Kurdish Youth of America to Host Second Annual Kurdish Youth Festival

You may know that we, the Kurdish youth of North America, have a vibrant and active community. You may even know that in the US, we’ve hosted numerous gatherings, including Newroz celebrations, festivals, conferences, picnics, educational seminars, fashion shows, dance exhibitions and other cultural events. In fact, we even came together to launch a very successful Breast Cancer Awareness campaign.

Each year since 2007, we’ve also held an annual conference. In 2010, we launched our First Annual Kurdish Youth Festival from January 15-17. Thanks to the excitement and funds these conferences generate, we’ve been able to expand our impact through a wide variety of outreach programs, events and volunteer opportunities every year. All of these activities have been specifically designed to educate and inspire our guests to better function, organize and mobilize within their communities.

Coming up next, from January 7-9, 2011, we will be hosting our largest, most exciting event ever! The Second Annual Kurdish Youth Festival promises to be a truly unforgettable experience. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of Kurdish American Youth Organization (KAYO), Kurdish Youth Club (KYC) and California Kurdish Cultural (Community) Center, this three-day festival will feature a wide variety of programs, including inspirational and thought-provoking guest speakers, amazing musicians, artists and performers, debates and roundtable and panel discussions. Guests will have the opportunity to participate in workshops and seminars on an even wider variety of topics, such as Kurdish film, literature, music, history, language, dance, human rights, Kurdish women’s issues, health, politics, community organization and mobilization, society, current events, and entrepreneurship (wow, that was a mouthful). Getting excited yet? Wait, it gets better…

Back for its second year will be our most popular event, “Kurds Got Talent”. This delightful display will showcase the unique, diverse and amazing talents of our youth and is open for all to participate. All guests are welcome to participate and prizes will be awarded to the top performers. The last show was so successful, we just couldn’t imagine doing next year’s festival without another one!

Finally, we are deeply honored to announce that educational scholarships will be provided to two lucky Kurdish students during the festival, one boy and one girl. After all, Kurdish youth deserve access to a good education. With that education, we are sure to become the next generation of political leaders, teachers, scientists, mathematicians, doctors, engineers, writers, artists, activists, make vast contributions to our local communities and ultimately shape the future of Kurdistan.

That’s where you come in. Wondering how this affects you? Well, we hope you will all make every effort to attend, of course! We can’t have the biggest Kurdish Youth Festival ever without you! But in order to make this festival a success and set the stage for another year of expanded outreach and programming, we need the generous support of people just like you!

The bottom line is, we need to raise $10,000 by November 2010 in order to cover all of the festival-related expenses.

You are probably thinking, “That is a lot of money…where does it all go?” It’s pretty simple, really. We need to pay for the conference hall, provide honorarium, transportation and lodging for our guest speakers and performers, cover costs of advertising and ticketing, sound and lighting equipment, catering, DJ, film crew, tables, chairs, party decorations, signage, prizes for our contest winners and last but not least, we want to provide the maximum scholarship amount possible to our two lucky students. It’s easy to see how these things can really add up and we just can’t do it without you!

No donation is too large or too small! Every dollar counts! Of course, all donations are tax deductible and we’ll provide you with a receipt for your taxes, too! Please take this opportunity to make a contribution in any amount and most of all, we hope to see you there!

For more information about the Second Annual Kurdish Youth Festival or for directions and accommodations, please visit our website at www.kurdishyouthfestival.org.