Youth: Universal Children’s Day
For more information, contact Nasserie Carew
Global Youth Activism Programs
Compiled by Jamie Corbett
Be the Change! A Peace Child International Program
Mahatma Gandhi’s famous call to “be the change you wish to see in the world” inspired Be the Change!, a youth-led sustainable development program related to the Millennium Development Goals. Be the Change! empowers young people to create and complete projects serving the needs of their communities and communities around the world. Founded by Peace Child International, the program offers youth-activists financial support and advice for projects in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Recently, Be the Change! grant recipients have created a bicycle taxi service in Kenya, funded an information technology project in Nepal, and started a water and sanitation health project in Uganda.
Be the Change! has over 300 projects currently waiting for funding. Each project is devised, directed and delivered by young people under age 25 with the support of adult mentors, and costs less than $1,000. Youth-led development initiatives bring tangible benefits to communities and educate young people about the real business of development, seeding a new generation of citizen activists. Most importantly, they demonstrate that young people can be active instruments of delivering development aid and not just passive beneficiaries.
Global Citizen Corps: A NetAid Program
Through its Global Citizen Corps program, NetAid equips hundreds of high school students with the knowledge and skills to implement a series of Global Action Days in their schools and local communities. The events are designed to raise awareness about global poverty, generate media attention and mobilize their peers in campaigns to fight global poverty.
Each summer, NetAid selects a diverse group of GCC leaders from hundreds of applicants from across the U.S. for an intensive training summit. These student leaders spend a week in New York at the Poverty-Fighting Summit, where they attend seminars on hunger, AIDS and other diseases, U.S. foreign assistance, access to education, clean water and the Millennium Development Goals. They also tour the United Nations and build civic engagement skills through workshops on digital media, action planning, youth philanthropy and communication strategies. Hundreds of other students receive training through a series of interactive courses through NetAid’s Online Action Center.
This year alone, the program trained hundreds of GCC leaders who are sharing anti-poverty messages with 150,000 peers in more than 200 schools.
“We believe that there are students in every high school across the country who want to learn more about global poverty and see themselves as part of the solution,” says NetAid President Kimbery Hamilton. “Our programs strive to turn this early aptitude and appetite into a life-long commitment, and our summit participants are setting the pace.”
Global Youth Connect
In 1997, a group of young people from around the world spent two years looking for ways to stop the crimes against humanity then ravaging Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and other conflict zones around the world. They decided to create an organization whose goal would be to mobilize the world’s youth to prevent such atrocities from occurring in the first place. In August 1999, Global Youth Connect was born.
GYC develops programs to support and inspire youth dedicated to human rights, community-building, reconciliation and peaceful resolution of conflicts. The organization believes that educated, compassionate and empowered youth are the key to achieving tolerance, peace and justice. Its programs encourage young people to work together to stand up to human rights abuses.
GYC supports young community leaders who are looking for ways to strengthen their skills, deepen their understanding, and build a network of supportive allies. It works with youth from the poorest communities to the wealthiest, from the “developed” world to the “underdeveloped” world, and from a wide range of ethnic, national and religious backgrounds.
“We want to be part of the solution and demonstrate to the world that there are alternatives that work, and work well,” says GYC Executive Director Jennifer Kloes.
Kids Care Clubs: A Points of Light Foundation Program
In 1990, a group of children got together to rake a lawn for an elderly neighbor. A few weeks later, the same kids made 150 bag lunches for a soup kitchen. Excited by the prospect of helping others, they told their friends. A few weeks later, the group had grown to over 50, marking the beginning of Kids Care Clubs. Sixteen years later, there are 1,500 Clubs in all 50 U.S. states and around the world, representing more than 40,000 members. Extending their reach around the globe, Kids Care Clubs now exist in Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands.
The mission of Kids Care Clubs is to develop compassion and the spirit of service and philanthropy in elementary and middle school aged youth. Clubs are comprised of young people working together to help people in their communities and around the world. They are formed in schools, churches, synagogues, volunteer centers, community centers, homeless shelters and other community-based organizations.
Students in Kids Care Clubs contribute millions of dollars in gifts and services through hands-on projects such as: Eat Wise - Exercise!, Kids Care BookShare, Team Up for Kids in Foster Care, Holiday Hope Chests, Kids Care for Kids in Southeast Asia and Operation Kids Care. Kids Care Clubs members have helped the elderly, hungry, homeless, disabled, sick and victims of disasters.
School Girls Unite
School Girls Unite is a student organization dedicated to helping girls in developing countries receive proper education, beginning in the African nation of Mali. Twenty Maryland teenagers and a group of girls from a Mali private school work together to solve problems limiting girls’ access to education. These obstacles include forced labor, prohibitive school fees and the lack of qualified teachers. By selling school supplies and participating in other fundraisers, School Girls Unite now funds educational expenses for 50 girls in Mali.
UNICEF lists Mali as one of the 25 countries needing emergency action to improve girls’ education. Sixty-four percent of school-aged girls in Mali do note attend school, most often due to parents’ lack of concern for girls’ education, and arranged marriages of school-aged girls. Those who do attend school face overcrowding, with 80-100 students often learning from one teacher. School Girls Unite partners with the Youth Activism Project and a Malian nongovernmental organization to coordinate its international girls’ education initiative.
Youth Action International
Acclaimed Liberian child rights activist Kimmie Weeks founded Youth Action International to give young people a chance to participate in addressing humanitarian crises around the world. Through its grassroots network of young people, YAI develops and implements programs to help children living in war-ravaged nations and empower them to reach their full potential.
Since its establishment in 2002, YAI has raised thousands of dollars for humanitarian programs and has awarded scholarships to young girls, nurses and future educators. YAI is also renovating a school playground in Africa and has identified five schools for renovation/construction.
In addition to its humanitarian efforts, Weeks advocates for child soldiers, and, through YAI, explores and creates long-term self-sustainability projects for women and former child soldiers. Weeks has been working on projects for peace since he was 11 years old.
Operation Day’s Work
Operation Day’s Work is a student organization that encourages leadership, responsibility, and volunteerism in middle and high school students. Every year, ODW students choose a project in a developing country that supports youth and education. Students educate themselves about the country and its people and share that information with their school and community.
Each spring, students organize a workday to raise funds for the project they have helped select. Students and teachers at ODW schools enlist students, school administration and community leaders to help raise money for the selected project. Students mow lawns, work in factories, or eliciting corporate sponsors for community service projects. Through ODW, students learn to take responsibility for what is going on around them and develop the resources and skills to make a positive change.
ODW projects have funded school construction and repair, purchased school supplies and textbooks for disadvantaged students, and supplied scholarships and vocational training. The program is designed to tie into a school’s curriculum, brining studies to life through real world problem solving. From social studies and geography to arts, literature, health and science, ODW brings real world application into the classroom and enables students to engage in life-changing activities.
Roots and Shoots: A Jane Goodall Foundation Program
The mission of Roots & Shoots is to foster respect and compassion for all living things, to promote understanding of all cultures and beliefs, and to inspire each individual to take action to make the world a better place for people, animals, and the environment. Founded by Dr. Jane Goodall, Roots & Shoots engages and inspires youth through community service and service learning. The global program emphasizes the principle that knowledge leads to compassion, which inspires action. All Roots & Shoots groups show care and concern in three areas: the human community, animals, and the environment.
Roots & Shoots is a global network of more than 8,000 groups in 96 countries. Many schools, community and family groups connect with international groups through cross-cultural exchanges, sharing inspiration and ideas.
Through its global network, Roots & Shoots works to enhance understanding among individuals of different cultures, ethnic groups, religions, socio-economic levels, and nations and to help young people develop self-respect, confidence in themselves and hope for the future.
