Yuva Sadbhav 2023 brought together around 50 Youth from four different colleges to facilitate genuine dialogue among youth, create interreligious awareness, overcome prejudice and foster a mind-set of solidarity and harmonious living. This one-day Inter-Religious activity was held on 21 October at Pilar Pilgrim Centre, Pilar Goa. Yuva Sadbhav is project of Sadbhav – an endeavour of the Society of Pilar to foster Interfaith relations and communal harmony.
Tallulah D’Silva, a noted environmentalist and youth motivator, was one of the facilitator. She conducted a forest trail on the Pilar Hillock and highlighted the theme of Harmonious Living: Learning with Nature. Falak Naz, a First Year BCom student of Fr. Agnel college, Pilar, Goa, said “I enjoyed the nature trail along with other young people. My attention was drawn to the biodiversity in the forest and the harmony that exist in nature”.
Sangeeta Naik, media analyst, facilitated a session on theme of Harmonising Humanity: using Social Media for Unity. Meda Sravani a Third year BA student of Carmel College, Nuvem, Goa said that “this session enlightened her on how they could use social media to create positivity and unity in the society”. Asim Shaikh, a software engineer and Interfaith educator spoke on the role of Youth as leaders to address social problems. He focused on the issue of drugs enslaving today’s youth and how youngsters should take leadership in reaching out to them in liberating them.
Elaine Coelho, a school educator and former participant of Yuva Sadbhav 2022 shared her perspective as a Youth on how to live in harmony. She spoke of her experiences and challenges related to religious intolerance and suggested ways to practice harmony through their personal relationship with God through prayer. She further said that “coming back after a year, I am definitely returning as a more inspired individual who will strive to pass on the message of peaceful living with other communities”.
At the outset of the programme, Fr. Elvis Fernandes the convenor of Sadbhav presented the Keynote address on the Inter-Religious Dialogue: Need of the hour. He spoke on what Dialogue is and what it is not. He further explained the meaning of Inter-religious dialogue and said that Dialogue of Life and Dialogue of Action hold priority in Inter-Religious Dialogue. Dialogue of Life calls for manifesting human values such as respect, fellowship, hospitality, solidarity and brotherhood while Dialogue of Action calls for common commitment to justice and liberation by members of different Faith tradition.
The one-day programme concluded with the students discussing in groups on the learnings and how to integrate them in their lives as youth. They also spoke on how they could foster values of peace, interfaith harmony and solidarity in their neighbourhood and institutions. The entire programme was ably compered by Marisha Gonsalves, Second year BA student of Fr. Agnel college, Pilar, Goa.
