Rolf Wilhelm Kungl set up Believe in Our Youth after realising that what young people were lacking was self-belief in their own value. Believe in Our Youth develops focus, creativity and entrepreneurship within young people, planting seeds of self-confidence and worth, and helping them to focus on what is right with the world as opposed to feeling hopeless in the face of all the problems they encounter.

Editor: Could you tell us a bit about the work of Believe in Our Youth?
Rolf: One of the great influences on a young person life is not just their belief in themselves but the sincere belief others have in them. Simply put, if someone sincerely believes in a young person’s value it creates a powerful, positive seed inside that young person. That seed says I am ok, I have value, I have a contribution to make. Many young people have never received that seed they need. We work at planting that seed into every young person we meet and work with. We have a simple approach. First we develop techniques to sharpen a youth’s focus (mindfulness). When our thoughts are all over the place (unfocused) it is impossible to achieve our dreams. Anyone who has achieved their dreams, their visions has had laser sharp focus. Second we start developing exercises in bringing out the Creativity that each youth has inside themselves. Everything we experience comes from our inner creativity. Third we teach Entrepreneurship. Simply put it means creating our own prosperity from our creativity and focus. For many young people in the Aboriginal community or in third world countries this is one of the best solutions to giving them a purpose.

Editor: How did you come to be involved in working with young people? What is your professional background?
Rolf: I have been an entrepreneur all my life (since the age of 11) and was giving seminars in Starting Your Own Business in Aboriginal Communities in Canada and quickly realized that the most important component of the training was mentoring, belief and motivation. I started to share (not preach) my own experiences with young people who attended my seminars and saw how important this was to their success. This is how I came to be involved in Believe In Our Youth. I also got involved in AIBDG (Aboriginal International Business Group www.aibdg.com) to start showing youth that the business opportunities were available to them all over the world and all they needed to do was expand their minds.

Editor: What do you think that the major challenges are for young people today? How do you think these challenges can be overcome?
Rolf: In my home country Canada (although I consider myself to be a citizen of the World) hundreds of thousand of young people are living lives of quiet desperation. They have no purpose in their lives, nothing to get up for. They are filled with frustration and anger. Our country is suffering from Instantitis and Denialisitis (both are serious deceases). We see greater punishment as a quick answer or simply deny that there is a problem and pretend everything is fine. Unlike in many other countries our young people do not starve physically, they starve emotionally. The major challenge for youth today is their confusion as to what is happening to the world we live in. They see the world in extreme stress and feel a sense of hopelessness. This challenge can be overcome when youth start focusing on what is right (there are so many things that are), when they start focusing on giving. It is amazing how service and giving starts to develop a purpose. Also these challenges can be overcome when we all start to see that we all share a combined responsibility towards uplifting our youth and as a result our planet.

Editor: Do you think that a sense of community can help young people to realise their goals? Is this part of what Believe in Our Youth hopes to achieve?
Rolf: It is only when we start to see that everyone is our brother and our sister that we start to see ourselves interconnected and realize that our goals and dreams are intertwined with the sense of community that we have. At Believe In Our Youth we share that it is only through community that we start to grow.

Editor: What has inspired you the most in your career?
Rolf: My greatest inspiration is in having seen how I can have an influence on those around me. Even when I thought I had no influence a young person would come to me and say thank you for having been there for them. It is then I realize that I uplift one person at a time and what uplifts them uplift me. One of my teachers said to me "Rolf, if you have helped one person achieve their dream you have paid your rent for living on this earth".

Editor: What are your hopes for the future of Believe in Our Youth?
Rolf: I hope that more and more people realize and make real that they can make a difference to a young person’s life by sincerely believing in them. That this is done one person at a time. As a result, a movement towards the upliftment and healing of all of our youth becomes as great and as important a mission as is Global Warming.