International Association for Religious Freedom, abbreviated as IARF, is an NGO that conducts programs on Human Rights, all over the world. This organization, established in 1900, is dedicated to the cause of creating awareness amongst the youth in our society on Religious Freedom and grooming them into responsible citizens.
My experience:
The IARF recently conducted two conferences, both of which I attended. These conferences were held on 11th to 13th Sep. 2009 and 20th to 21st Dec. 2009 at Santhome ,Chennai & Suttur Srikshetra, Mysore respectively. I experienced very thought provoking moments and received fruitful insights in these two conferences. The conference dwelt at length on the following areas of interest at Chennai and Mysore.
• Role of Youth on Human Rights and Duties.
• Inter-faith Dialogue – The Way to Reconcialiation.
The focus of these two conferences, though different, it culminates into serving one very purpose of nation building and creating responsible youth in India.
Chennai Conference :
The three-days program was held at The Dhyana Ashram, Santhome, Chennai . More than 150 youth from various parts of the world participated in this International Conference at Chennai. The participants were from various countries including South Africa, Somalia, Nepal, Maldives, Taiwan, Srilanka etc., and many states of India. Participants actively shared their concern on the socio- economic condition in their countries , some of them, explained on the hunger and acute poverty in this world and the ways to eradicate these woes of society. The need for food, clothing, shelter and other basic needs of human ife.
As part of this program, we visited a few religious places, such as, Santhome church, Kapalishwar temple. We also visited Vivekananda memorial and we had lot fun at Marina beach.
Cultural programs such as dance and skit were organized by the participants showcasing the problems faced by the Tamils in Sri Lanka. This program on the whole evoked the desire in all participants to serve the poor. This conference gave me a wider knowledge about the problems people face like lack of food, shelter and security. At the end of the conference, the insight that I took home was, ‘As youth of the country, I should work to eradicate divisions in society based on caste & community.’.
Mysore Conference :
The conference was held between 20th & 21st December 2009 . This conference was a member council meet . There were about 50 youth and 50 members of the organization . We stayed in the guest house of JSS institution . The conference was held in the conference hall of Jagad Sri Veerasimhasana Mahasamasthana Math Suturu Srikshetra . The NGO aims at educating all children . All delegates spoke about Interfaith Dialogue --- The Way To Reconciliation . They all spoke about communal violence and remedies to stop them . During our free time we went for a boat ride and had a bath in the river. The students of Jagad Sri Veerasimhasana Mahasamasthana near the guest house. Math Suturu Srikshetra (abbreviated as JSS institution ) performed culturals . It was great fun at Mysore.
________
