Peace is built through everyday actions, in daily conversations, interactions, and choices. As Desmond Tutu said, “Do your little bits of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

Global Youth Volunteers hold service projects right before the Global Peace Festival 2010 Southeast Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Across the Global Peace Foundation (GPF) family, this philosophy takes root through the leadership and service of young people. From Indonesia to Nepal, the United States, Nigeria, and the Philippines, GPF youth are helping bring communities together and create lasting impact from the grassroots level. Whether caring for the environment, strengthening interfaith relationships, or leading community service, young people are taking ownership of the values they believe in.

Here are five ways GPF youth are building peace one day at a time.

1. Service and Volunteerism

GPF youth contribute to their communities through volunteerism and service projects, from cleanup drives and educational outreach to community development initiatives. Since 2010, young volunteers have responded to local needs, collaborated across communities, and brought diverse groups of people together to strengthen social cohesion and peace.

Young leaders pack LED solar lanterns to help villages that suffered super typhoons Yolanda and Haiyan.

2. Peace Starts with Self

In the Philippines, GPF Philippines and its partners are advancing Better Days: A Youth Mental Health Caravan, a program that encourages young people to take ownership of their mental health and well-being through meaningful conversations and shared action.

GPF youth also volunteered with the All-Lights Village program, where they conducted hygiene awareness sessions, creative workshops, mural painting, and the installation of solar lanterns and streetlights around a school. These efforts show how youth service can address practical needs while building hope, dignity, and community connection.

3. Environmental Stewardship

1 Million Tree Planting Campaign 2023

Young people are also serving as environmental stewards for peace. From Nepal to Kenya, GPF youth volunteers are taking ownership of environmental peacebuilding through tree-planting campaigns, sustainability projects, restoration activities, and conservation efforts. By caring for shared spaces and natural resources, young people strengthen responsibility, teamwork, and community resilience.

4. Dialogue for Peace

GPF youth initiatives encourage interfaith dialogue, intercultural exchange, and collaborative service. In Brazil, initiatives such as Pills for Peace and Conversations that Connect promote nonviolent communication, volunteerism, and conflict resolution through honest, open conversation.

These programs create safe spaces where people from different backgrounds, beliefs, and communities can listen, understand one another, and work toward peace together.

Linnes Chamadenga, a Global Peace Women Sunshine Family Volunteer, organizes an innovative program to bring families closer in Malawi.

5. Peace Begins in the Home

Young women involved with GPF and Global Peace Women (GPW) are advancing the idea that peace begins within families and homes. Through initiatives such as Sunshine Family Volunteers, the Family Stories Campaign, and various service projects, young women are strengthening families and communities one relationship, one home, and one issue at a time.

For more than a decade, GPF has believed in the power of youth as partners in peacebuilding. Across the world, GPF and its affiliates are demonstrating that peace is built step by step through volunteerism, service, dialogue, and environmental stewardship.

With every conversation that bridges divides, every tree planted, every act of service, and every family strengthened, young people show that peace is not only an ideal for the future. It is something we can build together in everyday life.