International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate the adventure of the path in girls’ rights, but also a time to provide a sobering reality: there is still plenty of time to go. At the existing rate, we are more than 130 years of achieving complete gender equality.
Consider the following statistics: almost 1 in four elderly women aged 15 to 19 are not at school, hired or in training, 1 in 10 children. Crazy practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGF) are still prevailing in many portions of the world. And the opposite violence to women is not kept unusual: 1 in 6 women in this age organization has experienced physical or sexual violence of a husband or a sword in the husband or a sword in the beyond the year.
For today’s young activists, they are not only figures, they are a call to action for change. Although the scope of gender inequality in society may feel intimidating, many younger adjustments have discovered that the maximum difficult way to have an effect is through the network and through the edition of others. Here, the members of the National Youth Council of UNICEF USA, Anika, Jazmine and Sophia, percentage of how and why they decide for a long more equitable career for women and what it means to be other young people today.
Gender-based violence The factor that Jazmine, a 17-year-old Los Angeles school student, Jazmine, sought to raise awareness about her activism work. “It’s a complicated topic to discuss, so conversations around it are limited, but the stigma wishes to be broken. It can only be young that other people identify healthy and other barriers. “
To do this, she turned to UNICEF club members at her school.
Working with a local nonprofit, the YWCA, they assembled a thirteen-year-old team to volunteer and host their annual watch vigil and resource fair. Members of the Unicef Club presented candles to families and friends to honor the lives lost to domestic violence and designed ED the program for the event, which included survivors sharing their non-public stories.
The strength of the occasion came here not only of the stories that are counted, but of how the network came here in combination for that. “Collaboration with other young people is key because it allows you to mix other reports and knowledge, which is what has the maximum impact,” says Jazmine. “Other young people today know how much force can arise from defense. “
Anika (Center) at the Intercomort at the UN Religious Center in New York in November 2024. In a panel discussion, Anika passionately interacts with unity and embodies the strength of youth leadership in action.
Anika, 18, a freshman at the University of Michigan, says being a youth activist means raising other young women through her volunteer paintings and advocacy for UNICEF USA. Whether it’s advocacy education and with other young people or sharing their voice in spaces where only adults are heard, they continue to push for change, knowing, as she says, “the things that do do it for me, still adults, still listen to others, what change doesn’t achieve, what he says”, “the things that do do it for me, adults still don’t do, what he doesn’t achieve because of change”, “, “what he says”, “the things that do do it for me, they still don’t do it for adults, they still don’t do it for change, what makes him not do it for the Millions. opportunities. “
This is vital not to forget whenever you encounter resistance due to your age and gender. “While those moments can be demeaning, I find it helpful to focus on myself and what led me to those reports in the first place,” Anika explains.
A decisive moment for her? Being panelist of the interreligious joining the rights of young people in the UN the past fall. Although she was the youngest user in the work, she thought her point of view was valued. “It was incredibly satisfactory to have the Americans with much more experience than I wondering my concepts and how they deserve to put into force of voices for other young people in their respective groups,” explains Anika. His reports have taught him that “the very small action can make a snowball in even more vital impacts. Take small steps to gain confidence at the beginning is correct. In the end, he knows that his voice and everything he does. “
Sophia spoke at the UNICEF Gala in New York in December 2024. In his speech, he talked about his adventure to adjust to a change of change and what it is like with his sense of respect.
Even entering rooms where concepts are exchanged or decisions are made in the first position can be a challenge. Confidently, and make it more unlikely that they will forget about me. “
This goes hand in hand with some other war faced through many young activists: they feel that they are reduced to their gender that are indicated as multifaceted individuals. “There is a harmful trend to treat women as a single identity,” says Sophia.
Actually, being a woman is just one of the many demography with which he affiliates. In activism they form much more. “
There’s a shopping list of expectations placed on young activists, who they feel compelled to contend with before they can win the right to make their voices heard. Sofia observes: “We have to be acceptable: strong, but not too aggressive, assertive, but not emotional. strategy. “
But again, test how the network can help. By sharing and listening to the reports of other young women with a multitude of reports and identities, we see the many unique paths to activism. However, in those differences, there is also no unusual and motivation for change, leading to empowerment. The 3 young activists cite their mothers as inspiration for their activism, and it’s not a coincidence; This is evidence that self-appointed women empower other women. “Bringing an area counts as if you bring others with you,” Sophia adds.
In terms of what you would say to young people and women who need to take action and may be new to the activism space?His recommendation is simple. Get started, wherever you are.
“You don’t want the best plan, platform, or words,” Sophia says. “Talk in the spaces you are in, locate the problems that are troubling you and take small movements that turn into anything bigger. Also, try, try, try. My father told me: ‘Let them tell you no’. “
Every success, breakthrough, and replacement in numbers began as an idea turned into an action, and found itself along the way. Personality reversal progresses, however, network placement and sitting with others combines compassion, which sets the course for the maximum impactful and impactful type of replacement.
Ready to take action and a Spark replacement in your community?Start forming a UNICEF club at your school