BIC NEW YORK — The New York Office of the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) has released a short video titled “Embracing Interdependence: Foundations for a World in Transition.”

The 8-minute film is part of the BIC’s contribution to the Summit of the Future and offers thought-provoking reflections from several youth from Bahá’í communities around the world on the Summit’s potential to foster a new understanding of collective responsibility and a peaceful world.

On Friday, the film was screened at the Road to the Summit series hosted by the BIC, which has engaged over 1,200 participants from 80 United Nations (UN) member states, 20 United Nations agencies, and hundreds of civil society organizations over the past two years.

In the film, Ella, a youth from the United States, explores the concept of a shared identity based on the oneness of humanity: “I think it can be a very scary and daunting feeling to see everything that’s happening and ask ‘How do I contribute? Where is my place in all of it?’ And we’ve tried to discover our identity by saying, ‘I’m separate from this group,’ but I don’t think that’s working for us.”

She envisions a future with a sense of “a shared identity amongst groups,” where people realize that “we’re all in this together” despite “what we might call artificial borders.”

Another youth, Khelsun from India, explores the concept of leadership as service to humanity: “Every human being is created noble. We all want the betterment of the world. True leadership means service to humanity.”

He quotes from Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, “‘The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens,’ that is the world that I would like to live in one day.”

Lindelwa, from Eswatini, emphasized the principle of universal participation, saying, “Each and every one of us has a role to play in the betterment of the world.”