What I have been up to ...This is a must see video!!!!!

In September of 2006, Mr. and Mrs. 'Ali Nakhjavání together with some 70 Bahá'ís of the Brazilian Amazon region commemorated the 30th anniversary of Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum's Green Light Expedition in the village of Iranduba, Amazonas, Brazil. Ten years ago on a similar occasion on a boat to Iranduba, Rúhíyyih Khánum spoke of her love for the indigenous people, the rainforests and the environment and explained why she believed all Bahá'ís should by vocation be ecologists. In her book "A Homage to Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum", Mrs. Violette Nakhjavání explains that Rúhíyyih Khánum's documentary about the Green Light Expedition "is… an expression of her concern for the moral as well as environmental struggle of people and places so long ignored and unjustly treated."

The Universal House of Justice in its message of May 24, 2001 voices a similar concern that "the world that Bahá'í youth are inheriting is one in which the distribution of educational, economic and other basic opportunities is greatly unjust. Bahá'í youth must not be daunted by such barriers. Their challenge is to understand the real condition of humanity and to forge enduring spiritual bonds that free them from not only the racial and national divisions but also from those created by social and material conditions, and that will fit them to carry forward the great trust reposed in them."

Furthermore, the Universal House of Justice, in its message to the Bahá'ís of the World dated January 10, 2002, has affirmed that "…the intermingling of the peoples of the world is vital to the patterns of life that the followers of Bahá'u'lláh are striving to establish and which are destined to provide an example for the rest of humanity to emulate. As the Bahá'í community continues to grow in capacity, it should give increasing attention to bringing together the diverse members of the human race in ever closer association."

These concepts have inspired the work of the World Citizenship Development Services (WCDS) and the Association for the Advancement of Citizenship in the Country (AACC) in developing the Amazon Transcultural Expeditions.

The AACC is a Bahá´í-inspired community-based organization formed by the students and the staff of an experimental rural education project in the late eighties and early nineties in the Brazilian Amazon. Using a combination of the FUNDAEC curriculum for Promoters of Rural Well-being and the courses of the Ruhi Institute, the project provided for the material and spiritual development of the youth and mobilized them to engage their communities and the school in a dialogue for community service. In a telegram dated July 2, 1989 to the National Spiritual Assembly of Brazil, the Universal House of Justice affirmed that "the project presents unique opportunity to combine basic education and the unfoldment of the spiritual destiny of the indigenous people in the Amazon".

WCDS, whose members were also among the student and staff of the experimental school in Iranduba, is promoting the Amazon Transcultural Expeditions as a pilot project for the general public through its website and through visits to schools, universities, trade shows and conferences.

Both WCDS and AACC are supported by the Office of Social and Economic Development (OSED) at the Bahá´í World Centre. WCDS in collaboration with the AACC would like to extend an invitation to Bahá'ís and their non-Bahá'í friends, schools and other educational institutions to participate in the Amazon Transcultural Expeditions.

We invite you to encourage and support rural-urban youth encounters in the Amazon for systematic cooperation for the preservation of the world's natural and cultural resources, as proposed by Agenda 21 and urged by Amatu'l-Bahá. We hope that this joint undertaking will eventually unfold to become an appropriate response to the affirmation of the Universal House of Justice that "youth can move the world" and that they should accept "a responsibility of their own for moral leadership in the transformation of society" and "become invincible champions of justice." The Amazon Transcultural Expeditions not only serve as a powerful attraction for the intermingling of urban and rural youth in favor of the environment, they also are an important component in the training of local Amazon youth in rain forest hospitality-- a non-traditional occupation with significant social and economic potential for rural communities.

The encouragement and the revenues from the expeditions also provide the means for members of the AACC and their communities "to uplift themselves and thus become self–sufficient and self- reliant… exertions [that] will conduce to the preservation of human honor so desired by Bahá'u'lláh" (from a message of the Universal House of Justice to the Bahá'ís of the World, dated October 20, 1983) Besides personal participation on an expedition, you can also help by encouraging full or partial gift certificates for youth interested in participating on an Expedition. We are currently working on tax deductible status for those who may wish to contribute to such scholarships. By signing up a group of at least five paying participants, you can be our guest on the Miami-Manaus portion of that expedition.

For more detailed information please visit our website www.wcdsonline.org. And click here to see Part 1 and Part 2 of the video.