Voices of Youth

The Commission on the Status of Women, a UN commission dedicated exclusively to promoting gender equality and advancement of women, has made the empowerment of rural women and girls its priority for the year to come. In my opinion, it’s of course a noble cause but empowering rural girls in the developing world is going to take a village (to borrow a line from Hillary Clinton).

Nothing illustrates this better than the story of Jackline Mantaine Lemeria, a young Maasai girl, who, at the age of 14, was brave enough to run away from an arranged marriage in her community. Jackline found shelter at the Tasaru Girls Rescue Center, a safe haven based in Narok (a town west of Nairobi,…

I met Chi when I was seven. She was a pretty girl with straight, black hair and a bright smile that beamed with both sarcasm and loveliness. But from as early as I remember, she possessed a callous exterior—tough and mistrusting of the world.

I don’t remember why, but she and I did not get along. Now that I think about it, it was probably because she was so strong. Strong from years of abuse. But at that age, I was too young to understand that the world could be so cruel to such a little girl, so I was too young to understand her.

She was not a studious child with excellent grades, but rather the kind of girl…

To me, it is really a shame that we cannot ask to be born as who we want to be. When we were born, the choices we had were only to live or to give up. Some are lucky to be born and then raised with a good education in a good home. But others are not so lucky.

I can see everyone fighting so hard to survive, until we forget to think about others who really need our hands. The children who live far away, far beyond our point of view. They linger in a hidden and forgotten place, that it seems like we are too far to hear their voices. We often forget them, just like we often…

I have grown into a fine young man because my basic rights were made available for me to access. Furthermore, my Mum and the rest of my family and society ensured I enjoyed it with responsibility. I must state that I have gone through a lot though- corporal punishment at home and in school, not being able to speak my mind and my views left unconsidered at most times. It made me feel sad. Basically, there are four pillars of Rights of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; Survival, Protection, Participation and Development.

Understanding these may help live in peace with rights in our society and not see it as western influence or foreign culture as…

Too many times have I witnessed people out-rightly acting in utter ignorance towards the well-being of our environment. Unfortunately, many full-grown adults have not served as examples. There was a time when I was at a red traffic light in my car, and the man in front of me chucked a plastic rubbish bag of food remains out of the window, onto the road. Moreover, I have seen men and women casually throwing rubbish such as cigarette boxes, unwanted receipts, and ice-cream spoons, into drains.In many places such as the beach, alleys, roads, and even parks, seeing non-biodegradable garbage lying around is not uncommon.

What happened to using rubbish bins? I do not understand why so many people these days are lazy.Many initiatives can be made to promote environmental-friendly ways of living. I am in support of those acts. However, I still believe that as long as we do not change our mentalities, are not brought up in the right way, and have no respectable role models, these initiatives will face extremely tough challenges in making a significant impact.

Today we are faced with a great threat due to the condition of our environment; Pollution is occurring on a wide-scale and the attitude of conserving our natural resources is not a dominant ideology.

It all begins with our mentalities; we cannot expect the world to join hands in protecting our environment if we are not in agreement with the issues at hand. In my opinion, parents or those who raise the younger generations have a great responsibility in socializing their children to develop the correct behavior towards our environment. Simple things like having an allocated rubbish bin to recyclable materials in the home, for example,would be a good start. As the young generation is accustomed to these types of…

Education can play a crucial role in peacebuilding in all phases of conflict, a UNICEF-commissioned study has concluded, outlining how education can help prevent conflict and contribute to long-term peace. The report, entitled “The Role of Education in Peacebuilding,” was presented on 9 February, to United Nations experts, donors, human rights activists and aid workers.

Among the key findings were that the concept of peacebuilding remains underdeveloped and contested, even among UN agencies; security concerns dominate peacebuilding and marginalize the role of education; and weak, inequitable and segregated school systems are often drivers of conflict.

To read a story on the meeting and to access the UNICEF report and corresponding podcast, please click here!

We all do not know exactly whether each of us needs help or not because we all live in different situations. One thing we all do know is; "We only need help when we have no answers to our questions, when there is no one to answer them for us, when we have done things wrong and believe we can not turn them around" Many of us have alot of questions and answers that we need to know to help us understand why things happen as they happen, where has all the help gone.?"

I believe we all do know the answers to our own questions and yes there is always someone out there that can help us uproot us…