Orientation prog for NE youth leaders held

CHANDIGARH, Sep 26: Twenty-four youth leaders from all eight northeastern states participated in an ‘Orientation-cum-meeting of NE youth leaders and student organisation leaders’, organised here in Punjab by the Don Bosco Navjeevan Society (DBNS) on Wednesday.
The programme, an initiative of the Itanagar (Arunachal)-based Don Bosco Youth Centre (DBYC), in collaboration with the DBNS, was conducted in view of the 5th edition of the North East Youth Fest (NEYF), scheduled to be held here from 12 November.
DBYC director Fr Cyriac briefed the participants on the origin and aims of organising the NEYF, and spoke about “how some unfortunate incidents that took place in the lives of Northeast youths inspired the DBYC to rise to the occasion.”
He said the NEYF “should not be just yet another ‘festival’ but should be an educative, entertaining and morally good activity which should bring changes for the better in the lives of all of you.”
He also acknowledged the support the festival received from Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu when the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development here found it difficult to support the event.
Fr Cyriac exhorted the youth leaders to “make a paradigm shift in leadership style and go the Mahatma Gandhi way in keeping with the Mahatma’s 150th birth anniversary coming up this year.”
DBNS director Fr Regi suggested “having at least one state-wise meeting to finalize the role of each state in the festival.”
Fr Regi led the leaders in an open discussion, during which the young leaders worked out the modalities for organising the NEYF this year, with the theme, ‘Peaceful India, progressive India’.
The logistics that would be involved in organising the festival were also discussed.