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On 12 August, we mark International Youth Day 2023. This day highlights the challenges that today’s youth face and celebrates the impact young people make on society. International Youth Day is now more critical than ever with the world’s largest youth generation. Young people now make up 16 per cent of the world’s population.
Do you want to help support International Youth Day 2023? Let’s look at how to celebrate International Youth Day and ways you can support young people around the world.
When is International Youth Day?
International Youth Day 2023 is on Saturday, 12 August.
What is International Youth Day about?
A decade after the United Nations celebrated its first Year of Youth in 1985, a global forum known as the United Nations General Assembly set up the World Programme of Action for Youth. This program outlined a set of policies to improve the lives of young people worldwide. Since 2000, the United Nations has celebrated International Youth Day on 12 August. It is a day to celebrate youth globally, children’s rights, and acknowledge young people’s challenges.
What is the theme for International Youth Day 2023?
This World Youth Day is all about recognising and advocating ‘green skills’ for youth, and working with young people to develop a more sustainable world.
According to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, green skills are “knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society”.
Why is International Youth Day important?
International Youth Day 2023 is a chance to acknowledge and celebrate the vital contribution that young people make to our societies. World Youth Day is also a day to ensure youth are listened to on issues that are important to them. International Youth Day 2023 provides a platform for young people to speak.
The day also reminds us that children’s rights need to be upheld, but not all young people get the same opportunities in life. Many youth face significant barriers, including dealing with poverty, and limited access to education and health care. No matter where a young person is from, their voice should be heard.
ChildFund is supporting young people living in developing communities around the world to break down some of these barriers.
In Timor-Leste, Laura, 24, (pictured left), is shaking things up – in a good way – in her community. With the support of ChildFund Timor-Leste, Laura learnt life and leadership skills, which helped her to change her approach to life. “I was the person who lacked the confidence to talk in front of people,” Laura said. “I just stayed at home and helped my parent’s small business at home.
“I felt proud and happy when I joined the Inspiring Youth Changemakers program. It helped to improve my confidence, think outside of the box and get me outside my comfort zone.
“The life skills training helped me to understand how to write a good CV and a cover letter, and attend an interview session. I didn’t know those skills before.”
Another key part of International Youth Day is encouraging young people to get involved. Youth should be included in discussing their adversities and addressing the issues that are important to them.
“I started to think about how a young woman like me could support other young women,” Laura said after participating in ChildFund’s youth program in Timor-Leste. “I learnt what it means to be a good leader and how to advocate for the issues or problems that are faced by children, youth, and adults in my community.”
Undoubtedly, one of the main aspects of International Youth Day is the chance to hear young people’s voices and celebrate their contributions to their communities. Furthermore, it is a chance to address young people’s legal and cultural issues, recognise their abilities, and encourage them to keep speaking up.
How can you help support young people this International Youth Day?
Every child needs a childhood in which they are nurtured, protected and can access opportunities. This International Youth Day, you can set up a monthly donation to ChildFund Australia, which gives children in developing nations ongoing support. These donations can provide more than 1,000 children with better hygiene and health. You also enable a better education for youth and keep them safe and secure.
You could also consider our range ofGifts for Good. These gifts help a family stay safe, healthy, and thriving long-term. With options like blankets and pillows, sheep, cows, mosquito nets and more, these gifts for good go a long way and do a lot for people.
Your support will not only help a young person living in poverty and their entire family, but will also extend the reach of International Youth Day throughout the year.
By ChildFund Australia and ChildFund Timor-Leste
In the mountainous countryside of eastern Timor-Leste, several hours from the country’s capital Dili, there is a village that is extremely poor and so remote that families living there need to walk almost three hours just to reach the nearest health facility.
It is a world away for many people in Australia, but for Ana and her family, it is home.
At only two years old, Ana has her whole life ahead of her. But extreme poverty and the challenging circumstances in which Ana was born into, are subjecting her to childhood malnutrition and preventing her from reaching her full potential.
Ana and her family live in a household of 17 people, who are together surviving on less than $4 a week. Until recently, Ana’s diet consisted of mostly porridge made from rice and water.
‘I was so afraid … Ana didn’t want to eat’
About 12 months ago, Ana experienced childhood malnutrition. She was extremely unwell and her life was at risk. A severe worm infection worsened Ana’s condition. Her mother, Maria, noticed that Ana was losing her appetite and that she had stomach pains and diarrhoea. Eventually, Ana stopped eating and began losing the already little energy and strength that she had.
Maria was extremely worried about Ana, and called on a community health volunteer in the village for help.
“I was so afraid when I saw Ana didn’t want to eat,” Maria said.
The community health volunteer, trained through ChildFund’s health and nutrition program, immediately referred Ana to be treated for malnutrition.
Ana received medication to treat her worm infection and was placed in a supplementary feeding program where she received nutritious food. Eventually, Ana became stronger and her health improved.
Apart from a small grocery store 10km away that sells basic supplies, there are no health or education facilities near Ana’s community. Few families can afford their own vehicle, and public transport to the nearest health facility passes through the village only once a day. This is why community health volunteers, who live and work in the villages they serve, are essential to helping children like Ana stay safe and healthy.
The burden of childhood malnutrition
Nearly 1 in 2 children, or 49 per cent, of children under the age of five in Timor-Leste are stunted – a condition caused by a form of malnutrition – compared to only 2 per cent in Australia.
Children like Ana are more likely to become malnourished because of poverty and a lack of access to health facilities and knowledge in their communities about good nutrition.
Childhood malnutrition can have lasting negative implications on a child, their family and community. It increases healthcare costs, and can prevent children from finishing school, which can limit their future job opportunities, perpetuating a cycle of poverty.
How can we prevent childhood malnutrition?
Nearly 1 in 2 deaths in children under the age of five are linked to a form of malnutrition. But malnutrition in children is preventable and treatable.
With your support, we can help train community health volunteers to regularly monitor children’s growth for signs of malnutrition. These volunteers also learn how to identify common childhood illnesses and make referrals to health specialists. They also help ensure mothers attend postnatal and antenatal care, and lead mother and father support groups. The work of these local health volunteers in rural and remote communities, where health facilities and doctors, midwives and nurses are hard to access, can be lifesaving for children like Ana.
With your donation to ChildFund’s Malnutrition Appeal, we can also provide supplementary feeding programs to treat malnutrition in children, support families to access de-worming medication for their children, and run community cooking, nutrition and health workshops for parents and caregivers.
Through a ChildFund-supported cooking workshop, Maria learnt about the nutrition content of various local foods, and how to include some of these foods in Ana’s diet.
Today, Ana has fully recovered from childhood malnutrition, and Maria incorporates vegetables such as moringa, a highly nutritious plant that she sometimes gets from neighbours or other members of her community, in the rice porridge she makes for Ana.
Good nutrition is essential for a child’s health and development, which is why it is a key focus of ChildFund’s health programs. The first 1,000 days – from the time a woman becomes pregnant to her child’s second birthday – is critical to a child’s healthy development.
ChildFund’s health and nutrition program in Timor-Leste focuses on supporting mothers like Maria to care for themselves and their children during these first 1,000 days, and longer. Make a donation to ChildFund’s Malnutrition Appeal today and you can help to train community health volunteers, assist parents to access child health support groups, or facilitate cooking workshops for families.
