Egypt Sponsors International Peace Camp for Youth Sharm El-Sheikh Sends Peace Message to the World

Our march towards peace was enjoyable and full of life. I felt very proud as we moved forward to confirm the message of peace, unity and solidarity..

Mrs. Mubarak

By these words, Mrs. Mubarak expressed her appreciation for the peace march that proceeded in Sharm El-Sheikh where Mary Eisenhower, the grand daughter of the late American president participated by walking next to Egypt's first lady along with a huge number of young men and women, who represent the various cultures and races all over the world. In addition, there was a number of Egyptian officials, salient of whom were the Ministers of Tourism, Youth and Health.

The march proceeded for 2 km in Sharm El-Sheikh city. It was part of the activities of the International Camp for Peace which is organized for the first time in Egypt collaboration with People To People Association and Suzanne Mubarak's Woman International Movement for Peace.


The idea was crystallized during the talks held between Mrs. Mubarak, the head of SMWIMP and Mrs. Eisenhower, the head of People To People Association on the margin of the works of Woman and International Peace Conference held by SMWIMP in Sharm El-Sheikh in September 2002. They both agreed on establishing the International Peace Camp for Youth in order to let young people from various places all over the world meet together with their different thoughts and cultures.


Also, to make those young men& women exchange their cultural and educational experiences. This is by intermingling within different groups, and through programmes that help in building the future of the coming leaders. Moreover, the Camp aims to establish a mechanism for solving problems as well as for training on interaction and dialogue through bringing the participants viewpoints on the essential international subjects closer.

Activities of the International Peace Camp for Youth

The Camp was held in Sharm El-Sheikh for ten days. Sixty young men and women representing most of the world countries participated in the Camp including youth delegations from Bahrain, Emirates, Yemen, Morocco, United States, England, Germany, Colombia, Kenya and Egypt.

The Camp started in Cairo by the release of 1,000 doves in front of the Egytptian Museum as a symbol of peace and freedom. Also, the participants sent e-mails to the specialized institutes and centres for peace and youth all over the world. Furthermore, in the International Park, the young men & women planted trees representing the participating countries as a way to express interaction and friendship among all.

In addition, there were several other activities carried out by the youth in the other Egyptian cities, specially in Luxor and Aswan. Finally, the Camp crowned its programme with the peace march in Sharm El-Sheikh, in which many prominent figures have participated.

Among these figures were Andreas Pastrana, the former president of the Republic of Colombia, Mrs. Cilia Sundaes, the grand daughter of Winston Churchill; the former Prime Minister of Britain, and the head of Churchill Peace Association, Caul Gwatem, the vice-president of UNICEF, in addition to 400 members of "People To People" Association, 5,000 tourists and the youth of the Camp.


The Youth Camp: Symbol for Peace... Message from Egypt

In her words at the closure of the march, Mrs. Mubarak affirmed that the 10-day Camp held in Egypt, which included broad-minded young people from different nations and cultures, was a real proof that peace and mutual understanding could be achieved. She expressed her pleasure with the peace march which affirmed the message of peace, unity and power sent from Egypt.

Also, she told the participants that the trees they planted in Cairo with love, optimism and strong will would turn into a long-term deep-rooted friendship. Furthermore, she emphasized that this International Peace Camp for Youth sent to the world an important message that the participants knew each other closely and thus got acquainted with their different cultures.

This helped in correcting the false stereotyped ideas, particularly about Arabs and Muslims. Everybody became sure that all the peoples of the world want to live in peace. Within such framework, Mrs. Mary Eisenhower confirmed that the peace Camp held in Egypt in cooperation with Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak's Woman International Movement had accomplished a sort of interaction among the youths of 31 different nationalities. Those youths would convey to their families and peoples all the ideas they had learned on the achievement of peace.

In return, these ideas will spread all over the world, so peace and understanding will prevail. Accordingly, the Camp had succeeded to a great extent in achieving its main aim.The Peace Camp is a great experience..we are grateful to the Egyptian's warm welcoming, say world Youth.

The youths who participated in the Camp stressed that the activities and the aims of the Camp did succeed in creating an opportunity for youths of different nationalities and cultures to interact.

My visit to Egypt will not be the last, because I enjoyed knowing the Pharaonic civilization. I will convey to my friends the different views which I learned in the Camp about how to achieve peace, said Abd ar-Rahman Khaleefa, a 15-year-old Bahrainian young man summing up his experience in the Youth Camp. Also, Brigette Flanigan, a 17-year-old American young girl said that she was overwhelmed with the great kindness and warm welcoming of the Egyptian people.

Moreover, she hoped every single person in the United States would know such deep-rooted civilization, which was faced in the West with misunderstanding and the delusion of mass-media. Githry Shindy, a 15-year-old Indian young girl, had the same opinion saying that she visited Egypt for the first time and that she had liked very much the monumental sights in addition to the kind hospitality and warm welcoming of the Egyptian people. While Afidif Simon, a 14-year-old Romanian young man said that he could never say in words how much he is glad for being in Egypt.

People To People Association Branch in Egypt

Mrs. Mary Eisenhower announced the inauguration of the 81st branch of People To People association in Cairo, on the closure of the activities of the International Camp for Peace. The Branch will be headed by Mrs. Suzane Mubarak, the head of Suzane Mubarak's Woman International Movement for Peace. It is worth mentioning that one of the main goals of both the Movement and the Association was to achieve mutual comprehension and dialogue among peoples.

People To People Association is one of the largest international associations. It has more than 150,000 members and over 80 branches worldwide. It was established in 1956 by the former American President Eisenhower who experienced the devastations of wars, which made him establish the association in order to create a larger opportunity for international popular dialogue.

Concomitantly, Suzane Mubarak's Woman International Movement for Peace was established in September 2002. It is considered to be the first woman initiative for peace in the Middle East. Following the same path of People To People Association, the Movement seeks to communicate with the various organizations, agencies and peace movements so as to settle disputes, reach compromises, reconstruct and provide the necessary programme for all parties to join peace powers, enhance the effects of individual initiatives, and achieve a common vision for the role of woman in both official and non-official peace processes.

exportation or because of their internal belief in the importance of environment conservation and in the availability of achieving their work through environmental efficiency mechanisms. The number of companies that, on industry level, have the ISO 14000, or environmental quality mark, and that, in tourism, have the Green Star are increasing daily.


Education and Environmental Awareness

There are several programmes for including environmental culture in the curricula of different education stages to achieve the long-term goal, i.e. to graduate a new generation aware of environment conservation and protection. Concerning environmental awareness, there is a great number of campaigns for increasing environmental awareness, each of which has been organized for certain segment of the society.

Moreover, in all the Ministry's projects, there is a component for environmental awareness. This component aims at increasing environmental awareness in industry, services, and other sectors of more priority. Besides, it supports a great number of private associations, which are considered the main mechanisms in censorship as well as in increasing the environmental awareness.

The number and capabilities of these associations began to increase, particularly after being supported through the programmes that increase their capabilities as well as their participation in several projects. Besides, the Ministry provides, through Environment Protection Fund, a number of scholarships for developed programmes for increasing awareness, organized by private associations. In addition to that, a great number of conferences and domestic, regional and international seminars all over Egypt's governorates are being held, a great number of magazines publications and periodicals are is being issued, and a great number of T.V. programmes and other media channels for increasing environmental awareness is being produced.

The Egyptian Achievements to Maintain Ozone Layer

Egypt signed Montreal Agreement in 1987 to maintain the Ozone Layer (the 23rd state to sign). The Agreement comprised programmes for selecting and exchanging scientific data and technological methods. The aim is to guarantee replacing the substances that cause the depletion of the Ozone layer, such as Chloroflor, Carbon, and other prohibited substances which were defined by the protocol as well as to find out other safe alternatives on the environmental level.

Egypt was committed to its international duties. She began modernizing the industry sector, according to a timetable, to the extent that, it now, agrees with the required state in 2002. Within the framework of the international environment day, on which the United Nation's developmental programme titled "Water: Two Million People Die of Thirst" was organized, EGYPT reviewed the Ministry's projects such as moving polluters outside the Greater Cairo, the safe usage of treated sanitary drainage water in planting wooden forests, and planting the green belt around Cairo.