throughout the years, the United Nations has energized many processes and institutions such as UNICEF; negotiated conventions such as The Rights of the Child and established strong advocacy programs such as the Protection of Children in Armed Conflicts.

Most recently, it has declared the period 2001 to 2010 as the Decade for the Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World. Still the “scourge” remains and cries out for action among all peoples and at all levels of society.

Civil society has a special role to play given its roots in communities and its proximity to “we the peoples.” It is for this reason why this initiative of AWNGO seems so compelling and urgent, and why it is urging NGO’s to rise to the challenge in choosing as the theme for its fourth annual conference: Creating A World Fit For Children; The Role of NGO’s.

Day one got us to first base. Before the conference even officially started, some participants had a chance to visit a service project in real time, a school in the village of Frasquito Gomez. The El Baden elementary school is a model project in more ways than one. The first lady of the Dominican Republic has expressed her commitment to creating a model school, including computers and teacher training, that can then be replicated to other towns and villages in the Dominican Republic. In addition to education, this project provides a model of NGO’s and government working in partnership. In the summer of 2005, Service for Peace partnered with the ministry of education to provide materials and manpower to build the school as students from the United States joined together with Dominican students to accomplish this project and the government provided funds for building supplies.

Speakers at our Opening Banquet set the tone for this conference. Secretary General Taj’s tale of the cold, dark and hazardous journeys penguins endure to build their families reminded us that while the young of all species face dangers, no other species create or sanction an environment for their young with preventable dangers. The focus of the evening was families when Jean Rondon introduced not only our host, Juan Larancuent, but his wife and children as well, as if to let us know that the centrality of family in a world fit for children is not just a nice idea but a working concept at this conference. The conference was graced by the presentation of The Honorable Gladys Gutiérrez, who holds the post of Secretary of State for Women’s Affairs, a cabinet-level post under the President of the Dominican Republic. Ms. Gutiérrez’s life has defined political and social action on behalf of women, human rights, public service, and education, and for the Dominican Republic in general. The evening concluded with a high-spirited call for Spiritu Sanctu from children of the Dominican Republic.

At this session, we were called upon to dream big by Ambassador Sanchez. We have to know what the world is like for children and we also have to see through children’s eyes in visioning what kind of world shall we build. The tension between our dreams and our reality would be a recurring theme throughout the opening plenary session. Dr. Milagros Diaz, former congresswoman of Santo Domingo, first welcomed those gathered for such a great purpose and theme and then shared with us the very real challenges faced by the people she represented. Kyleigh Kuhn, a young dreamer who launched the “Pennies For Peace” campaign, said life is not fair. It’s not fair that children should live in fear every day and never get to play soccer. So she mobilized other children to collect pennies to rid the lands of preventable dangers – land mines. Once free of mines, the land became schools, soccer fields and vineyards. She had a dream and acted with urgency to execute it. We were welcomed by President of the House of Representatives and mayoral candidate, Alfredo Pacheco Ozoria representing the government of the Dominican Republic, who shared his concern for the breakdown of the family and its influence on the children in the Dominican Republic. As WANGO’s representative in the Dominican Republic, Juan Laracuent noted, children have their fantasy heroes. Everyone here is a hero who fights for humanity. You in WANGO will have many opportunities to become real heroes. Seize those opportunities.

In the Chairman’s address, at our opening plenary session as read out by the Secretary General, we were reminded that to think of a world fit for children, we would have to think of a world vastly different than the one we know today. There is a short step from family breakdown to break down of society. As self reliant, mission driven people, we were exhorted to leave a legacy of good ethics and conduct in all that we do.

The morning was spent visioning in the great hall and the afternoon was filled with sessions on practical help for growing your NGO.

Anthony Miles presented practical training on how to get sponsorships for your cause and concluded with a role play of how the conversation might go as you approach an organization to ask for money.
John German led a working session on technology and NGO’s and helped members identify technology needs and then participants created an on-line group to continue the discussion.
Dr. Charles Phillips and Dr. Donna Lenaghan are both educators and they made the participants do all the work as they led an interactive session on converting good ideas into effective action. Identifying the clear mission and values behind your work will help define the strategic action to take in pursuit of your goals.
Best practices in fundraising was an opportunity to hear practical tips on what has worked well for Staci Pierson and Sister Maria Mboyire. While Jeffrey Hurwit had practical, legal advice on nonprofits, he also emphasized the role and responsibility of stewardship that leaders of NGO’s have.
Protecting children against abuse, exploitation and violence was addressed by Dr. Carmen Zuniga, Dr. Soroor Qarooni and Dr. J’lien Liese elaborated on this problem that is worldwide in nature and cuts across every economic, racial and religious barrier. One of the most effective ways in dealing with this problem is engaging and partnering with young people to come up with solutions.
An opportunity to hear about the WANGO Initiatives of the CODE of Ethics project and Play Soccer, Make Peace rounded out the evening as we dashed up the baseline to second base.

The voice and vision of youth must be respected and appreciated and we must empower them and include them in building that world.

We were treated to a plenary session led by four youth activists. As Session Chair Denes Bank was to note, we are not talking about creating a world fit for children tomorrow. It must be today.

Gul Rukh Rhman shared her perspective as a child of war. “War is not glamorous and we must not let the media make it glamorous for children.” Again, this is a preventable illness in our society.

Aditya Sharma, has high hopes and dreams about concretely helping children who are in need of medical care. Since many of the problems children encounter are preventable, we must prevent them

Hyang Sook Vanessa Lee led us all in a moment of silence to remember the victims of the hurricane in Guatemala who suffered so much yet received so little help due to lack of sustained attention in the media and in the world.

The passion and power of involving youth in NGO work indicates this is an area that WANGO might wish to consider establishment of a youth division.

The second plenary session Saturday was an interactive session. After presentations by Dr. Perez, Dr. Basak, Mr. Holland and Mr. Zeif, participants were organized into discussion groups at tables to discuss progress towards the Millenium Development Goals. Concrete proposals will be presented later in our framework for action.

The rest of day three offered symposia and further presentations on critical issues.

Shel Taylor led a panel on pressing issues of family development. Susan Roylance, Rev. Luis Cortes and Elvira Sanchez Igual led an intense, engaging and disciplined discussion that participants continued after the session was over.

In exploring the challenge of developing a new future for Africa, presentations by Charles Abbey, H. E. Sir James Mancham and Mohammed Attah reflected on the history and present day issues confronting Africa. This session was to generate considerable interest from a large number of international participants who shared their concerns.

The afternoon sessions on Saturday offered five content rich workshops with very practical exercises on New Technologies for NGO’s , Expanding Influence through Collaborative Networking, The UN and the Role of NGO’s, Tools for Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect and a special session in Spanish about Building Membership. Three different panel discussions allowed us to hear about a variety of WANGO members’ programs in the areas of Creating a Safe World for Children, Education and Development.

The stirring awards ceremony cannot be summarized in words as presentations for leadership and excellence were made in the categories of Education, Humanitarianism, Society and Health, Peace and Security and a Century of Service to Humanity and Society. Hope and inspiration was palpable in the Fiesta Theater as we came together to honor the awardees. Throughout the conference, we heard about the millions of children in distress. In the movie “Innocent Voices,” the fear and pain of the millions reflected in the face of little Chava and his mother as they struggled to survive the scourge of forced child soldiers. In contrast, the Awards Ceremony provided the opportunity to celebrate the long, quiet work of the honorees that has brought benefit and healing to millions of children and people around the world.

There was not a moment of down time. Even as we rounded second base and headed for third, this morning’s sessions addressed the very important issues of Ethics in NGO Development, Successful Mentoring Programs and Writing Successful Grants.

Youth volunteerism has the potential to give new life and new energy to projects all over the world.

Our conference theme was not only thinking about a world fit for children or talking about a world fit for children but creating a world fit for children. As this Conference unfolded, there were opportunities to dream and opportunities to learn very practical tools to make that dream a reality. In summary, I would like to present the emergent themes of this conference including items from the round table reports after discussion of the Millennium Development Goals. I offer these themes as a framework for action and invite you to choose one or two that you will begin work on today.

Strong families and healthy homes. Life is enhanced at it s root and children get a chance to practice their love and socialization skills in a safe, low risk environment.
a.Support for the family before and after marriage
Clean water, food and nutrition. Unclean water and poor sanitation are among the leading causes of childhood diseases and death.
a.Nutritional education for mothers
Education including moral, spiritual and ethical education. Focus must continue to include a strong emphasis o education of girls as social and economic benefits will accrue not only to the individual and families but to society as well.
a.Service For Peace has offered to facilitate five more Model School projects here in the Dominican Republic. What better legacy to leave from our WANGO conference than to partner in support of a school here. Please stop by the Service for Peace table following the conference and speak with Gareth Davies for detail on how you can give back now.
Clean and Healthy Environment
a.Environmental education to create and sustain environmental awareness
i. Environmental laws for sustainable development
ii. The need to identify environmental crimes and introduce laws to punish criminal as prevention to save the environment.
Peace and security
Financing the actions with new and innovative financial strategies
a.Finance strategies should be taught explicitly to empower the future of women and children
Partner with government; NGO’s work together
a. International bodies should pressure governments to provide funds to NGO’s working with children
b. NGO’s Network together
c. There should be a unified voice of NGO’s with a common vision to help in meeting the Millennium Development Goals
d. Get reports from governments of UN Conferences and initiatives
Create opportunities for play and creative expression; include young people in your work

Our vision and mission must be clear. We must take the time to imagine what we do not see and to share it with each other. As we act with urgency and practicality to execute the vision, we will score a grand slam home run.