Felicity Gibson, 22, was interested in understanding other countries – not just seeing them through a camera or tour bus window.

The conference got going at a quick pace, we spent all day on the Sunday (first day) in conference sessions, hearing from different speakers and having discussions on different issues.

Youth worker Kevin Grimwood is in Cape Town, South Africa attending the 16 th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (16CCEM) Youth Forum.

The forum I attended was set up as a way to discuss the government’s role and progress in children and youth rights and to allow the opportunity for youth, government and NGO representatives to collaborate around these issues. This meeting was the first forum where youth, governmental and non-governmental agencies came together to discuss the rights of children outlined by UNCROC.

8 members of Just Focus are heading over to Tahiti in July to participate in the Pacific Youth Festival. It is the first festival of its kind and aim to give Pacific youth the chance to have their voice heard and create their own youth charter - something which was severely lacking in the World Youth Festival of which this is an offshoot. Meet the team!

Leah Millis, a 17 year old American friend of Just Focus member Geoff Cooper, describes her trip to Haiti. She mulls over the word “beautiful” in this very different context.

“Brewing Hope” is building relationships between student coffee drinkers and Mexican coffee growers. Just Focus member Grace Leung travelled to Chiapas in Mexico to meet the local coffee farmers. She shares her experience and thoughts.

Just Focus member Geoff Cooper shares his thoughts and experiences from his visit to Haiti. “It was a full on trip to a country that few of my family wanted me to visit! The first question that I was asked on my arrival back in NZ was “were you surprised at the level of poverty?”

On Monday March 20 at noon, in the heart of Auckland’s Central Business District, one thousand high school students who had walked out of school that morning rallied to demand an end to youth rates. The students were demonstrating the power of collective direct action

Tim Park from Wellington is volunteering in Tanzania with V.S.A. and shares his stories and photographs with us.