Dharamshala: The recently concluded second Five–Fifty Youth Forum brought together Tibetan youth from different geographical and professional backgrounds, in order to deliberate on realizing the vision behind the Five–Fifty initiative of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). The participants of the Forum were in mutual agreement that the onus of responsibility is primarily on the youth themselves instead of relying completely on the Administration. As a follow up to this resolution, a website dedicated to the Five–Fifty vision, www.fivefiftyyouthforum.net, and a shared platform for Five–Fifty Youth Forums’ participants on Ryver, a collaborative digital tool, was launched today at a Press Conference facilitated by the Department of Information and International Relations, CTA.
The website would be accessible in both English and Tibetan.
Also launched today was a digital collaboration tool, Ryver. Ryver is a digital platform which can be used by participants of the Five–Fifty Youth Forums as a shared space for collaboration on and management of projects. It will also facilitate a continuous and constructive discussion on how to implement the recommendations of the Youth Forums as well as fulfilling the objectives of the Five–Fifty initiative.
These digital initiatives are aimed at:
- Creating a digital platform for the Tibetan youth in general and for the past and future Five-Fifty Youth Forum participants in particular, in order to build communicative networks amongst each other for discussions on various important issues as well as for collaborating on potential enterprises together.
- Hosting a repository of information and data on previously held Five–Fifty Youth Forums, the recommendations formulated during each of them and updates on relevant official announcements from the C.T.A. The website would also track the implementations of these recommendations to build accountability while also highlighting the ‘Action Plans’ initiated by the participants within their own respective communities after attending the Youth Forums.
- To encourage more of the Tibetan youth to participate in future Five–Fifty Youth Forums as well as initiate their own projects within their own communities and capacities. It is vital to keep up the momentum and passion generated after the completion of each Forum and achieving this objective would make it possible to do so.
Both these initiatives are headed, managed and financed by the participants of the Five–Fifty Youth Forums.
Addressing the press conference, Secretary Tsewang Gyalpo Arya, DIIR explained the term Five-Fifty. He said, “the term is often misinterpreted to be a set time for achieving the goals laid out by CTA which it isn’t. The overarching view is to bring all Tibetans together and collectively strive for the freedom of Tibetans living in Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet.”
“Due to extraneous factors and conditions, if we do not succeed and our struggle continues for 30-40 years longer, we should have a strong foundation that will nurture our cause, that is what is meant by Five-Fifty.”
He further added, “Though the CTA is involved in it, the youth have larger responsibility in the project for it being a youth initiative. If the vision is not achieved in the set duration, it will be the youth who will carry forward the vision.”
He then thanked Five-Fifty ambassador Mr Lhorang and Ms Tenzin Dolma for their role in the project as well as the other volunteers working for its success who were not present at the press launch today.
Ms Tenzin Dolma gave a brief overview of how the website and the application would work. She mentioned those who had worked on building the website namely, Tsering Dhargyal, Samdup and herself.
“The action page is the most important aspect of the website which will highlight the work done by the participants of 5/50 youth leadership. We have divided the action into different regions and we have shown what actions are being implemented at the moment in these regions. These actions are implemented by the initiatives of the individuals voluntarily. The importance of this action page is that there will be more 5/50 forums going on moving forward so participants will be able to see what has only been implemented by past participants and what needs to be implemented, and these implementations are based on the recommendations that were generated during our action plan meeting on the third day of the conference.”
“Ryver is a very unique application in which you get different set of tools, activities at the same time so it will help you manage tasks, help you assign tasks. It’s a very good communication tool with voice calling, video calling and screen sharing as well. Ryver is only for participants who will be able to discuss issues on the forum,” said Dolma.
5/50 ambassador Mr Lharong said, “Our deep gratitude goes out to all the individuals and associations that have assisted our efforts and particularly to the CTA for organizing the Five-Fifty Youth Forums. We hope that our endeavours will be able to assist the Tibetan youth, in any small way, to realize their immense potential and contribute to the political, social, economic and cultural struggle of the Tibetan people inside and outside Tibet.”
The Five-Fifty Youth Forum is a youth platform facilitated and organized by the Department of Information and International Relations, Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). The first Five-Fifty Youth Forum was held in August 2018 engaging over 100 Tibetan youth with excellent educational, professional background and a dedicated commitment to the Tibetan community. The Forum is held over several days in Dharamsala, India, allowing youth to learn about CTA and create a platform to exchange views and deliberate on recommendations for Action Plans to be implemented post the conclusion of each Forum. During the Forum the participants can network with promising Tibetan youth from around the world that are determined to restore freedom and dignity in Tibet, contribute to Tibetan society inside and outside Tibet and work towards making the world a better place.