Aug 25th, 2007 - 10:23:25 |
Erick Ochieng Otieno
When we talk about youth who do something to the society worth profiling and sharing witht the whole world, we talk a bout the likes of Youth Action For Change. They have done a lot and if any body would just care to highlight their achievements in a special way by giving them a video profile so that they can expalin visually their roles and achievements in making their society a better place fo all, we could have a better world indeed. Such is the main aim of the project and we encourage every one of the youths involved in this to do some thing and let us know. So, today, we start by profiling the Youth Action for Change. And anyone interested in contacting this young person and her group may do so via the contacts given below the folowing article.
Below is a detailed History about Youth Action for Change:
History
In 2004, I was selected to attend the second OIYP in Sydney as an Action Partner, my area of action being ‘Education’. To be selected, prospective Action Partners had to present a social action plan to fall within ten different categories, which would then result in enhanced social and economic conditions for communities around the world. My plan revolved around the creation of Youth Action for Change, that had to fill in the void of youth-led organisations here in Italy. YAC had to work nationally only, helping young Italians to go to conferences and becoming global active citizens – as apathy is king here, and the Civil Society has not acknowledged its role and power to bring about changes in most urgent matters.
While at the OIYP though, I noticed that there were many young people who, admiringly, had been running their own organisations and programs for a few years, and were particularly knowledgeable in different skills such as PR, Marketing, Fundraising and so on. On the other hand, there were many more young people who, like me, were committed to do something good for their community, but lacked most skills to effectively doing so. I then decided to take the initial idea of YAC a step further, by making it a global program, so as to inspire and empower young people worldwide to become active change makers in their own communities.
I started planning for YAC shortly after the event, and the first online course – on Sustainable Development, taught by Rosa Mabel Toribio Hinostroza of Peru, also an OIYP Action Partner – was offered in January 2005.
When I first started, I had very little knowledge of youth empowerment and participation, apart from being a young person myself. I also had no track record whatsoever, and definitely had not much money to be spent on this venture. On top of it all, I was still a student and lived in Italy, a country that, despite being a G8 member, leaves no room to young people at all, unless they have support from the Church or political parties.
Volunteers and I started working hard on YAC to pull bits and pieces together, with a lot of passion and belief in this organisation, and started really small – I was operating it from my bedroom, and I still do.
It was very hard to make people understand my model of change and the unparalleled potential, especially because there were no other models to refer to, YAC was the first on of its kind. Things have not been easy throughout the journey, but people eventually started understanding what we were all about, and stopped looking at us suspiciously – at least abroad.
With major awards coming in, YAC got a lot of attention and was lucky enough to be able to present its activities at several youth conferences in the US and other countries. Unfortunately though, things have changed very little here in Italy, and we still struggle to make people understand that young people have the energy and the commitment to change things for the better, if only given the chance to do so.
About Youth Action for Change
YAC has been the first organisation ever to take the peer-to-peer methodology and apply it to offer free youth-taught online courses and activities. In the past, this methodology was mainly used in tackling issue like Reproductive Health or HIV/AIDS, while YAC successfully applied it to offer knowledge and skills in areas such as Sustainable Development, Human Rights, Gender Issues and many more. To date it has been used for some 14 online courses and initiatives, and has reached out to some 1200 young people and youth-led organisations in approximately 120 countries.
Along with our courses, we have offered edialogues with youth leaders and experts (an edialogue on ‘Trade Justice’ was offered by a former ambassador to the WTO). All of our activities are offered to participants totally free of charge, and the organisation is totally youth-led and runs on an extremely tight budget. Our teachers – young people themselves – and adult experts alike, all offer their time and expertise voluntarily.
Throughout our courses and other initiatives we also partner with organisations which can offer knowledge and expertise in the area of the current courses; for example, the current course on Sustainable Development had the opening speech made by the UNEP Director for Asia and the Pacific, and a chat with the Director of the Earth Charter Youth Initiative. As a matter of fact, all of our courses offer both, theoretical as well as practical knowledge and skills, and participants are required to submit essays, complete wiki entries and, above all, reach to their peers who have no internet access as well as their communities with small community development programs, thus effectively acting as multipliers and change makers (starting mall youth-led initiatives is a prerequisite for obtaining a certificate of completion in many of our courses). Thanks to our courses, young people in Pakistan successfully lobbied to have a regional youth policy drafted and implemented, young people in Kenya biked around the country to spread information about HIV/AIDS and young people in the Philippines trained human rights activists to document violations in indigenous communities.
Because of our groundbreaking activities, YAC has received several praises and awards from organisation the likes of the UN, the World Bank, Oxfam IYP, Ashoka, Associated Press, OneWorld, IYF/Nokia, the Council of Europe and many others. YAC is also the only youth-led organisation in Italy to be member of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN-DESD) and the only youth-led organisation in Europe to be part of the Community of Expertise on ‘Youth Social Technopreneurship’ of the UN Global Alliance of ICTs and Development (UN-GAID).
Selene Biffi
Youth Action for Change (YAC)
Founder
It was a day like no other when the youth got together to share what they have been doing in an exhibition organized by the UN-Habitat to celebrate the International Youths Day.
This was one of the opportunity of the opportunity for the youths to showcase their achievements.
As this project portends, we are going to see how this will have an impact on the process of inspiring other youths and organizations with orientation towards youths go along to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals MDGs.
Above is a short clip of the day's event and more of it will be released soon which will cover the whol speach of the speakers together with the yuoths exhibitions.
Aug 7th, 2007 - 00:34:36 |
Erick Ochieng Otieno
Hi to you all, I welcome you to view this short clip on the environment and help spread the gospel. These are some of the small but equally important events youths have and they however minute they seem, they help create a difference.
If we could just let the world see through their eyes, I believe we will be in a position to achieve the MDGs even before 2015.
Jul 31st, 2007 - 11:18:50 |
Erick Ochieng Otieno
I would like to welcome all the members to this group. I hope we shall have the chance to develop our youthful ideas by encouraging others to participate through inspiring them. I shall be capturing youths involved in various project and getting to share their experience with others all over the world. Anyperson with any Idea is welcome. The main agenda behind this initiative is to encourage youth participation. All are welcome.
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