3 Ways Young People Can Heal the World
Carlos Sanvee, Secretary-General, World Alliance of YMCAs It may seem strange that on International Youth Day on Aug 12, the world needs to stop and remember its 1.2 billion people aged 15 to 24, but it does. The adults who run our world frequently forget where they came from, and ignore the fact that there are many more people coming up behind than ahead of them. And when they do turn to young people, they sometimes rather patronisingly call them “the future”, while excluding them from the present – a present that, for very many young people, is tough. Even without COVID-19, we would be talking about the pressure on young people, their increasing isolation in the world of social media, and trends in poor health, poor education, poor training, poor employment and sometimes a poor sense of what it is to be a responsible part of society. Last year, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reported that one in five young people worldwide are not in employment, education or training, and three-quarters of those are girls and women. But now, with COVID, the disease that we think of as affecting older and more vulnerable people in fact disproportionately affects young ones, with disrupted schooling, social interactions and jobs. Again, the ILO cites that one in six young people worldwide have stopped working since the pandemic. It gets worse, because in swathes of North America and Europe at least, young people are newly seen as the villains of the COVID situation, enjoying summer sun and ignoring social distancing, as potential asymptomatic carriers of the virus who can pass it on to their elders. As with COVID, as with all of life: The world needs to recognize that it is young people, too, who bear much of the world’s pain, and that young people, too, can lead the world to many of the solutions. The divide between “self” and “nature”, as we continue to degrade the planet that young people – or their children – may never inherit. Between “self” and “other”, in the chasms of wealth, colour and gender that continue to plague both North and South. These are the divides that await young people entering adulthood. And between “self” and “self”, or perhaps “self” and “God”: in people unconnected with their spiritual identity and purpose. First, in reconciling “self” with “nature”. It is not just the phenomenal activism of Greta Thunberg and the global youth climate summits. It is groups of young people everywhere who care, who say so, and who act by changing their own, their schools’ and their communities’ consumption habits. Second, in reconciling “self” with “other”. It is not just the way we nurture youth leaders as change-makers, peacemakers and carers for their elders. It is young people being bold and articulate enough to bring issues like racism out into the open, and to develop diversity and inclusion initiatives – themselves. Third, to see the passion and sincerity of young people of faith is the one of the most instructive acts of adult education. I have been privileged to join young people’s online worship, linking 30 or 40 countries, as they look again, through a COVID lens, at the meaning of their lives. It is for all these reasons that International Youth Day should wake the world up to some simple and profound realizations about young people. They are the future, yes. But they are also the present.
Tags : Interviews Heal the World Young People Carlos Sanvee World Alliance of YMCAs