Colombian Youth Gather for the Role of Religion in Peacebuilding
Religious Youth Peace Camp in Bogota, Colombia was co-hosted by an international peace NGO affiliated with UN ECOSOC called Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), and Bogota Diabetics and Scientology Center on 31 January. 3 religious leaders from Islam, Judaism, and Scientology with 25 youth believers and a youth advisor of the Ministry of the Interior participated in this camp under the title of ‘A Religious Youth, Peace Builders’. This camp became a meeting to educate the importance of realizing ‘peace’, the true teaching of religion in Colombian society of a post-conflict situation.
As one of the HWPL peace projects, the Religious Youth Peace Camp has been carried out in 14 countries. The HWPL Religious Youth Peace Camp is a workshop-style program that works towards finding the root causes and solutions of wars, conflicts, and disputes that arise in the world from religious perspective. Through the search for solutions, participants expected to be reminded, once again, of the importance of the role of religious people in achieving peace, to expand the base of this peace work beyond religion to civil society.
Youth believers discussed the role of youth in order to achieve inter-religious peace in Colombia through activating campaigns in educational institutions, interfaith cooperation networks, etc. And the religious youth, future leaders of the religious community attended actively to understand and discuss other religions as a field study during the event.
Rabbi Dr. Richard Gamboa had a speech on the importance of youth believers in achieving peace in Colombia saying, “No one is better than young people of faith, of different religions, to work together and help us build a culture of sustainable peace in Colombia; we have a lot of hope in you.”
Mr. Paula Arturo, a youth Christian believer shared his impression by saying "I love diversity, knowing things, I really liked being able to listen directly to people of other creeds. There were some religions that I did not know. This motivates me to learn how to know them better and to respect their beliefs because it is a right of all."
Along with the HWPL Religious Youth Peace Camp, the World Alliance of Religions’ Peace (WARP) Office has been operated 20 times in Colombia as an interfaith communication channel having a discussion based on the scriptures of each religion. In this coming February, the 21st Colombian WARP office is scheduled to be open under the theme of ‘The cause and solution of religious discrimination’ attended by religious leaders, etc.
