This week’s guest blog is from ONE Youth Ambassador in Italy Martina Palmese.
Have you ever imagined speaking in front of a crowded audience at the Universal Exhibition – EXPO? I have to admit I’m quite an ambitious girl, but I’ve never dared to dream that much… until I became a ONE Youth Ambassador!
Dreaming big is a key aspect for our role, and ONE made it easier this year by organising four Speakers’ Corners slots for Youth Ambassadors at the EXPO Fair in Milano between May and October. So here you can find the story of our very special 16th of May…
It started at Duomo Square in Milano for a photo shoot and field activity to support the new phase of the #PovertyisSexist campaign. From here we made our way to the EXPO Fair and the Speakers’ Corner – and of course there were more photos here – there are never enough!
A wedding party show that they stand #WithStrongGirls at Piazza del Duomo.
To make our support of the campaign even more consistent, we were all girls (watch out boys, the Italian female Youth Ambassadors are stronger than ever!), armed to the teeth with #PovertyIsSexist tattoos and petitions to be signed. Needless to say, we caught a lot of people’s attention on Duomo Square and were able to speak to loads of people from all around the world, taking pictures with them and raising awareness of our campaign.
Youth Ambassadors at EXPO Milano, in front of the Tree of Life.
Once we arrived at the EXPO Fair we were super excited – it is the most important event held in Italy for a while – and we were about to be a part of it!
Youth Ambassadors are welcomed to EXPO by Minister Plenipotentiary, Cristiano Maggipinto
The theme of this year’s EXPO is Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, and my speech – the very first one in our schedule – was about hunger and malnutrition.
805 million of people go hungry each day – meaning that they do not have enough food to lead a healthy, active life. How is this possible in 2015?
I proposed to the EXPO audience that to solve this situation we would need at least three ingredients. We need to ask our leaders to:
1) Invest in women, to enable them to be the engine that will change not only their situation, but that of the communities they live in as well;
2) Invest in agriculture, to unlock the potential Africa has not only to stop hunger, but also to feed the rest of the planet with its resources;
3) Act at the G7 Summit, to build on their commitments in past years and set the pace in this historic year for development.
A beautiful #strengthie from Youth Ambassador Martina in Milan
Our next EXPO Speakers’ Corner will be on 13th June, where my fellow Youth Ambassador, Vanda, will focus on the potential of agriculture in Africa.