GLOBAL NETWORK OF YOUTHS ADVOCATES FOR HEALTH
Since November 2006, when Wanelisa Albert travelled to India to attend the Global Youth Meet on Health (GYM2006), the South African teen-ager has been a tireless advocate for the health of her country’s children and youth.
After returning home to the Langa suburb of Cape Town, she helped to form Heartcore, the youth branch of the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa. In January, she testified to South Africa’s Parliament about tobacco control. And on 31 May, World No Tobacco Day, she and other youths held a public rally to encourage people to abstain from smoking tobacco.
Youth Mobilized through the Global Youth Meet
Wanelisa was one of the more than 30 youths mobilized by the World Heart Federation and its member organizations to represent Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Georgia, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, and Uruguay at the GYM2006. The Global Youth Meet was organized by the Indian youth organization HRIDAY SHAN in partnership with World Heart Federation, World Health Organization, UNICEF, World Bank and other partners committed to global health. Attending the meeting helped participating member organizations further develop their youth activities and involve more youth in their advocacy and awareness-raising activities. Commenting on the impact of the Global Youth Meet, Wanelisa's team-mate Jordan-Laine Calder said “We are now more aware of the health problems facing the world and we are acquiring the skills and contacts needed to tackle these problems.”
Youth 4 Health Network
Each team at the GYM2006 developed plans for how they could work locally. Then they all joined together to launch a global network called Youth 4 Health (Y4H), drawing together an appeal to policy-makers requesting that they address the leading issues that threaten global public health. Since then, they have collected signatures for the appeal via an electronic campaign, and plan to present the appeal at the UN in New York .
Linking globally, acting locally
Since returning home, the youth teams from the World Heart Federation network have worked with the heart foundations, cardiology societies or non-government organizations that mobilized them to tackle issues related to cardiovascular disease. Most focus on tobacco control. In its annual Heart Week celebration, the Georgian Heart Foundation worked with anti-tobacco and grassroots football NGOs to organize street football games to raise awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyles: the matches included over 100 children and youth from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The youth team from the Singapore Heart Foundation organized an anti-smoking campaign at a university. The team from Pakistan is working with the NGO Heartfile to develop a nationwide communication campaign for the prevention and control of chronic diseases.
Latin Americans acting regionally and nationally
As part of its Colombia Model Youth project, the World Heart Federation is working with member associations to support activities developed by the four teams from Latin America. The InterAmerican Heart Foundation has developed a forum on its website for Latin American youth active in tobacco control. Working with the World Heart Federation, it brought the youth leaders together at the IberoAmerican Conference on Tobacco Control in Rio de Janeiro, which it organized September 5-7 2007, with the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT).
In their own countries, Argentine, Colombian and Uruguayan teams are developing projects that involve youth in smokefree campaigns and campaigns to increase youth awareness about tobacco. Youth in Uruguay have organized “Respira Uruguay,” an exhibit for young people about all aspects of tobacco. Argentina and Uruguay together plan a workshop to sharpen the skills of youth involved in smokefree campaigns. In Colombia, the GYM team participated in World No Tobacco Day events in Bogotà and attended a workshop organized with the Colombian Society of Cardiology on anti-tobacco advocacy. One Colombian team member, Juan Diego Valenzuela, says: "The Global Youth Meet on health opened doors for me and taught me about how other organizations implement their programmes." After his return, he began working with his youth group Corporación Tayrona to broaden its focus on the environment to include issues of lifestyle and health.
Visit the Y4H web site, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of South Africa web site, and the InterAmerican Heart Foundation web site.
