The 5th World Youth Congress opens today
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A total of 1,400 youths from around the world gathered in Istanbul on Saturday for the two-week-long World Youth Congress to open on Sunday.
The 5th World Youth Congress, the largest gathering of youths in the world, brings together young people under the age of 25 from 147 countries.
Turkish State Minister Faruk Nafiz Ozak said at a press conference that "the purpose of the World Youth Congress is to discuss how youths can be most effective in addressing the problems facing the world and to develop sustainable youth strategies towards this end."
Fatma Nur Zengin of the World Youth Congress told Xinhua that there were two main goals of the organization.
The first one is to foster cross-cultural dialogue. The first week will feature workshops and social activities that allow all participants to share ideas as well as their own cultures with other guests.
Zengin emphasized the importance of this dialogue, saying "we even make sure to not to lodge two people from the same room overnight, in the interest of increasing exposure."
But the most important goal of the youth congress is also its central theme "imece." Imece is an old Turkish concept of volunteer collective labor, where everyone comes together to help each other out.
Ozak said that the 5th congress hopes to introduce this concept to the world and export it worldwide as a "key to addressing global development."
Towards this end, the participants will leave Istanbul during the second week and participate in local-level community programs in 26 different cities throughout Turkey.
The youth congress is part of the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture activities. It will conclude its activities on August 13, set to coincide with the August 12 start of the UN's " World Youth Year."
Organized once every two years, U.S., Morocco, Britain and Canada hosted the previous congresses.
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