The World Youth Meeting is less than a week away! The meeting is designed not only to equip hundreds of youth volunteers worldwide with training to face humanitarian challenges in areas such as disaster management, capacity building, health and safety, and principles and values, but even more importantly, to empower participants to act as multipliers when they return home. The meeting is especially exciting because it is designed for youth by youth.
As a member of the Steering Committee for the meeting, I met and worked with youth leaders from ten different national societies around the world as we discussed curriculum and logistics. Each day, there will be 12 parallel workshops presented by different societies. For example, the ARC will be presenting a youth leadership session where we will highlight some of the amazing things all of you are doing! At the end of each session, a statement will be added to the Youth Declaration which will be a “call to action” presented to international leaders in Geneva after the meeting to highlight the importance of youth volunteerism in addressing local and global issues.
Overall, we hope the meeting will not only be an action-packed week of learning from our peers around the world, but will facilitate an increase in the number of youth volunteers, the improvement of youth programs worldwide, and draw international attention to the power of Red Cross/Red Crescent youth to improve the world around us. I can’t wait to see some of you in Italy and to share my experience with you when I return!
Mahati, New Jersey
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | italy, Planning Team, solferino, WYM, youth
