Youth & Peace in Action (YPA)
Last year Rotary started the largest local youth peace education initiative ever – the Youth & Peace in Action (or YPA) initiative. Since then, over 1,000 students in District 6930 have participated in YPA, starting on a journey to a more peaceful world.
Peacebuilding starts with our youth and our goal is to provide the YPA program to every high school in District 6930. PDG Michael Walstrom famously walked the entire length of District 6930, 185 miles from Titusville to Boca Raton, to raise the funds for this program!
This year new schools will sign up and funding is still available through a grant from the District 6930 Charitable Foundation. Please download the YPA Grant Request Form, complete it in full, and return it as directed. The Foundation and the YPA Team can’t wait to approve your students to take part in YPA!*
Let’s put youth at the center of building and sustaining a culture of peace.
Ak’tenamit School in Guatemala
Ak-Tenamit’s mission is to enable the indigenous people of Guatemala to become self-sustaining.
Ak’Tenamit is internationally recognized for its innovative and highly effective education programs. Its demand-driven work-based learning approach helps at-risk indigenous youth gain an education and secure good jobs in Guatemala. This allows them to avoid risky forced migration to the United States in search of work, leaving their culture and a broken family behind. Instead of girls marrying as young as fourteen, they are able to graduate from high school, get good jobs, and reach their goals. Ak’Tenamit graduates tend to continue their education at a tertiary level, are leaders in their communities, maintain a strong sense of cultural identity, develop pride in their Mayan language and culture, and are committed to lifting their families and communities out of poverty as well.
Success at Ak’Tenamit has lead to growth in the program and the necessity to expand the campus environment. District 6930 will be leading a water and sanitation Global Grant to provide the new latrine facilities, including a solar water pump. In February of 2022 our district will also send at least two groups of twenty Rotarians each to Ak’Tenamit to assist in the physical completion of this project.
Please help us reach our goal by contributing to this project!
