Today is Youth Day. As an organisation for young people, this is a double reason for us to celebrate: Youth Civic Engagement, the overarching focus topic of the UN, is a central method of our work. terre des hommes schweiz has therefore asked young people and young adults why they consider Civic Youth Engagement important? The answers can be found on Youtube...
The UNO celebrates International Youth Day on 12 August each year. The year 2015 is dedicated to the Youth Civic Engagement. For terre des hommes schweiz, 12 August 2015 is a special day because young people are at the centre of our project work and youth civic engagement (youth participation) is one of our main focuses.
Instead of reporting on our project work with young people, we took the International Youth Day as an opportunity to let young people and young adults from our projects have their say. We asked them why it is important for young people to get involved? You can find the answers on our Youtube channel. The existing short films will be continuously supplemented with further statements in the near future.
Here is a first taste of it:
Why do we promote youth engagement?
Young people (aged between 10 and 24 years) make up a quarter of the world's population. They are the young people who will make up the society of tomorrow. It is therefore crucial that they are part of the processes of change and development. Moreover, their potential and energy for innovation are huge. Their concerns must therefore be heard and supported in order to anchor improvements in the long term.
The commitment of young people is effective
Experience from project work shows that youth participation has a lasting effect. Through the right projects, young people are empowered to stand up for their rights and ideas. In this way those affected become participants and can bring about lasting changes. A good example of this is our partner organisation ACOOC, whose young people are successfully campaigning for the right to substitute military service to be implemented in Colombia.
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