Voices of Youth

I'm writing this to you to tell you that prayer actually works. My sister is on a softball team. She isn't the best at sports. (Neither am I) For most of her games I'm there watching her. One game I prayed to God every single time before she was up to bat. Every single time she hit the ball. Another time I wasn't paying attention at all and she struck out. Later in that game I prayed to God and she got on base. I think God was using my sister to make my faith stronger and so I could tell you. When you pray, you shouldn't be like ok i'm just going to pray so I can get this…

MyCity+20 is a movement aiming to educate and mobilize young people on sustainable development issues, through simulations of the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development.

This growing global movement challenges young people to simulate the UN negotiations, to think about what is happening in the world and to personally commit to act for a prosperous future. By organizing simul-actions all over the world, MyCity+20 is educating and mobilizing thousands of young people to make a better tomorrow.

Throughout the MyCity+20 events, young people have worked together with one idea in mind: we cannot afford to fail. And they came up with youth statements, principles and ideas that will make a better tomorrow. This is why we decided to build upon the…

Brussels, Belgium, April 2012.

ThinkYoung and Our Future Mobility Now launch a joint project focused on the gap between young people’s skills and the demand of the European job market. Divided into two phases, the study maps the current situation to propose a solution to the skills mismatch.

The first phase is a quantitative analysis created by the TY Research Center to enquire over the core reasons to the mismatch, to understand the gap between youth labour expectations and job market needs. Data will be collected through a survey in 16 languages, and will be submitted to key decision-makers in Brussels, due to find solutions. We expect to gather 750 answers or more.

The second phase takes a more qualitative…

Kingston, Jamaica, 15 May 2012 – A nine-year old boy systematically raped by the pastor his mother left him with while she went to work, an 18-month old baby boy dying because his inner organs were destroyed when his uncle raped him, a little girl who was infected with HIV, gonorrhea, syphilis and herpes by an uncle who was in and out of prison.

Those are some of the cases which Dr Sandra Knight, a general practitioner who has worked with the pediatric hospital in Kingston for the past 10 years, has treated and which have tormented her and pushed her to take action and speak to the press. Dr. Knight’s account created uproar in Jamaica and an avalanche of…

Mindanao, Philippines is currently experiencing long hours of brownouts. It's just very awkward because Mindanao has geothermal energy coming from Mt. Apo. Rumors say that Mt. Apo is not anymore owned by the government but bought by someone for private use. Another rumor says that the power plant of Mt. Apo is breaking apart. Because of this, Mindanao has power shortage and is currently experiencing 6-8 hrs. of power interruption. My concern here is, how can businesses manage to grow when we rely on electricity to run?

It's 5h30 on Friday afternoon and I'm close to finishing the challenge. My final thoughts:

• surviving on $7.50 a week is tough, tougher than I thought it would be

• i had underestimated the impact on my emotional health - you need more food than this to feel good

• it was a great way to raise money, almost 2000 dollar so far!

• i'm so grateful for being able to go back to "normal" and will keep those in mind who don't have that luxury

• we had a great team in Cincinnati, it was so powerful to come together to do this

See you next year...!