An American charity that united children in war-torn Bosnia and violent New York City neighbourhoods, now hopes to bring Bermudians together.

Members of Youth Peace Building Network (YPN) were in Bermuda last week to form a Bermuda chapter called 'Bermuda Youth Peace Building Network' (BYPN).

YPN helps young people build conflict resolution skills, brings together young people from different backgrounds to create friendships, and also organises special unification projects, such as park beautification.

The organisation was invited to Bermuda by mentor charity, YouthNet, and sponsored by Bermuda reinsurance firm, PartnerRe.

"YPN believes that violence must be confronted at its roots — by challenging how we think and altering the culture in which we act," said YouthNet executive director, Clare Mello.

"It is designed to complement, not reproduce, existing youth conflict resolution programmes."

"We recognise that violence in our schools and amongst our youth in the community is one of the most important challenges we face," added Ms Mello.

The visit seemed especially poignant since it preceded an outbreak of violence at The Berkeley Institute that left two students injured in a stabbing incident on Tuesday.

YouthNet peer-to-peer co-ordinator, Jennifer Looby said that YPN's visit came at a good time.

"All you hear about in the news today is the problems that the youth are creating," said Miss Looby. "You hear about the gang violence. When we read about it, we forget there are kids in our community in Bermuda that want to make a difference.

"I think that is one of the reasons that YouthNet decided to take on Education for Peace (and YPN)."

She said there are Bermudian children who want to make a difference, not just for now, but for generations to come.

Miss Looby hoped that not only would the schools have a more peaceful environment because of a BYPN chapter, but that it would lead out into the community.

YPN member and Harvard University undergraduate, Majla Custo, grew up in Mostar, Bosnia — a town literally divided down the middle.

"I got involved in this project because we had a pretty bad war in Bosnia," said Miss Custo. "There is a lot of ethnic division.

"My town was one of the worst case scenarios of the war. Mostar, was divided into two sides. There was no interaction between the two sides. We had different schools, governments and police forces for each side."

Part of the town was Croat, and the other Bosnian.

In 1999 YPN's umbrella organisation, Education for Peace started a project to help with the reconstruction and reintegration of the school system of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The original pilot project of six schools has since expanded successfully into 112 schools in the country.

"WPN started working in Bosnia," said Miss Custo. "My school and another Croat school were one of the first schools to be part of the project.

"We started going through a lot of the training that we are now doing with the kids."

YPN brought the Mostar kids together for two to three hour seminars. "That was the first time that was really done," said Miss Custo.

She said, as a child, she was really excited about taking part in the YPN project.

"I really hated the divisions in my town," she said. "I hated the fact that I couldn't cross the street. I hated that that was the way my town was set up, and all my friends were being brought up with prejudices."

At first, a lot of the other children taking part, were not so enthusiastic.

"In general, during the first meetings, people were not happy to be there," she said. "They felt like it was being forced upon them. Some kids, at the beginning, didn't want to interact. They didn't see the need to get to know the other side."

But she said after several meetings, the barriers started to come down.

"People were empowered to actually know each other, and make a change in their community," she said. "All these kids went back to their peers and said the people in the other school weren't so bad. We had a lot of things in common, and way less things different."

She said it was an amazing way to grow as people.

Desiree Mitton, a student at New York University said that YPN attempts to give strength and peace making abilities to highschool and college age young people.

She and another visiting YPN member, Clare Brennan, attended the same high school in New York City.

"YPN was a programme at my high school," said Miss Mitton. "When we were sophomores we decided to get it running again because the violence in our neighbourhood of schools was prevalent.

"We went to a private school, and the other school was a public school with a bad reputation."

Students from the two schools would often fight. WPN came in to help the students make their Union Square school neighbourhood more of a community.

"It was really effective," said Miss Mitton. "We did two projects. We built a garden in one of the parks near our school. It was a park beautification project.

"We built a specific garden to commemorate the relationship between the two schools."

They also worked in a neighbourhood soup kitchen together.

Many kids from both schools became friends, met up together afterward and communicated through emails and social networking websites.

"We had some really passionate kids who were really involved in it," said Miss Brennan.

Miss Mitton said in New York City, she and her friends were often told not to go past 96 Street.

"It is almost like Mostar," she said. "There is a line there and kids have this prejudice if you live past 96 Street somehow it is more dangerous. I started to hang out in the neighbourhood down there. It is an opportunity to check out a new culture. There are some of the best Mexican restaurants down there."

Miss Brennan said since taking part in the YPN programme she has also started exploring more of New York.

"You grow up and your parents say, don't go down these streets. They are dangerous. And you miss out on so much. A month before college I wanted to go all these places and I had no time because I was leaving for college."

Miss Mitton asked why people spent thousands of dollars travelling when sometimes you could have a travel experience right in the place where you are living. While in Bermuda the WPN group visited several schools, and gave a special training session on Saturday.

"Our goal in Bermuda is to give the tools to Bermudian youth," said Miss Mitton. "We want to give them the lens, or help them to shape any dialogue about peace and conflict. We want to empower them to become advocates and mentors, so they become peace builders in their own community."

She hoped to break the prejudice that adults sometimes have about young people.

"Adults think the youth are the problem people," said Miss Mitton. "We push them off and marginalise them.

"World issues are an adult thing, conflict and peace are adults things.

"Acknowledging youth and empowering them is probably the most important step we can take to create a world of peace. We are future generations. If we are given the tools early on, we will break the cycle."

For more information go to http://www.youthnet.bm/ or contact YouthNet at 294-5300 or email Ms Mello at clare.mello@youthnet.bm">clare.mello@youthnet.bm .