Area high school students learned about the lasting effects peace has on areas of the world affected by violence and war at the second PeaceJam Youth Conference at UH.
About 200 PeaceJam members, volunteer mentors and local high school students learned about the importance of community leadership and nonviolence at a conference that also included a march, peace rally and workshops.
"The awfulness of the war was creeping up on me every day of the week," Nobel laureate Betty Williams said. "We created a new society from the bottom up using tools of nonviolence."
Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for helping end sectarian violence in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics. Williams became involved with PeaceJam because of the organization’s shared goal of promoting nonviolent action to the world’s youth.
"If we can change Northern Ireland without violence, then we can change the world," Williams said. "I don’t believe there is such a thing as an ordinary person. Human kind has much more goodness in it than evil."
The 150 students attending were divided into groups with Williams and PeaceJam’s volunteer mentors from UH and Houston Community College System and attended workshops that dealt with developing nonviolent approaches to problems such as global poverty, the HIV epidemic and war.
"It seemed interesting to come and learn about a Nobel Peace Prize winner," Vicky Garza, a Pasadena High School sophomore said.
The groups performed skits to offer their solutions. One group suggested a global boycott of bottled water to force bottling companies to drill water wells in arid areas such as central Africa.
"You give me back the kind of spirit that helps me continue my work," Williams told students. "If you truly believe it you will change the world."
