3 March, 2014

Successful 3rd Hindu Youth Conference: Dynamic You – The Power of Youth

Hindu Youth New Zealand (HYNZ) and New Zealand Hindu Students forum jointly organized a very successful 3rd New Zealand Hindu Youth Conference on Saturday 1st March at Aotea Centre in Auckland. The theme of the conference was Dynamic You – the power of youth. It was a conference calling for young people to realise the power within through being inspired. The conference was attended by 150 participants.

The conference was a step towards bringing together youth from different works of life and areas of interest to showcase their capacity, capability and call for the delegates to search for and realise their hidden potential.

The day began with a diya lighting ceremony in which invited dignitaries – Member of Parliament, Community Board member and Chair of Office of Ethnic Affairs – together with youth representatives from youth groups - Bharatiya Samaj Charitable Trust, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, Chinmaya Mission, Ram Mandir Youth Group, Indiance Dance Group, Sri Sathya Sai Organization and Hindu Youth Australia.

President of HYNZ, Nitika Sharma, welcomed the guests introducing all delegates to HYNZ, it’s activities and achievements in the preceding years, calling all delegates to participate and make the most of the day. Murali Magesan delivered the key note address highlighting that Hindu’s make up 2% of New Zealand’s population; as a group were significantly more qualified in comparison to the total population and filled a high percentage of professional occupations.

Speakers in the Inspire session highlighted their motivators, challenges and learning from their road to success in the different sectors and encouraged young people to think about participating more in their respective areas: Female youth participation in frontline (Police) service (Telisha Kumar); Traditional music participation at international level (Krishna Ramarathinam); and Technology used for professional and economic advancement (Kunal Bhargava).

Ministry of Youth Development ran two workshops encouraging participants to learn about the importance of youth voice in decision-making (Your Voice), and equipping themselves with skills to be an effective leader (Your Leadership). Calling on all participants to be agents of social change, speakers in the Be the Change session highlighted their experiences and ways of addressing areas of: Poverty (Divya Hariharan), Creative industries and Collaboration (Bhavesh Bhuthadia), Youth positive engagement (Akshita Nama) and Character building through dharmic youth classes (Rahul Chopra).

The day also included discussion on youth getting involved in city planning for the future, the position of women in the Hindu society and experiences of leadership building program (Outward Bound) attended by two HYNZ sponsored young people. Fun energizers, team building exercises and a quiz was also part of the day.

The day concluded with an exercise on brainstorming for activities that HYNZ could get involved in to address youth issues and areas of interest.

HYNZ is committed to building capability in young people. For further information on HYNZ contact Nitika Sharma: neatyka@gmail.com.

The organizing committee would like to extend their appreciation to the event sponsors and the support from all participants, Hindu Organizations, Temples and Associations.

ENDS

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