When youth speak of making a difference in the world, we like to call it idealism. Yet idealism, by definition, relies on a consensus of reality. To be ideal, after all, is to think beyond reality. So what if we could change the perception of reality? What would happen to idealism? What if young people could actually learn about the world? What if they could learn what it really takes to make a small change in the global community? What if, at a young age, their reality was working with NGOs in Sub-Saharan Africa to to increase school enrollments through a feeding program? Or working with local agencies to support recently arrived refugee families? If this was reality, then what would happen to idealism? What would we say, then, when one of these young people said to us, "I want to make a difference in the world"?
Young people should be at the forefront of global change and innovation. Empowered, they can be key agents for development and peace." - Kofi Annan |