Civic engagement should be based in moral satisfaction, but in general, serving one's community is based on interests that vary from one person to another, and from one level of service to another.
In the two years I've been a volunteer, I've taken part in national and international celebrations such as World Children's Day, and helped to donate school kits, renovate schools, and take part in environmental initiatives. In addition to these activities, I have taken part in capacity-building programmes, in advocacy writing, and personal and community development. I take part in these youth engagement programmes initiated by UNICEF Côte d'Ivoire so that I am always better equipped to respond promptly to the challenges of positive change in my community. It gives me great satisfaction to develop my skills through engagement.
How I discovered my commitment
Wherever we are, there is a cause to support to bring about positive change, and it's up to us to get engaged.
I was looking for activities that didn't stray too far from the learning environment, so I seized the opportunity to join the poetry and storytelling team in my mother tongue at my school, which was taking part in a competition called "I speak my language" at the "Festival de la Culture et des Arts de la Marahoué". I learned some keywords in the Gouro language and then performed the poem "Africa my Africa" by the Senegalese writer Léopold Sedar Senghor in the same language during the competition. Our various performances earned us second place for our first participation. It was a great opportunity to learn public speaking and to speak a local language.
I had no idea that service to the school could be a form of commitment until I discovered the U-Report communities through social networks. I was happy with the work they were doing and curious to find out more about this youth movement. In 2020 I found the means to join the U-Report community in Bouaflé. With the community, I took part in actions in favour of education and children, which helped me to understand the positive change in mentality that U-Report aspires to generate. After obtaining my scientific baccalaureate, I changed my place of residence and was given the opportunity to join the U-Report community in Cocody in December of the same year. The responsibilities became greater, but the objective remained the same: to positively change attitudes in our communities.
Always learning
In August 2021, I received a phone call from the general secretary of my U-Report Cocody community. He told me that I met the conditions for taking a training course in advocacy writing. I agreed to be trained. In September 2021, along with around thirty other young people, I took part in a training course in advocacy writing techniques initiated by UNICEF and its partner, the Ivorian Ministry for Youth. During the training, we learned about youth participation, policy development, how to establish facts, and make a speech. At the end of the training, I was part of a team of 10 young people selected to draft a local advocacy document to enable us to put what we had learned into practice. One adventure after another.
Our team worked hard to draft a local plea on "the use of psychotropic substances in schools", and we met with several local authorities, including provincial chiefs, school administrators, mayors, Members of Parliament, and addiction specialists, to name a few, who helped us to obtain reliable data for our cause. We were able to present our work to the authorities, who congratulated us on the work we had produced. This gave us the knowledge and skills we needed to defend our causes in our communities.
Since this experience, I've made progress in my commitment, I'm able to target the problems facing my community, propose solutions, and participate in the implementation of projects to improve situations linked to these problems. In this way, I help to bring about the positive change I want to see.
I'm a firm believe in the power of volunteering, and I encourage every young person to get engaged in an association that campaigns for a cause that's close to their heart, to take part in different events to develop their knowledge of the issues involved, and also to build a professional network.
