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Disability is not Inability
To the, Tunisian dreams, scraper… (part 1)
*** With a hand raised to the sky, a square of light separates the visible from the real world, from what is not visible from the world of appearances. In that tedious moment, I knew, what original sin has long hidden from us, and understood that life was turning its back on me. To you, to us, and to this daring hatred of man... A hatred that is not misanthropic, but so repressive... Shadow on soul, the waves that for a long time made me one of his famous assailants, today are about to drown a spirit, a childhood dream, a last smile to life. O sweet Auroras, if life has provided you with the...
Growing up with eco-anxiety
What do children and teenagers worry about? A lot of things, really: homework, peer pressure, body image, career, problems at school, family tensions, not to mention their own mental health. But recently, another stress factor has crept on this already long list of concerns, and its influence can be just as major: eco-anxiety. Eco-anxiety is not an old term and it’s definitely not something that previous generations have experienced. The term was barely coined in 2017, when the American Psychological Association first defined it as “a chronic fear of environmental doom.” According to the U.N...
Girls in ICT: Don't be afraid to pursue technical courses
The Real Cost of Fashion
The term “fast fashion” has recently become a popular turn of phrase used to represent cheap, trendy clothing from retailers such as H&M and Zara. On the surface, fast fashion may seem like a technological innovation - the constant designing and manufacturing of new styles for such low prices seems almost revolutionary. Hidden behind these low prices, however, are high environmental and ethical costs that may make you rethink your next clothing purchase. Environmental Impact The havoc fast fashion has wreaked on the environment has been extensive. In terms of clothing production, fast fashion...
Child labour: Children who are meant to be seen and not heard
Child labour is any work that harms a child mentally, physically and socially; it is a common malpractice in several countries. One widespread form of child labour is the domestic child labour which is invisible to people. There are numerous harmful consequences associated with child labour, such as health problems or absenteeism at school. Recently, I came across the article "Harvest is in my blood" which gives an insight on how children are being deprived from their fundamental rights in Indonesia: the right to education. The tobacco industry is one of the largest industry in Indonesia and...
Peace shall reign
Marking International Poetry Day (21 March 2020), a group of young poets and Voices of Youth contributors write about the power of peace. Their poems are a cry to end violence against children, and a message of support to the children and youth affected by conflict. Salman is a 21 year old writer, a poet and a motivational speaker from Nigeria, who frequently writes on Voices Of Youth about Culture and Human Rights. You can read his content here. The world is placed for peace and grounds for unity. For people to leave even without kisses but not a piece of a calamity. Now a lot has changed in...
More than only honey
Youth Activism: We Are on a Mission to End Period Poverty
In 2019, the documentary Period. End of Sentence won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short, which revealed the reality of period poverty and stigma in India. Inspired by the film, we dove into our own research of period poverty, which is the lack of access to feminine hygiene products, like pads, tampons, and menstrual cups. Period poverty is a reality for many women across the globe. According to a survey by Plan International UK, one in seven girls aged 14-21 have struggled to afford menstrual products. Period poverty interferes with a girl's education, a survey conducted by the company Always...
Climate change is happening. And it's caused by humans
Climate change is happening In recent decades, the climate has undergone major changes. The earth has become considerably warmer and we have had to face extremer weathers. This has raised the question of what the cause of this phenomenon may be. Many researchers speculate that the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is anthropogenically caused. However, there are scholars who claim that climate change is not due to man with the argument that global warming is entirely natural. This, however, is false. The climate change that we are currently experiencing is predominantly generated...
The New Crisis: Locust Swarms in East Africa
Several governments in East Africa have declared that new locust infestation as a state of emergency. The UN warns of potential food crises in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. These desert locusts eat everything that comes into their path, consuming the crops farmed by local people. This year's locust breeding is on an alarmingly bigger scale than previous years. Locusts breed rapidly, but only when the conditions are right, so their population is controlled. Unfortunately, climate change has produced excessive havens of perfect conditions for their breeding. After months of...
Global Diplomacy in the 21st Century: Game On?
Why does global diplomacy seem to be dwindling right now, at a time when we need it the most? This was the question posed by the Harvard Social Impact Project to high school delegates participating in the 2020 Harvard Model UN Conference. Over 3000 students from all over the world came to discuss world issues and submit their innovative responses to this challenging prompt. Winners are often the only ones who have their projects showcased, but who said we have to go with traditional norms? Here's my project, an essay, which I'm proud to share with the global community of young people. The gist...
To the people with the guns
Marking International Poetry Day (21 March 2020), a group of young poets and Voices of Youth contributors write about the power of peace. Their poems are a cry to end violence against children, and a message of support to the children and youth affected by conflict. Kamogelo is a 17 year old from South Africa with a passion to learn from, inspire and educate anyone who gives her the chance to. She frequently blogs about women’s rights, education and equality on Voices Of Youth. You can read her content here. I dream a dream of playgrounds and lemonade I dream a dream of nights with clear skies...
Is there a future for the world's children?
Despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over recent decades, children like 12-year old Ridhima Pandey, from India, face an uncertain future. “The first time I heard about climate change and global warming was in 2013,” Pandey said. “There was a flash flood that occurred in my home state of Uttarakhand and when that happened, there was a huge destruction. The water level of the Ganges was dangerously high. Every single house was destroyed, land was destroyed and many animals and people died.” Climate change, a phenomenon mostly caused by rising greenhouse gas...
GO GREEN OR GO HOME, STOP AIR POLLUTION NOW!
Hi, I’m Michael Day, and I’m here to tell you about my research project. Me and my group created some milk carton squares with vaseline on it to check the air qualities at our homes. Each of us hung it in a certain location. I hung my set of squares in my backyard, pool, gate of my house, balcony and bedroom window. I knew each of them would completely change color, from the trucks and cars that pass by my house every morning. Like I said, we decided to measure the air quality because the problem was, my country Haiti is…. A bit dirty. So, we decided to check air quality to see if it is good...
The Lack of Clean Water
The problem is the lack of clean water in the world. Some people who can not afford clean water have to drink dirty polluted water and sometimes end up sick or dead. When not drinking the dirty water you can still end up sick or dead from dehydration. But there are solutions to these problems but some are expensive and don’t even work. People that aren’t able to find clean water have to find a different way to filter the water like a homemade filter or buy a more expensive filter. To solve the problem of the lack of clean water we ( this was a group project) needed to find things that were...
Solution to Waste Management Issues
As we all know, plastic waste is a big environmental problem. A big part of that is plastic plates, cutlery, and bottles. Many organizations have been working on finding a solution. If we were to only use edible cutlery then plastic waste management wouldn’t be such a problem because the amount of plastic used would be reduced. Our experiment consists of finding the most durable and long lasting recipe of edible cutlery. We chose three different recipes and we will measure how long they can last in a liquid substance such as hot milk. The recipes we chose were: granola, sugar cookie, and dough...
Stop Air Pollution Today!!!
My experiment is about air pollution, which is bad because it can kill people and the fumes are extremely dangerous to people and animals. Air pollution has been here for a long time, let's just finally kill it once in for all so the next generations can have a perfect, clean world to live in. The steps we took in our experiments were: First we cut open a milk carton and turn it into squares then you put vaseline all over the squares and you put it in an area to test air pollution. Our the way we choose to stop the problem is by giving factories something else to use like high-powered solar...
Idea on how to give back nutrients to the soil
The Earth's soils are losing their nutrients because of things like flooding and overplanting. It may not seem like a big issue, but it is. This worsens already existing problems like world hunger. The lack of nutrients makes the soil produce fewer crops, therefore more people won't have food. To address this problem, I have come up with an idea to help re-fertilize the Earth. Dropping it from above! By dropping it from above with a plane of sorts onto nutrient-lacking areas of soil, we wouldn't have to worry about spreading it ourselves. To test this theory, I decided to try airdropping a...