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In recognition of the fact that young people may have special needs and interests, the WSA has a Subud youth activities program (SYA). The aims of this are to provide: special gatherings and events such as youth camps where young people can interact amongst themselves as well as others; spaces and opportunity for exchange; networking for young people to express their ideas and suggestions so that the concerns, questions and needs of young people can be addressed and answered; encouragement in the support of projects for young people.
 The coordinators of SYA attend World Subud Council meetings so that young people can have a direct voice on the council. During the 2010 World Congress at was decided that there would be youth coordinators for each of the three geographic Subud Areas: with Lucinda Young and Roland Fraval for Australasia, Theresa Boyd and Steven Martin for Europe and Africa, and Alexandra Woodward, Miguel Bocanegra and Ricardo Arratia (missing from photo) for the Americas. YOUTH PROJECTS Recently young people have spearheaded various projects, sometimes in conjunction with other WSA affiliates. Thus Alex Woodward launched the ‘Volunteers without Tears’ program with SDIA to help pinpoint the needs of both projects and volunteers and how they can serve each other’s needs. Pierce Vaughn created the film web site www.Subudvideo.net with SICA for Subud filmmakers to present their work and to network. Other projects are underway such as Immanuel Bryson Haynes’ ‘Subudearth,’ a database for Subud travellers wanting to access details of Subud groups around the world. INTERNATIONAL YOUTH TRAVEL FUND The IYTF was established to help finance the exchanges between young Subud members, their participation in Subud events and their travel expenses for volunteer and mentoring projects. MSF donated the first amount of USD $20,000 US to the International Youth Travel Fund. This fund is managed by the International Youth Coordinators, along with members of MSF, the WSA Executive and international helpers. Björn and Mark Vaughn have built a program to make the management of the fund and the applications easy and user-friendly. Together the team reviews applications and determines in which way to help applicants financially. Thus young members from around the world have been assisted to either visit congresses or gatherings far from home or to attend an SDIA project as a volunteer. The application form can be downloaded here. It is available in four other languages by writing to wsa@subud.org. Within the IYTF a particular effort was made by the youth and many groups to fundraise monies specifically to help young people attend World Congress. This effort benefitted from the extra support of the Muhammad Subuh Foundation (MSF) and the Guerrand-Hermes Foundation for Peace (GHFP) who offered matching funds. A grand total, including matching funds, of USD $90,000 was raised to assist approximately 65 young people to attend the congress in January 2010.
THE FUTURE OF SYA The former youth coordinators, Rhyana Blakeley and Hamilton Manley worked with young Subud members on a paper titled: 'Envisioning the International Youth Structure,' which may be downloaded here. The aim was find a more ideal organizational form for the networking and communication needs for younger members as well as unopened youth.
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