Youth Activism and Leadership

Keypoints by Ioanna Georgia Eskiadi

In this webinar, youth from across Europe discussed and shared their experiences with youth activism and the need of leadership. Today’s webinar started from World Learning’s program “Telling our Stories” 1989 Anniversary Exchange in 2019. This program, funded by the U.S. Department of State Office of Citizen Exchange, brought together 12 students and 12 educators from Eastern Europe to travel across Europe and the United States. These people had the opportunity to understand the history of communism and post-communism by developing their own storytelling skills. Today, inspired by this program, students, participants of the program, and other youth activists around Europe discussed their role in society like leading civic action, organizing other youth, and sharing their stories.

Each one had a different reason and need for becoming involved in advocacy and discovering youth activism. Some were more engaged in political and religious topics, others in protesting for democracy. Youths need to be stimulated by an important reason like the need of change in society, the need to protect democracy and fight corruption, the need for the protection of the environment, the need to be engaged in society’s issues. Youths with their actions brought change in their community and found effective ways of engaging young people like combining fun with dialogue about important issues, increasing the sense of humanity, empathy, need for social belonging and dialogue. If we want to be effective and bring change in society, it’s important to use certain platforms and messaging services and try to find the right mechanism for youth organization.

There are different ways of being engaged like online discussions, taking part in protests for the environment by collecting trash from mountains, buying products for elder people, and in general trying to wake people up and make them acknowledge the need for change. People can sometimes be selfish, entitled and ego centrical, so we need to do more to make people become more interested in activism and appeal them with the sense of humanity, empathy, and by making them see the real world and not the bubble where they live. Miron Vitushka from Belarus says: “In Belarus, there have been huge protests after elections and since then people are protesting actively, youths are taking part in the protests. In my school, we organized a student’s community which records videos against police brutality, we organize events for people to write letters for prisoners. Before the protests, most of the Belarusians used to be a-political by ignoring important issues, but now Belarusians have turned to be very self-organized.” One way of getting people active is by building off of their love for fun and the need to belong somewhere, so people value it and feel motivated.

Key points

· Find a reason to become involved in advocacy.

· Importance of youth activism.

· Need for effective methods for youth engagement.

· Use certain platforms and messaging services.

· Find the right and most impactful way for organizing youth.

· Make people acknowledge the need for change.

· If there’s willingness, everything can be achieved.

· Try to see the real world and not the bubble that you live.

· We can do something for ourselves without waiting for someone to help us.

· Each of us can make something to promote change.

· Small things can still make changes.

Speakers:

Ana David is a student from University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.

Rafael Raețchi is a student and 1989 Program Alumni from Chișinău, Moldova.

Miron Vitushka is a high school student from Belarus and 1989 Program Alumni.

Nikolay (Nick) Georgiev is a student of Sofia High School of Mathematics and 1989 Program Alumni from Sofia, Bulgaria.

You can watch the webinar on Digital Communication Network’s Facebook Page.

This event is co-organized by Digital Communication Network SouthEast Europe Hub (DCN SEE) and World
Learning and is part of DCNSEE’s Ideas in Action — Digital Engagement, a series of virtual events launched in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. DCNSEE is supported by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Citizen Exchanges.

Digital Communication Network Global is an interdisciplinary alliance of non-profits, public and private organizations and social influencers, making a difference in the new information space through social impact campaigns, technology, and innovation.