Nobel Peace Laureates Pair With Students at 'PeaceJam' Conference

Six Nobel Peace Prize winners are visiting the campus of Loyola Marymount University for a three-day conference. KPCC's Brian Watt says they'll be exchanging ideas with 3,000 young people from around the world.

Brian Watt: The non-profit PeaceJam matches Nobel Peace Laureates with young people conducting community service projects. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa arrived at the conference and spoke of a recent trip to the Sudan.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: There is a great deal of evil in the world today. But we have also got to say, isn't it extraordinary the amount of good there is as well?

Watt: Thirteen-year-old Sasha Kanji of Malibu is sharing some of the good he's doing, in a presentation to Archbishop Tutu. Kanji has visited refugee camps in the Sudan. He's raising money to replace a school he saw.

Sasha Kanji: It's just like a dirt floor with a bunch of rubble and rocks, and you know, the bricks are falling out of the wall, and I just said, you know, I have my school, and I kind of take it for granted, and these kids are so excited about going to school in this type of building, let's give 'em a better one.

Watt: Kanji hopes to get feedback and inspiration from Tutu, and PeaceJam organizers hope young people around the world will follow Kanji's example. They've launched a Global Call to Action to inspire 1 billion acts of peace over the next 10 years.