WCAR is short for the United Nation's World Conference Against Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance. Thus, WCAR.

WCAR was held in Durban, South Africa, and was composed of a number of different gatherings. Global Kids traveled with two staff members and two Global Kids youth leaders to participate in both the youth and adult forums.

The first evening and following day was occupied by the Youth Summit, a severely under-funded attempt to give youth their own place to address the issues of the conference. The Youth Summit was followed by the NGO Forum (NGO stands for Non-Governmental Organizations), in which 14,000 people from around the world came together to educate each other about the local issues affecting their lives. The NGO Forum was followed by the official WCAR, in which governmental representatives (and, occasionally, leaders as well) came together to develop a joint statement against racism. During both adult-oriented gatherings, there were many opportunities for young people (defined by the U.N. as those thirty or younger) to work together to influence the final documents.

During these many gatherings, GK went on a local safari and did workshops for a national, grassroots peace organization called Umtapo.

While we were there we used the Internet to report our activities to youth around the world. Extra!, the youth section of PBS's Newhour.org, posted the daily diaries you will find on this site, and Manhattan Neighborhood Network's Youth Channel did the same.

We are grateful to the Robert Bowne Foundation for supporting the activities of the Global Kids upon their return from South Africa. The young people continued to focus on racial and ethnic discrimination in New York City and around the world. During 2001-2002, they refined written materials about the conference and posted them on the website. They also conducted research, designed and facilitated workshops for peers in schools and at the GK annual conference, and led a campaign for immigrant rights.