Youth health advocacy
Through its youth advocacy project, the World Heart Federation is working through its membership network to stimulate and support youth activism in health issues related to the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
Kicking off at the Global Youth Meet on Health
The network was initiated at the First Global Youth Meet on Health (GYM 2006) held in India, where youth leaders from 35 countries sought solutions to the major problems in global health. GYM 2006 was hosted by HRIDAY SHAN, an Indian nongovernmental organization that has been active for over a decade in youth advocacy on health. The event was organized in partnership with the World Heart Federation and other international organizations concerned with global health: these included the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Center for Disease Control and the Oxford Health Alliance. Participants explored major health threats including tobacco control, poor diet and physical inactivity, and participated in activities and workshops to develop advocacy skills. At the end of the meeting they launched the Youth for Health (Y4H) campaign.
With funding from its Colombia Model Youth project and the P. D. White Fund of the American Heart Association, the World Heart Federation helped teams from its member organizations in Argentina, Colombia, Georgia, Mexico, South Africa and Uruguay fund travel costs. It also contributed to travel expenses of teams from Indonesia and Pakistan; heart foundations in Belgium and Singapore sent teams independently.
Youth teams focus on tobacco
At the GYM the youth teams developed activities that they are now carrying out at the local level. Most of these focus on anti-tobacco advocacy, but some include the promotion of healthy diet and physical activity. Members of the GYM team were founding members of the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa's youth branch, Heartcore, and they have since been active in anti-tobacco advocacy at local and national level. As a follow-up to the Global Youth Meet, the Georgian Heart Foundation teamed up with local NGOs to sponsor grassroots football activities promoting physical activity for youth and drawing the link to heart health.
The Singapore Heart Foundation organized an anti-smoking campaign at a university, and youth attending the GYM from Pakistan are working with the NGO Heartfile to develop a nationwide communication campaign for the prevention and control of chronic diseases. Many of these groups also participated in World Heart Day celebrations.
Latin American youth form regional network on tobacco control
As part of its Colombia Model Youth Project funded by Julio Mario and Beatriz Santo Domingo, the World Heart Federation is helping stimulate youth involvement in anti-tobacco activism in Latin America. In Colombia, it works with the Colombian Society of Cardiology as it supports youth groups developing advocacy activities. It is also working with the InterAmerican Heart Foundation to help support national-level activities involving youth in anti-tobacco action in Argentina, Mexico and Uruguay. These work to involve more youth in local anti-tobacco research, campaigns, and grassroots activism.
To broaden its network and serve as a platform for the development of regional activities, in September 2007 the World Heart Federation and the InterAmerican Heart Foundation (IAHF) brought youth to the regional tobacco control conference organized jointly by IAHF and the Society for the Research in Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT), and organized a youth meeting there.
Youth attending the conference drafted a Declaration of Latin American and Caribbean Youth for a life free of Tobacco.
