2015 One World WonTok Youth Conference

May 5, 2015

What do you get when you mix 400 young social justice leaders with two church agencies and a special guest from the Philippines?

The One World WonTok Youth Conference – and a much brighter future for all!

Now in its fourth year, the One World WonTok Youth Conference uses a series of hands-on activities to engage students from Uniting Church and Anglican schools in complex issues of poverty and development.

This year students created solar cookers in South Sudan, played an interactive computer game on farming  in developing countries, lived a precarious existence in the fictitious Tie Islands, brainstormed a sanitation project in rural PNG and grappled with the complexities of universal education.

The students also met with Gideon Bustamante, a project officer from ABM’s church partner in the Philippines. Gideon talked about his harrowing experiences during Typhoon Haiyan and explored with students the benefits of ‘strengths–‐based’ community development projects. Students in the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Perth also had the opportunity to meet with young volunteer Alex Baker, who shared his recent volunteering experiences in the Solomon Islands and North India and talked through how the students themselves can get involved.

“The aim behind Wontok is not only to interest and engage young people in global justice, but to actively equip them to become peer leaders in their own schools and communities. These young people are intelligent, energetic and extraordinarily well connected through social media.

When they become passionate advocates for global justice, the opportunities for a fairer, more compassionate world are almost limitless”, said WonTok facilitator Brad Chapman.

The One World Wontok Conference is a unique collaboration between Anglican Board Mission and UnitingWorld. The conference this year ran from 28 April – 8 May and visited Anglican and Uniting Church schools in the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne.

Students at the One World WonTok Conference hosted by Coomera
Anglican College. © ABM/Greg Henderson 2015