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In 2006, a program was carried out in partnership with a New York City organization, Global Kids, Inc. which “acts to ensure that young people of diverse backgrounds have the knowledge, skills and experience they need to succeed in the workplace and participate in the shaping of public policy and international relations.”
Global Kids Inc. – Mombasa, Kenya to Civitavecchia, Italy (August – September 2006)
 With the objectives of developing new skills and building confidence through international experience, a group of young people from the New York organization Global Kids joined Peace Boat’s 54th Global Voyage between Kenya and Italy.
Prior to the trip, the group researched and planned a series of workshops on issues pertinent to the voyage, including conflict resolution, tourism and the role of the United States in the world. Onboard programs were delivered in partnership with Japanese participants of Peace Boat, providing all participants with valuable experience in cooperating and communicating across cultural and language barriers.
In each port visited, the Global Kids group took part in exchange activities with local organizations designed to expose them to the reality of life in that particular country and provide opportunities for genuine communication with local people.
 The program enabled its participants a unique opportunity to increase their awareness of the issues of conflict, development and inequality shaping our world, and of their own position in relation to these issues. In particular, the training elements of the program and the experience of interacting in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural environment empowered the participants with the skills and will to continue their work for change.
As Aneka Hewitt, a 16-year old junior at the High School for Global Citizenship in Brooklyn, N.Y. and a member of the Global Kids group says after visiting a Kenyan orphanage as part of the trip:
“When you learn from a book, that’s OK, but you don’t fully get it until you experience for yourself. You have to go out and see it. People have their differences, but we are all still people. All the conflicts that go on because people think they’re so different are so pointless.”
Hewitt has since founded an organization to raise money for the Kenyan orphanage.
“To see someone who lived in a place so different, who had so little, I couldn’t just come home and pretend it never happened… I had to do something to make a change.”
(quoted in an article by Beth Hillman - http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2007-02-13/hillman-peaceboatusa
This was the third program on Peace Boat for Global Kids, Inc. Further information about past programs is available with pictures at:
Peace Boat’s 54th Voyage
www.peaceboat.org/english/voyg/54/spe/060829/index.html
Peace Boat’s 46th Voyage
www.peaceboat.org/english/voyg/pv/46/lob/0901_27/index.html
Peace Boat’s 41st Voyage
www.peaceboat.org/english/voyg/pv/41/spe/030820/index.html
www.globalkids.org/Trips/international/peaceboat2003/index.jsp
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Onboard the ship, Keiko and Liat were encouraged to take part in the daily schedule of workshops and cultural activities and in ports they participated in programs including dance groups, wire art, origami, discussion sessions on various issues ranging from native rights, to exploitation of animals, to nuclear disarmament, and other wide arrays of creative and intellectually stimulating initiatives. In ports they participated in programs including visiting a Rastafari community in Montego Bay, Jamaica, a look into the works of the canal in Colombo, Panama, home stays with families in El Salvador, and the encounter with a group of students from an American University in Acapulco, Mexico.
Currently, both young people are working on editing the footage they took onboard and Liat has begun volunteering in the Peace Boat US office. She describes her experience as:
