Press conference by UNFPA ON ROLE OF YOUTH IN ACHIEVING MILLENNIUM GOALS

With half the world’s population below the age of 25, representing the largest number of young people in world history, it was simply not an option to put the needs and rights of young people on hold or at the end of a list of seemingly more pressing priorities, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference today on the role of young people in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Reading a message from Thoraya Obaid, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNFPA youth advisor Kakenya Ntaya said that unless greater investments were made in young people, the goals to end extreme poverty and hunger, combat HIV/AIDS, improve child and maternal health, ensure universal education and promote gender equality would not be met.  Nowhere were investments more urgently needed than for adolescent girls and young women, who were not only bearing the brunt of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, but were also vulnerable to all forms of discrimination, exploitation, violence and trafficking everywhere. 

“They need safe spaces, equal chances and support to develop to their full potential”, she said.  As the world commemorated International Youth Day today, young people from around the world had come to the United Nations to share their courageous stories.

Describing the exhibit entitled, “Chasing the Dream:  Youth Faces of the Millennium Development Goals”, which opens at United Nations Headquarters this evening, she said the photographs in the exhibit show through the eyes of young people that they were ready to meet the Millennium Development Goals.  As world leaders prepared for the September Summit, that recognition was especially important.  Young people were ready -- if their ideas, energy and dreams were used -- to find solutions.

The exhibit, which was the collective effort of United Nations organizations, the World Bank, the United Nations Millennium Campaign and the Youth Employment Network, included photographs and writings from young people from Brazil, Cambodia, India, Jamaica, the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement in northern Uganda, Morocco, Uganda and the Ukraine.  The photographs were taken with poor-quality disposable cameras and assignments to document their dreams and fears, likes and dislikes.  The images had been celebrated by professional photographers and editors, revealing what professional photographers rarely caught. 

“Their pictures are their voices”, she said.  Whether their dreams or fears took hold was not only their decision, but a political decision.  Real commitment by leaders to the Millennium Development Goals could make all the difference in the world.

Discovering at the age of 17 that he was HIV positive was shocking, Jason from Jamaica said.  Unable to tell his parents that he was HIV positive, he had planned to commit suicide the morning after he was diagnosed with the disease.  As he was ready to kill himself, a stranger offered him a word of encouragement.  The words the gentleman had spoken prevented him from taking his life, and kept him going even today.  He had contracted the disease as a result of not practicing safe sex, a subject his parents had never discussed with him.  He had known nothing about HIV/AIDS.  He had thought that only skinny people could be sick.

Now 19 years old, he said he was no longer afraid to say that he was HIV positive.  Communication with his family had greatly improved, and he had decided to use his life as an example to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and to promote practices to help young people avoid the disease.  People in Jamaica were afraid to be tested for HIV, most often because they lacked money.  While he still struggled with his situation, he planned to live life to the fullest and was pursuing his dreams of education in the fall.

Describing her life in a “favela” or slum, Urideia from Brazil said she had represented the problems that many young people faced.  Born and raised in Brazil, she had known hunger, thirst and financial problems.  Raised without the love or recognition of her father and mother, who recognized only their son, she too had attempted suicide.  Finding the programme “Citizen’s Cook”, which provides training for a career as a chef, she began to discover a sense of confidence and self-esteem.  She applied to college, but was rejected once the university realized that she came from the favela.  Her dream was to return to Brazil, attend a quality university, and be able to share without embarrassment where she lived.  She also hoped one day to be recognized by her parents.

Asked what in the Brazilian education system would bar someone from going to college on the basis of where they lived, she said it was simply a matter of prejudice.  Coming from a slum, it was hard to compete with a high-income family.  Many people from outside the slum thought of slum-dwellers as bad people.  In reality, many were just trying to live a better life.

Asked what her chances were now, and whether her experience at today’s event would help her get the education she wanted, she said her experiences were already helping her.  She owed her life to Citizen’s Cook”, as it had enabled her to receive the experience she needed to compete in the outside world.  She did plan to apply to college.

Asked whether the Government was doing anything to help the situation of street children, she said politicians only looked at them with pity.  They did not want pity, only opportunities. 

Responding to a question on his future plans, Jason said he planned to continue his education in the fall.  He was currently working as an outreach officer with a not-for-profit organization in Jamaica. 

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