Hello, This is Ethar Khalid. I am a 25 year-old Saudi girl, I became an American permanent resident last year. In another part of the world my dad is working in a dangerous place where the oil attack happened a few days ago, he is there to fix the damage. I feel so sad and depressed..I have been crying for days worrying about his safety there! I am desperate, scared and far far away from my family to support them. I have a small YouTube channel and there are bunch of young people watching me... But, I hate it when people still believe we should only trust people with certain identities. They...

In recent years, the world experienced the growth of terrorism in many cities in Europe and outside it. From France to Finland, from the US to Belgium people were bombarded by media with news concerning these attacks in a way that created a firm division of responsibilities between “us” and “them”. With an empowered sentiment of hatred spread among the world, media showed that many of these terrible attacks were organized by jihadists groups and that the world was in serious danger. I believe the role of the media took on more and more importance in the way people reacted to these events...

Peace a word so loosely used Thought to bring a calm To the noise around me The noise around me stating he’s right and she’s wrong But this conflict is more than a message in a song This conflict has preceded generations, upon generations A solution that founded treaties, made borders, bartered resources and married nations But somewhere along the line something shifted our perspective It changed our view!! There is no peace but pieces of broken people, nations, relationships and civilizations The right to bear arms in the name of peace but the peace is to stare down the barrel of a loaded gun...

Silence and teenagers are two things unable to coexist. Or so I thought, until late July. 100 incoming 10th graders, myself included, visited a holocaust museum in Montreal, Canada. A bus filled with children screaming and singing transformed into a room where the sound of a pin dropping was the equivalent of a piercing scream on any other day. Dead silent, 100 teenagers, for 3 hours. We were silent in fear, in terror, or our past, of our species. We were put at ease by the misconception that things had changed, people had changed, events as tragic as the holocaust will never occur again. This...

Has the earth cried enough for us to finally hear? Or have her cries been drowned out by bombs and fired bullets? Losing ourselves in man-made weapons, Metal death disguised as our protectors. Have you seen her bleed? Or are you too distracted by greed? I’m afraid we’ve failed the world, I think we’ve failed the children of today and the ones of tomorrow, A world built by promises turned into trenches, Spitting hate and ignorant verses, Survival is our new religion and the scripture says to ‘kill all’ if we feel threatened. Ignorance is bliss, But bliss is our excuse to hide the fact that we...

I think about the peace we had Sitting calmly seeing the sky Cherishing beautiful movements And things we learnt in school But now it is not like that! Someone asked me- Are you having peace of mind and I said Only a piece of mind is left to be alive. Can we even sit in class? Hearing the ambulance roaming can we even continue to survive? Seeing friends losing their parents There is conflict happening inside Strange, unknown, and confused I pray for peace, security and A solution that exists

I open my eyes. The alarm rings again. I hate its noise and Mondays are so bad, the week starts and so does the school. What I like though, it’s the morning vibe in my house whether is Monday or Thursday or Sunday. My grandma is getting old and loosing her hearing so she turns the volume up at maximum every morning for breakfast time, because “mornings are for Fairuz”- my grandma loves her. I like her music too, it has some kind of magic which makes me dreaming with eyes open and I like her especially because it means the food is ready for breakfast and all of us will be around the table...

*** With a hand raised to the sky, a square of light separates the visible from the real world, from what is not visible from the world of appearances. In that tedious moment, I knew, what original sin has long hidden from us, and understood that life was turning its back on me. To you, to us, and to this daring hatred of man... A hatred that is not misanthropic, but so repressive... Shadow on soul, the waves that for a long time made me one of his famous assailants, today are about to drown a spirit, a childhood dream, a last smile to life. O sweet Auroras, if life has provided you with the...

Marking International Poetry Day (21 March 2020), a group of young poets and Voices of Youth contributors write about the power of peace. Their poems are a cry to end violence against children, and a message of support to the children and youth affected by conflict. Salman is a 21 year old writer, a poet and a motivational speaker from Nigeria, who frequently writes on Voices Of Youth about Culture and Human Rights. You can read his content here. The world is placed for peace and grounds for unity. For people to leave even without kisses but not a piece of a calamity. Now a lot has changed in...

Why does global diplomacy seem to be dwindling right now, at a time when we need it the most? This was the question posed by the Harvard Social Impact Project to high school delegates participating in the 2020 Harvard Model UN Conference. Over 3000 students from all over the world came to discuss world issues and submit their innovative responses to this challenging prompt. Winners are often the only ones who have their projects showcased, but who said we have to go with traditional norms? Here's my project, an essay, which I'm proud to share with the global community of young people. The gist...

Marking International Poetry Day (21 March 2020), a group of young poets and Voices of Youth contributors write about the power of peace. Their poems are a cry to end violence against children, and a message of support to the children and youth affected by conflict. Kamogelo is a 17 year old from South Africa with a passion to learn from, inspire and educate anyone who gives her the chance to. She frequently blogs about women’s rights, education and equality on Voices Of Youth. You can read her content here. I dream a dream of playgrounds and lemonade I dream a dream of nights with clear skies...

I sit by the Silent Sea as the day drowns in the dusk I sit on the land of you and me with a tornado of grief among all of us I listen to the Silent Sea as she begins to weep I listen the mothers' cry with heads on their sons' bare wounded chest I see the Silent Sea as she is turning red at the shore I see my brothers being buried and their corpses bathed in blood I touch the Silent Sea as I feel anger and screams in her silence I touch the war marks on my arm no more giving me pride but only grief I am a victor in the war but a loser here of course the human in me is not letting me breathe...

Sexual harassment or harassment in general is a big issue in today’s world. There are many different types of ways people can be harassed. It can be something as simple as looking ata person up and down, catcalling, or something more serious and dangerous like being kidnapped and sexually abused. There are many other ways people can be harassed which are too many to name, and the fact is that there really shouldn't be that many ways. Many people blame victims instead of blaming the attacker, which is always wrong and there should be no excuses for people who attack others in this way...

Following the signing of the Colombian Peace Agreement in 2016, the deep impact of the armed conflict on Colombian society has become more evident. This conflict has touched, in particular, the communities which have lived in the territories that have been disputed historically. Indigenous communities have been one of the most affected not only in a physical, economic and social level, but also in terms of their cultural identity. Memory has been a fundamental tool for the construction of historical processes and, as we know, this is not only an individual process, it also has a collective...

People rarely understand the importance that words have. I was only 14 years old the first time I experienced cyber bullying. After being bullied at school for a few years the girls in my class started this rumour that I had talked about them behind their backs, of course what they needed was a reason not to look guilty in front of others. And so they confronted me. And I tried explaining myself but they were clearly not looking for an explanation. When I got home they had opened Facebook group chats where they would continue talking mean things about me even though I would beg them to stop...