The youth were distinguished in recognition of their actions in favor of a change in their communities
Six adolescents and young activists from different corners of the world, among them the Peruvian José Quisocala (16) were awarded today at the Summit of Young Activists organized by the UN.
The young people were honored in recognition of their actions in favor of a change in their communities, in areas such as financial education, the conservation of the oceans or the fight against female genital mutilation.
The United Nations honored these young people for setting an example that youth do have the power to create a more equal and sustainable world.
The children’s bank
At the age of seven, Quisocala founded the first Cooperative Bank for children, whose initial clients were the children of his school, who he taught that they could recycle solid waste and turn it into an “asset”, in exchange for which they would receive money in an account of saving.
The idea spread to his hometown, Arequipa (Peru’s second largest), his bank partnered with companies that bought the recycled material and even formed an alliance with one of the largest international credit card firms.
“This bank is a practical and playful financial education tool that is intended to motivate other adolescents and children to do something for the world,” Quisocala said at a press conference after the summit.
Fight against genital cutting
Stacy Owino (21) is a young girl from Kenya who for years has been fighting against female genital mutilation, a practice that despite being prohibited in most countries continues to occur in much of Africa and in some communities in other regions of the world. world.
Owino’s idea was to create the “iCut” app, which offers extensive information on genital cutting and its consequences, and allows girls who are at imminent risk of becoming victims to alert authorities and call for help with the push of a button. emergency on their mobiles.
15,700 corals planted
From the Tuamotu archipelago, in French Polynesia, Titouan Bernicot (22) is originally from, who for four years has been working to recover the reefs, an ecosystem that is terribly degraded. To do this, he created the “Coral Peasants”, an association with which he has already succeeded in replanting 15,700 corals.
“We have become the largest and most advanced reef restoration program in the world and our goal is to plant one million corals by 2025,” explained Titouan, who recalled that at age 16 he sowed his first coral, which “average as half my hand, and now it’s four times the size of my head. “
Innovation and reforestation
The youngest of the activist team, the American Gitanjali Rao (15), has developed tools to monitor water quality, such as one that detects lead content or another that offers an early diagnosis of addiction to prescribed opiates.
Rao was the first “Girl of the Year” ever to appear on the cover of Times magazine in 2020.
Another of the laureates was Louise Mabulo (23), who founded a project that provides farmers with cocoa seedlings and teaches them how to produce it sustainably in the Philippines, an initiative with which she has already “revived” two sources of water that had been been decimated by reforestation.
The sixth winner, the South Sudanese Lual Mayen (26), participated by telematic means in the summit, who developed a video game that puts the player in the shoes of a refugee who must escape bombing, find water and earn energy points to survive, while that your country goes from a present of war to a future of peace.
Mayen was the protagonist of a comparable situation in real life, when his parents carried him newborn in their arms 360 kilometers from South Sudan, which was in the heat of war, to a refugee camp in northern Uganda, to later arrive in the United States, where he now lives.
All proceeds from the sale of his video game are transferred to NGOs that help refugees.
The stay in Geneva of these young people will end with “private strategic meetings” that will put them in contact with experts and heads of Geneva organizations working in their respective fields of activity, as well as with representatives of UN agencies, foundations and governments. to those who will present their ideas and to those who might be interested in supporting their projects. (I)
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