Including Young People in the Post-2015 Process

The world now has its largest generation of young people ever! It was highlighted at a recent event at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), that half the world's population is under the age of twenty-five. In Tanzania, half the population is under 15! It is vital that young people are included in setting the development agenda.

The Millenium Development Goals, a set of eight development goals, agreed upon by the international community, will expire in 2015. Back in July 2012, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, appointed a group of twenty-seven people, known as the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons, to advise on the global development agenda beyond 2015. The Panel includes leaders from civil society, private sector and government and is co-chaired by the Presidents of Indonesia and Liberia, and the Prime Minister of the UK. The Panel released a report today, presenting their recommendations to Ban Ki-moon and the UN. You can read the report here.

Ban Ki-moon praised the Panel for its inclusive approach and extensive consultations over the past year. As ODI points out, young people have been a visible presence in the emerging post-2015 process, from taking part in participatory consultations and 'tweet-ups' to participating in roundtables with the High Level Panel. The two reports released at ODI's event show the importance of making the voices of young people count in setting the post-2015 agenda. Both reports are now online:

1. Youth and international development policy: the case for investing in young people, by the ODI.
2. Youth Voices on a Post-2015 World, by the DFID-CSO Youth Working Group.

Tomorrow (31 May), a number of stakeholders and UN Agency Groups will hold a discussion on the High Level Panel Report. The UN CSD Major Group for Children and Youth forwarded this useful info sheet, with details of the discussion. The discussion will take place at the UN Headquarters and you can participate online.
You can watch a livestream of the discussion here, on the World We Want platform, from 10 am to 12 pm EDT.
You can follow the conversation on twitter using, #Post2015HLP, @WorldWeWant2015, @unngls, @2015on.

Please do pass this on to young people, so they can participate on 31 May. We cannot have a discussion about them, without them!

A Call to Speak Out Against Bullying - for Vloggers

October is anti-bullying month! Sadly, bullying affects many children and teenagers around the world.

Image courtesy of Ambro/www.freedigitalphotos.net

The following facts were given on the website of DoSomething.org:

•  Bullying is the most common form of violence in schools(verbally and physically)/ 
• One incident of bullying [happens] every seven minutes. 
• It is estimated that 160,000 children miss school everyday due to the fear of attack or intimidation by other students. 
• 2 out of 3 teens are verbally or physically harassed every year. 
• 58% of teens have had hurtful things said to them online and over 40% say it’s happened more than once.

The page goes on to give a plan of action and also has a video made by young people. You can see it here.

I am a member of the 20sb network, for bloggers in their twenties. If you are also in your twenties and like to blog or vlog, you may be interested in what they have planned to mark anti-bullying month. They are asking people to:

 "post a vlog (or blog post if you’re not up for the face time) about a time you were bullied, tips for dealing with a bully, or maybe lessons you’ve learned from being a bully" 

The deadline is 24 October and entries can be left in the comments section of their blog post on anti-bullying month. They will compile highlights from the videos, to be shared at the end of October. All the details are here.

Even if you are not in your twenties (and so can't enter your vlog for the 20sb call to action), you may want to think about this theme for this month. How can bullying be prevented? How can we help young people who are being bullied? Let's hope that our actions this month can go towards answering these questions and stamping out bullying!

Vital Needs and a Good Idea - in Ghana

I have just spoken to the director of an initiative my organisation, CHW, supports in Ghana, David. He is the founder of Sankofa Mbofra Fie, which runs a school and an orphanage. I wrote about this here.

One of CHW's volunteers said she would like to arrange a collection for Sankofa at her work. This was great news! I phoned David to clarify what the latest needs are. Firstly, he would use money to pay for food for the children. Secondly, he needs to pay money to rent the orphanage building. The contract he had has just run out. He either needs to rent that building again, or move to another one. What a responsibility to have! He is doing such great work looking after these children, and I hope people will contribute to support this.

David also told me, last time I phoned, that he needed funds to photocopy exam papers for the children that attend his school. This time he told me that it would be great if he could have a photocopying machine. That way, he could use it for the school pupils, but there would also be another benefit. Sankofa is based in a small village called Eguafo. If anyone needs to have anything copied they go to the nearby towns of Cape Coast or Elmina. David could then have a small business in Eguafo, as people there could come to him and pay to use the photocopier.

David has to put the other needs - food and rent - first, but I hope it will be possible for him to get the photocopier too. It is a great idea as it will help with the school's needs, and can also help raise funds for Sankofa.

David also mentioned that it would be good if people could donate secondhand football jerseys. It would be possible to post them to Sankofa.

I am so impressed with what David does for the children in Eguafo, and I really hope to be able to offer some more support through my organisation. I was really happy to hear that one of the volunteers wanted to do a collection! My organisation is still small, and we really appreciate everybody's help! If you also want to get involved with David's amazing work, feel free to leave a comment here or email me at catherine "at" chworldwide.org. Together, we can make a difference!

David with some of the boys at Sankofa's school. I was able to bring a bit of sports equipment, like the ball in the photo, during my last trip to Ghana. Now, it would be great to have some more sports equipment and football jerseys, as well as funds for all the things I wrote about.

Help CHW Host a Service Project in Time for the Olympics!

Children's Helpers Worldwide (CHW) has been invited to take part in a campaign with an Olympic theme, and you can be involved! The theme of the service project is youth, health and sports. 

We need ideas, volunteers, partners and participants, so there are really are lots of ways you could get involved! The event would be in London, as this is where we are based, but if you have ideas, or have done a similar project that we could now organise as well, it would be great to hear from you, wherever in the world you might be!

Details of the Campaign

The Campaign is being run by Global Service Leaders (GSL). They have just launched a new campaign, called "Relay Volunteerism."  The idea is that organisations in different countries will form "teams" and host a service project (a volunteering event). Each week leading up to the Olympics, a different country will host their event (like the Olympic torch is relayed across countries). GSL would like the grande finale to be in London, as this is where the Olympics will be, and hopes we could host our service project in the week starting July 20. I have pasted GSL's full details of the Campaign at the bottom of this post.

The Campaign focusses on youth, sports and health, so any service project should involve youth and focus either on sports or health (or both, if possible!). I asked what sort of projects GSL had in mind and this was their reply:

"For the Campaign we want organizations to host a service project involving youth and highlighting sports and health. Some ideas are park and playground clean-ups, sports day, etc. This campaign can help fundraise for the organization involved, as long as the association with the Relay Volunteerism Campaign is there."

As it can be a fundraising event, I would love it if it could raise money for CHW! One of our current projects is related to health - we are trying to raise funds to start a children's music therapy project for a rehabilitation centre in Argentina. We are also trying to fundraise for a playground project in Ghana, and support for this would be great too.

Making it Happen!

I realise that July is not too far away! If you would like to be involved and can help, we would need the following to make it possible:

1. Ideas!

If you have an idea for an event that relates to this theme, please let me know. 

It would hopefully be a relatively simple idea... and one where we could easily sort out a venue.

2. Volunteers

If you are happy to help out with this event, whatever idea we eventually come up with, please let me know. It will be great to have help on the day, as well as with the planning leading up to it. 

Please also forward this on to anyone else who you think would want to volunteer.

3. Partners

If you are a member of an organisation, if or your work or community may want to get involved with hosting the service project, please let me know, or get any interested people to contact me. GSL will be featuring all organisations involved on their website, so it is a good chance to get some publicity. We would all work together on hosting the service project.

4. Participants

Depending on the type of event, either children/youth will be volunteers on the day (like with the park clean up idea), or the event will be for them (like with the sports day idea). Schools will be closed for the summer holidays by 20 July, which is a shame, as it might have been easier to link with a school and run a project with them. If anyone has links with summer schools/youth projects and think the young people there may like to be involved, let me know.

(NB - I am just using the examples for events that GSL gave - I am looking for other ideas for events!)

I know we are starting from scratch here, but I really think we have the potential to host a service project, and it will be great to involve young people here in London! 

Get in Touch!

If you want to be involved with the service project and can help with any of the above, you can contact me either by email: catherine "at" chworldwide.org, or you can leave a comment under this post.

----------------

GLS's Information on the Campaign

Below are the full details GSL has posted. 

In light of the upcoming Olympic Games, Global Service Leaders (GSL) is proud to announce a campaign highlighting the values of teh Olympic Spirit. GSL brings together members from across the globe to facilitate the sharing of ideas adn resources; with our new campaign "Relay Volunteerism" we aim to blend the visible and invisible aspects of the Games emulating one of the most unique aspects of the Olympics: The Torch Relay. With "Relay Volunteerism" we are looking forward to a new approach that draws in our collective resources as Global Service Leaders.

We have taken inspiration from the Olympic mottos of "Inspire a generation" and "Faster, Higher, Stronger" and encourage emphasizing Sports, Health, and Youth aspects of volunteering in this summer campaign.

Campaign Features:

• Each country that signs up will become a "national team" (e.g. Team GB, Team Cameroon, etc.)
  • Each team has to have different organizations working together to create a national campaign (highlighting Sports, Health, or Youth).
  • We are looking to get organizations that may not usually interact with each other to come together as a team and host a national campaign.
  • We encourage organizations to bring in partners to set up the campaign and to join GSL as new members.
• Each team will have one week "bearing the torch". During that one week:
  • The country will be highlighted on GSL.
  • The organizations involved will be spotlighted on GSL.
  • Members from organizations will be featured and interviewed.
  • Members and organizations involved will be asked to submit photos, blog posts and testimonials to feature.
• We have a tentative start date of June 8th or 15th depending on how many countries sign up.

London+20 June 5: Call for Applications

I have just found out about a great opportunity for those of you in the UK, aged fifteen to twenty-five, and who are interested in Rio+20 and issues of sustainability. The London+20 Conference will be held on 5 June! Applications to attend must be completed by 30 May. I have pasted the information I received about this exciting event below!

Here is the poster for the London+20:

This is the message I received about London+20, including details on how to apply:

"On the occasion of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (known as Rio+20) taking place from June 20-22 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil a coalition of youth organizations in the United Kingdom organize London+20 in the city of London at the British Youth Council, on 5th June 2012 from 10am to 5pm UK time, the same day with the World Environment Day. Organized under the slogan ''The UK Youth committed to The Future We Want ! '', the event will be a one day program including plenary discussion, working sessions, exhibition and simulation of the Rio+20 Conference. London+20 is part of a global movement called ''MyCity+20'' started by students of universities in France, who had the amazing idea to encourage global youth to host simulations of Rio+20 in their cities worldwide in order to learn how this process of international negotiations works. 
  
London+20 is open to all young people aged between 15 and 25 based in any part of the United Kingdom and from any country around the world (However, we don't cover travel costs for international participants). Applicants must be passionate, active or interested by sustainable development and environmental issues. They need to be affiliated with a school, university, youth-led organization, youth network, enterprise, company, etc. 80 participants will be selected to attend London+20 and they will not only learn what sustainable development is, but will have an opportunity to understand how children and youth contribute to the discussions and outcome of Rio+20 and experience a simulation of the conference towards a focused political document including the two conference themes and highlighting its other seven priority areas. 
  
If you are interested to participate and meet the criteria above, please fill in the application form at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEtJTWtRbkJvcGxrenQ5WnYyNk53M1E6MQ by Wednesday 30th May at 23:59pm UK Time. Make sure to provide all requested information in all questions. Once you have applied, we encourage you to check your inbox on 1st of June to know if you have been selected and start preparing your participation. Please also help us to promote this call for applications. 
  
If you have any question or concern, please contact us at rioplus20@london.com You are also encouraged to join us on Facebook (search: London+20)  and Twitter (@LONDONplus20) and to send this call around your contacts. 
  
Thank you for applying and join us to build together The Future We Want!"

Volunteering With and For Children: Part 3

On April 22, my organisation, CHW, had its fifth anniversary! I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our supporters and volunteers. Below is a thank you note for you all.

If anyone wants to join CHW, please get in touch! We always need volunteers to help us with the children's projects we support.

Volunteering With and For Children: Part 2

Do you want to Volunteer?

It is Global Youth Service Day this weekend! I posted about that yesterday in Part 1 on the theme of volunteering with and for children. I also gave some details about the Service Innovation Summit, which I recently took part in. As well as all this, it will be the fifth anniversary of my organisation, CHW, tomorrow, so no wonder the subject of volunteering has been on my mind!


Although it might be a bit last minute to find a project for this weekend, volunteering at any time is a very positive thing! Here are some links to help you get started. Some have general volunteering opportunities, but you can search specifically for placements with children's projects, if that is what you particularly want to do.


Searching for volunteer placements or projects:

1. Idealist - I post CHW's volunteering opportunities there. Lots of organisations use this site and there are many types of opportunities you can choose from.
2. Betterplace - One of CHW's volunteers told me about this site. So far I have just posted CHW's appeals for donations, but some organisations advertise for volunteers (which I may also do in the future!) and it is worth taking a look.
3. 7 Billion Actions - Organisations have posted their profiles here, with contact details. CHW has been contacted by new volunteers through this site and there are lots of organisations you can look through, to find one you like.
4. Junction49 - This is a site for people aged 13-25 in the UK. It supports young people in setting up their own projects and other young people on the site can volunteer and help out with these initiatives. The site was recommended to me by the Volunteer Services Unit at UCL, when I was a student there.

Links from the Service Innovation Summit:

1. Cuenta Conmigo Blog- This Blog was set up after the Summit and has resources and ideas to do with volunteerism - the focus is on Spain, but there are some blog entries in English too, which may be of interest. 
2. Community Project Grant - Spain only. This is a competition for a grant to finance a volunteer project in Spain. The deadline to apply is 20 May 2012.
3. Global Service Leaders Network - an online community for leaders from around the world who are concerned with volunteerism.

Volunteer with CHW:

1. Your skills! - If you have any skill you want to share with us to help support the children we work with, please let me know. We have volunteers who help publicise appeals and arrange events, as well as those who do translations and have helped with designing our logo! See more on CHW's 'Get Involved' page, under the 'volunteering' section.
2. Cake Sales - To celebrate CHW's 5th 'birthday' we are hoping as many people as possible will have cake sales to support our work throughout the year! If you are able to arrange a cake sale at your work, university, school or community, please get in touch!
3. International Volunteering - Some of our partner organisations in Argentina, Ghana, Romania and South Africa run international volunteer schemes. They set the prices, so they are cheaper than doing placements with big gap year companies. I can put you in touch with the local organisations, if you want to volunteer abroad.
4. Pass on our links! - This is an easy way to volunteer, if you want to help but don't have a lot of time. I have posted our two current appeals on both betterplace.org and kapipal.com. More info about these projects are on the appeal pages and to be successful CHW really needs people to pass on the links. If you are able to share them, by email, facebook, twitter, on your blog, or any other way you can think of, it would be a big help! Here are the links:

         Playground Project in Ghana on betterplace and on kapipal.

         Children's Music Therapy Project in Argentina on betterplace and on kapipal.


If you have other useful links for volunteering, please do add them as a comment below. I hope you find the volunteer opportunity that you are looking for!

Ideas to Help a School and Children's Home in Ghana?

I just had a phone call from the founder of Sankofa Mbofra Fie in Ghana, David. My organisation, CHW, supports Sankofa. David grew up on the streets himself. He started his organisation, which runs both a children's home and a school, to give opportunities to the children in the village of Eguafo. David started Sankofa in 2006 and it was less than a year later when I first met him. Since then I have seen how the number of children helped by Sankofa has just kept growing! There are now fifteen children living at the home and over three hundred attend the school. CHW has given donations, whenever possible, which have been used to buy food for the children and help to pay the teachers' salaries.


David phoned to let me know about some present costs. As well as immediate needs, like food, there are other things, such as having to pay the contract for the house Sankofa uses, renewing its NGO certificate and even getting photocopies of the exam sheets for the school, because the children need to be able to take their exams soon. All of the things are necessary for Sankofa to stay running and for the children to keep advancing in their education.


To be honest, my mind is racing! I am trying to think up some ways to fundraise quickly to get a donation for Sankofa.  CHW has larger, longer term projects that we fundraise for (currently a playground project at another children's home in Ghana and a children's music therapy project in Argentina). However, sometimes the local organisations contact us with issues like David did today. David, like the directors of the other initiatives we support, understands that fundraising can be difficult and we may not be able to help at short notice, but I still hope to be able to do something. He is doing amazing work for these children, and if it is possible to contribute to this, it would be a big help to all those at Sankofa.


If anyone has any ideas, or would like to help out - either by fundraising or donating, please let me know! I am always looking for new ways to fundraise anyway and it would be great to hear from you, if you have an idea to share.

Some of the children in class, during my last visit in 2011.

With David and some of the children - my first visit to Sankofa.

Join the Conversation about Rio+20 with the UN CSD Major Group for Children and Youth!

    
Take part in the online conversation about Rio+20!  There are just eleven weeks left until the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, aka Rio+20. Today the focus is on the Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY).

The Background
    
As the Youth 21 Initiative points out, it is twenty years since the first Earth Summit in Rio, where young people took a stand to demand that world leaders listened to them. See Severn Suzuki, aged 12, addressing the 1992 Summit in this video:

Severn Suzuki at the first Earth Summit

From the beginning of the first Earth Summit, people realised that sustainable development needed the active participation of everyone - not just governments alone. Agenda 21 was adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992. It is an action plan for sustainable development. One of the things Agenda 21 did was to formalise nine Major Groups through which citizens could participate in UN activities to achieve sustainable development. One of those Groups is the Major Group for Children and Youth. This group represents everyone below the age of thirty in this process.

What is happening today?

The official UN Rio+20 account has tweeted that it will be featuring a Major Group every Wednesday. Today is the day for the Major Group for Children and Youth!

You can follow and join the conversation using the hashtags  #MGCY and #RioPlus20. You can also interact with the Major Group for Children and Youth through their twitter account: @MGCY_UNCSD. 

You can join in on facebook, by sharing and commenting on the Group's facebook page and using their facebook cover photo.

Stay connected!

Whilst today is an important day to promote the Major Group for Children and Youth, there are further things you can do to stay involved! These include the following:

• The MGCY is holding a free webinar series leading up to the Rio+20 Conference. Visit their page here for details of upcoming webinars and to watch previous ones.
• The MGCY posted ten actions on the official Rio+20 website that people can do. See their post here.
• Join the Rio+You Campaign, and see what you can do for their Global Action Day on April 22. Click here to go to their website.
• Read the Rio+20s Participation Guide here and see their awesome video, below.

Rio+20: an introduction for children and youth from Rio+twenties on Vimeo.

It is important for children and youth to learn about sustainability issues and understand how to take action, and how to get their voices heard. This is the world that children are growing up in and will be in charge of in the future, and it is essential for children and youth to have their say!


I am looking forward to connecting with you, as we join with others to promote the MGCY today!

ILO Video Contest and Youth Unemployment: Present and Future

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has launched a video contest! Those of you affected by youth employment issues can enter. Although this is aimed at youth, not children, I still thought I would post it here because youth unemployment is a major issue and if solutions are not found, today's children will grow up to face bleak prospects.


Population Explosion!

The global population is growing at a record rate. Today, an article in the Sunday Times News Review gave these statistics on the global population:

• It took 250,000 years to reach 1 billion people.
• It then took another century to reach 2 billion people.
• After that, it took 33 years to reach 3 billion people. 
• The gap between the birth of the sixth and seventh billionth human was just over a decade. (This milestone was reached in October 2011.)
• It is estimated that by 2050, the global population will be greater than 9 billion people.

The Sunday Times article was about a baby, Cai, born in London three days ago and looked at what his future might be like. It was suggested that, depending on his career, he may want to relocate East, as Asia looks set to have the strongest economic growth. Click below to visit the Population Reference Bureau's interactive map showing which countries and regions will have the highest rates of population growth by 2050, and other factors as well, including how infant mortality rates and poverty rates will change.

I wonder what youth unemployment will look like in 2050. I hope that the situation will have improved greatly by then, but this depends on the action we take now.

More Youth and More Youth Unemployment
UNICEF's working paper released in February 2012, When the Global Crisis and Youth Bulge Collide, looks at the impact of the economic downturn alongside the youth bulge. Since the economic crisis, the number of unemployed people has drastically risen globally, although there was already a problem with youth unemployment before the downturn. The youth bulge means that a significantly large percentage of the global population consists of youth, which intensifies the problem. 
The report states that approximately every year, 121 million adolescents turn sixteen years old (89 % of which are in developing regions) and can enter the world's labour force. However, many of those who want to work, cannot find jobs. Nearly 1.1 billion new potential workers are expected between 2012 and 2020. 
Last month's issue of the Southern Innovator gives some more interesting, and in some cases worrying, figures. 100 million jobs will have to be created in the Middle East and North Africa by 2020 to meet demand. 130 million people between 15 and 24 cannot read or write. One in five African youth without a business would like to start one.
This situation is already greatly affecting the world's youth and will impact every child born today. 

A child looking after a baby in Cape Coast, Ghana. 

What will their future prospects be?

Speak Out!
I came across the ILO's video contest on Decent Work for Youth and it is a great idea. The contest is for people aged between eighteen and twenty-nine who are affected by the global job crisis - whether by struggling to find a job, or by working under poor conditions. Participants must submit their videos by 10 April 2012 and winners will be able to present their videos at the ILO Youth Employment Forum in Geneva on 23-25 May 2012. Here is their video introduction to the contest:

Click here for further details on the ILO website.
Hopefully the ILO Youth Employment Forum, and also the 101st International Labour Conference, which will include an agenda item on the youth employment crisis, will be fruitful in finding solutions for the problems of the youth of today and tomorrow. 

Earth Charter Webinar Tomorrow!

The Earth Charter's International Youth Coordinator, Nora Mahmoud, will be hosting a webinar tomorrow (2 March 2012) about the Earth Charter, at 5.00 pm GMT. Sorry for the short notice - I only just heard about it! The webinar is free to attend and you do not have to register in advance. Here is the message I was sent:

YOUR CHANCE TO LEARN ABOUT THE EARTH CHARTER!! - WEBINAR THIS FRIDAY MARCH 2ND, 5pm GMT 

• Join us for an Earth Charter Webinar this Friday, March 2nd @ 5:00pm GMT!! 
• Here's the link to enter, http://earthcharter.wiziq.com/online-class/772281-earth-charter-webinar
• To learn more about the Earth Charter, what we do and how to get involved, visit us here, www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Read-the-Charter.html . Looking forward to your active participation!

The webinar will be hosted by Nora Mahmoud, Youth Coordinator of Earth Charter International Secretariat..

All are welcome to join this online session, you dont need to register your attendance...

To attend this webinar session, simply click the link above at the correct time on FRIDAY.

Click here to go to the Earth Charter Initiative's Youth page. Their activities look great!

I heard about their webinar as I am currently a volunteer for the UN CSD Major Group of Children and Youth, which is working to engage more children and young people with issues of sustainability, leading up to the Rio+20 Conference in June. I will post any further events and webinars here, so more of you can get involved!

Call for Volunteers from the UN CSD Major Group for Children and Youth

I recently took on a voluntary role to facilitate youth engagement towards the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) as a wider effort of the Major Group for Children and Youth. I have pasted their call for volunteers below. This is an exciting opportunity to help children and youth learn about sustainability issues and allow them to take action. After all, this is the world they are growing up in, and they will be in charge of it in the future - so it is essential they can have a say!

I just had a skype meeting with the other European outreach leaders and the regional coordinator said that there is a need for more volunteers in Europe. I, myself, am also hoping for more volunteers in the UK, as our team is still small. It will be nice to work with more people, and therefore reach more of the children and youth in the UK! However, people from any country can apply.

There are a couple of requirements. You must be under thirty at the time of the Rio +20 Conference (20-22 June 2012). You must also be able to dedicate a few hours towards the outreach tasks each week. Even if you feel this is not for you, please do forward it on to any of your contacts who might be interested. It will be great if more people could be involved! The call for volunteers and the method to apply is below.

****

Call for volunteers - Push for change! Be the voice!

 By UN CSD Major Group for Children and Youth

Do you care about our future? Do you think that our actions can impact on the world around us? Are you willing to work with other young people to change our future?
Then join the Major Group of Children and Youth! 

We are the young peoples voice at a UN level in Sustainable Development. If you are under 30--we are your space! Your platform! We collaborate. We work together to achieve goals - because we are a stronger voice when we work together!

So, join us and help make sure that young people are not forgotten when governments talk about our futures.

If you're lucky enough to read this and realise that you're part of the change - and your opinions count, then you've already taken the first step to ensuring youth-led sustainable development! Because young people's voices often go unheard and we're trying to change that.

There's something BIG happening in June: the UN Earth Summit (also known as Rio+20), where decisions will be taken that concern all of us. Have a look: http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/

OUR AIMS
We want to provide young people with the skills and knowledge to influence crucial decisions which will be made at the Earth Summit. To do this we need to reach out to children and youth across the world, including young people without internet, and we need help!

If you are interested in helping young people to make their voices heard, then please volunteer with us! Volunteers will be expected to commit to a few hours each week for the next 3 months to work on raising participation and awareness. You'll need internet connection, as most of the work will be carried out online.

***Please note that the positions are unpaid! You must also be UNDER 30 YEARS OF AGE **
Volunteering with the MGCY is a great way to make friends, learn new skills, and help other young people to change the world and make it a better place! If this sounds like you, then check out the roles below and get in touch with us! 

TASKS:

Outreach Team Leaders

1. Provide a written overview (1-2 pages long) of issues surrounding sustainable development in their country
2. Drawing up a list of NGOs and institutions in their own countries
3. Emailing them our capacity-building toolkit
4. Assist in the capacity-building process
5. Evaluate and report to the MGCY

Translators 

1. Translate written and online resources into French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Russian, Hindi, Arabic, Swahili, Mandarin/Cantonese, Japanese - or any other language that you are fluent in.


So if you want to get involved, please fill in the following form:

 http://bit.ly/volunteeryouthchilduncsd

MGCY Website: http://uncsdchildrenyouth.org/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UNCSDYouthCaucus

Follow us on twitter: @MGCY_UNCSD  #Rioplus20  #mgcy 
Or watch us on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/UNCSDChildrenYouth