Declaration of youth for a life free of tobacco

Youth activists from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay worked together to draft a Declaration of Latin American and Caribbean Youth for a life free of Tobacco last September. They drafted and presented the document at the First SRNT Latin America & Second Iberoamerican Conference on Tobacco Control, where they joined over 300 other anti-tobacco advocates. The conference, which was organized by the InterAmerican Heart Foundation and the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, was held in Rio de Janeiro on September 5-7.  To learn more about the conference, read the related World Heart Federation e-newsletter Heart Beat article (October/November 2007).

Aiming to increase youth involvement in anti-tobacco action in Latin America, the World Heart Federation and the InterAmerican Heart Foundation worked together to bring the youth to the conference, and organized a special meeting there for them to exchange experiences and ideas and develop a regional network. Some of the youth also attended the pre-conference workshop organized by Karen Gutierrez of Global Dialogue for effective stop smoking campaigns.

Inspired by the European Youth Manifesto on tobacco, the youth at the meeting drafted a document that reflected Latin American culture and realities and presented it at the closing ceremony. They will use the Declaration to mobilize youth support for anti-tobacco action across Latin America.

The World Heart Federation initiated the youth advocacy project in 2006 as part of its Colombia Model Youth Project. Working with its Latin American members, it send teams of youth leaders from Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay to the First Global Youth Meet on Health (GYM2006)  . The GYM, which brought together youth from around the world, was organized in India by HRIDAY SHAN.

Since their return from GYM, the Latin American youth have developed local anti-tobacco activities. The World Heart Federation and the InterAmerican Heart Foundation are working with them to support these projects and to strengthen and broaden their network.  Representatives from each team that attended the GYM came to the youth meeting in Rio de Janeiro. They were joined by youth active in other tobacco control groups in Argentina (BASTA), Uruguay (Centre for Investigation of the Tobacco Epidemic) and Chile (FumaresFumar). There they shared information on their activities at national level and met key adult leaders of anti-tobacco activism in Latin America.