World Heart Federation : Youth win WHO award 2008
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LATIN AMERICAN YOUTH ACTIVISTS ACCEPT WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY AWARD FROM THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

Florencia Maldonado (Uruguay), Luis Cuesta (Colombia), Javier Rivera (Argentina) and Sebastian Parada (Argentina) have accepted a World No Tobacco Day award on behalf of a network of youth working toward a smoke-free Latin America. World No Tobacco Day which took place on 31 May 2008, advocated for a total ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship by the tobacco industry which focuses on youth.

Latin American youth take action

Javier Rivera is a 21-year-old business student from Santa Fe, Argentina. His father, a smoker for many years, has had two heart attacks. He and Sebastian Parada (from Mendoza)  are among the youth who have helped measure smoke particle levels in Argentina as part of a study conducted globally by Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New York. “It was fun,” says Javier. “We would go into a disco, measure the room, put the side pack down on a table and go dancing with our friends. My friends asked me about what I was doing and when I told them it made them think.”

While local 100% smoke-free laws are generally well accepted and respected in both cities, compliance is lower in bars and discotheques. “These are the places where youth gather,” Sebastian points out, adding “and because the universities are federal, local smoke-free laws don't apply there.” Both youth now work with Alianza de Ambientes Libres de Humo de Tabaco en Argentina (ALIAR) an alliance coordinated by the InterAmerican Heart Foundation (IAHF) to promote smoke-free environments. They have developed a youth-led project promoting smoke-free universities. In a national meeting held in May just prior to the World Congress of Cardiology, they met in Buenos Aires and shared experiences with 25 youth from around Argentina.

After he gets his MBA, Javier Rivera would like to work for a non-government organization, using his business skills to contribute to social change. “Some people work their whole lives without feeling like they have made a difference,” he muses “but when I listened to them present the results of the study I had helped with, I felt like I already had. It was a good feeling.”

Regional network supports smoke-free environments

The Pan American Health Organization chose Javier and Sebastian as two of four youths to receive this year’s World Health Organization (WHO) World No Tobacco Day awards for the Americas. They joined Florencia Maldonado (Uruguay) and Luis Cuesta (Colombia) to accept the award on behalf of all of the youth who belong to a growing regional network promoting smoke-free environments. The regional network, coordinated through IAHF by Drs Veronica Schoj and Marita Pizarro, was formed from a nucleus of Latina American youth leaders who attended the Global Youth Meet (GYM) in India in November 2006. Since then, the World Heart Federation has supported the network's activities as part of the World Heart Federation Colombia Model Youth project. Following the Argentinean national meeting in Buenos Aires, members of the regional network from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay met for one day with the Argentinean youth activists to share ideas and information.

New energy and ideas for local initiatives

Florencia Maldonado, an 18-year old medical student, became interested in promoting smoke-free environments at GYM. On her return she joined several other youth to help Uruguay's tobacco research centre (CIET: Centro de Investigacion para la Epidemia del Tabaquismo) design Respira Uruguay, an interactive exhibit at the Science Centre in Montevideo. In April, this core group of youth organised a national meeting with 63 youth from around the country. At the meeting they planned a World No Tobacco Day event. “We built a cigarette around the obelisk that is the monument of our national freedom and independence, and then all the youth tore it down.” Florencia explains “It was very symbolic; afterwards we had rock music.”

Florencia believes these activities have had an impact on Uruguayans’ attitudes about smoking: “most people now are in favour of the smoking ban and respect it. I feel we are contributing to a big change in my country and hopefully also around the world; I think it is a way of being a better person.”

Luis Cuesta designed and organized a grassroots campaign in the city of Quibdo, in one of the poorest areas of Colombia. Working through local youth groups, the project communicates about tobacco risks to youth (and adults) through a number of media, including songs, dance, popular festivals and parades and radio. Luis said: “To change policy about tobacco we must talk in numbers like dollars and statistics; but to change behaviour we have to reach out to all kinds of people, and to do this we need to speak in other ways as well. The tobacco industry knows this: it uses many media to convince people to smoke. Even when no longer allowed to advertise tobacco companies sponsor concerts and cultural events to promote themselves. They use music and dance and festivals to speak to youth, and we answer in the same language; we can make a big difference by making entertainment complement science…”

World Congress of Cardiology provides international platform

Members of the youth network participated in a number of activities at the World Congress of Cardiology in Buenos Aires. At a press briefing there, Luis, Javier and Mateo Ferreiro, a medical student who works with CIET Uruguay joined Drs Valentin Fuster, Srinath Reddy, Eduardo Bianco, Joaquin Barnoya and Veronica Schoj in a press briefing on smoke-free policy. The same three youth also presented activities taking place in Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay at the World Heart Federation members meeting and worked together to organise the Youth and Tobacco booth.

Youth advocates at the booth sparked an exchange among congress participants on smoke-free policy. Luis and Sergio Prada reached out to the delegates through a song they composed about tobacco, which they performed at the World Heart Federation booth. Mateo, who works closely with cardiologists Eduardo Bianco and Laura Roballo at CIET Uruguay, said “youth have an important role to play promoting smoke-free environments. So do cardiologists. We have to start working more together.”

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