Ana Maria Martinez
Age 24 – Argentina
I am Anita and I’m 24 years old. I’m from Argentina, where I currently live. I’m a journalist studying to get a degree in Social Communication.
All my life I’ve tried to put in practice the “Golden Rule” present in all religions of the world, which basically says: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. For some years I have been going to an asylum in my city where homeless men live, trying to share some time with them, playing cards and games… it was not a big thing to do but at some level I know it helped me and people around to brake barriers and prejudices and the best part was getting to know amazing men who were in a difficult moment of their lives and maybe putting a little of me to help them move on and get on with their lives.
Last year I spent one year in Rome, Italy at the Center of the Youth for a United World .
In Italy I worked in many Peace projects, participating in workshops and Peace conferences . With other Youths we created a platform to grow the conscience about the war in Syria and the refugees’ situation going on all over the world. We even launched a Change.org petition we called “#SignUpForPeace” (which we propagated on facebook and other social networks) to make an Appeal to present to the big institutions of the world.
I also had to chance to participate on the First Youth World Peace Forum in Cairo, Egypt and to the World Peace Forum 2015 in Luxembourg where I could get to know and connect to a lot of people involved in peace projects.
Peace to me is a right we all have to live peacefully with ourselves and with the others, at all levels. And I think that the basis to achieve peace is respect and empathy.