YPFDJ members from all over North America & Europe made their way to a camp site two hours outside of Toronto. Participants came from Boston, Oakland, Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, Minnesota, Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, Dallas, Orlando, New York, Florida, Cincinnati, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa & Toronto. The conference was also attended by YPFDJ members from European cities of London, Oslo & Stockholm. Youth leaders presented reports on their respective cities, states and countries.

The newly-appointed Eritrean Ambassador to Canada, Ambassador Ahferom Berhane and the Eritrean Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Ghirmai Gebremariam gave keynote speeches at the conference. Heads of PFDJ in North America as well as YPFDJ organizers from the greater Toronto area were great hosts and worked very hard to make this conference a success.

The conference’s guest of honor Mr. Yemane Gebreab, Political Advisor to the President of Eritrea and head of Political Affairs for PFDJ, briefed the YPFDJ members about the current situation in Eritrea. This annual conference’s goal is to build a strong, conscious and patriotic youth movement.

This year’s conference convened under the theme “building a viable and sustainable nation” The conference included very intense educational sessions that explained the way forward for Eritrea and the challenges facing it as it continues to transition to the next generation of Eritreans who will be responsible for maintaining, developing and protecting a viable and sustainable nation.

The three-day conference brought together many Eritrean minds with diverse knowledge and experience. Mr. Yemane used poignant examples from other nations’ as well as references to past and present intellectuals and politicians to educate the youth. And the context in which the political education took place made it one of the most interesting conferences. The participants committed themselves to defend Eritrea against the sinister smear campaign being waged to defame, demonize, and alienate the State of Eritrea.

Some of the other activities at the conference included poetry reading, viewing of a video and discussing it, a jeopardy game presented by Eritrean Youth from Colorado, musical talent exposition, brain-storming, idea-sharing sessions and question & answer sessions. Participants also took time out to get to know each other, enjoy patriotic songs as well as musical performance by YPFDJ members from Canada whose musical skills that can match to the best of the best.    

The conference concluded with the creation of sub-committees to follow-up on assignments and resolutions.

In Pictures: 

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