Desmond Situma is a ONE Youth Ambassador in Belgium.
*This blog has been updated on 14 June 2021, after the EU announced its pledge to the Global Partnership for Education.
Growing up in Bungoma, Kenya, at the age of 10, I could not read or understand a simple story, like most of my classmates. I was among the youngest students in my class, which meant that there were many older students not able to read or count like me. And there...
ONE
Today‘s youth are the changemakers of tomorrow, and it‘s crucial for world leaders to uplift their voices so we can change the world for the better. This is why ONE‘s Youth Ambassadors from Italy decided to make sure that their members of parliament hear their voices and answer some very important questions about how we can end the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our YAs are explaining why it‘s so important to talk about global health when Italy is still struggling with COVID-19...
In January 2020, scientists communicated with the world the existence of a new virus — COVID-19. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, as it took COVID-19 only two months to cross borders and to make one single truth loud and clear: the winning strategy to defeat this virus is multilateralism.
We, the young generations, believe that international cooperation is the only answer we have to defeat this pandemic once and for all....
Aya Chebbi is a Pan-African activist, Chair of Nala Feminist Collective, CEO of Afresist, and served as the first African Union Special Envoy of Youth.
Young people may be less likely to fall severely ill from COVID-19, but in so many other ways, the pandemic has disproportionately impacted their lives.
This is especially true on the African continent. The informal, low-paying labour market, where most young people work, was hit hardest by the pandemic. In Nigeria, 45% of people surveyed said...
2021 is a monumental year for the UK, as it hosts the G7, the Global Education Summit, and COP26. Historically, the UK has been an international development superpower, having been one of the most generous and largest donors. In November 2020, the UK made a strategic misstep as it cut its aid budget by 30% and reduced its ODA to GNI ratio from 0.7% to 0.5%.
This dramatic cut in the aid budget during a global pandemic will have disastrous...
Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Disclaimer: This story contains accounts of gender-based violence.
At just 13-years-old, Siyabonga Khusela was confronted with the reality of gender-based violence (GBV).
After a fight with Siyabonga’s step-father, Siyabonga’s pregnant mother arrived at the hospital to deliver her baby. With high blood pressure and other injuries, “she passed on,” Siyabonga said. “The least that the doctors could do was to protect my baby brother.” He was just 13-years-old when he...
Nezha Ben Taleb and Laura Gobbi, two ONE Youth Ambassadors from Italy, are weighing in on the outcomes of the Global Health Summit and the critical role young people play in shaping future policies, global responses, and the world.
A strong echo of hope and solidarity was launched by the Global Health Summit, hosted in Rome on May 15, under the presidency of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and of the EU Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen. “We need...
As someone who is from a family of teachers I have always been interested in education, and have been appreciative of the opportunities and learning resources that I’ve had access to. When I was 18, I spent a year volunteering as a teacher in eSwatini, which opened my eyes to the wide global disparities in access to education. Seeing the impact of barriers to education on not just an individual child’s life but also on the whole country’s economic...
We need a global roadmap to vaccinate the world — and we need it now. The scenes emerging from India are a harrowing reminder that unequal distribution of vaccines puts everyone at risk. More contagious forms of the virus are already evolving, increasing the risk of a new mutation that resists current vaccines.
Global access to vaccines is the fastest way to end the pandemic, but if rich countries monopolise supply and only vaccinate themselves, twice as many people could...
World Immunization Week – celebrated every year in the last week of April – has recently wrapped up, and our Youth Ambassadors in Belgium are still thrilled about the opportunity they had in making their voices heard with their elected officials on an issue they have dearly at heart: global vaccine access as the fastest way to end the pandemic for everyone, everywhere.
Throughout the week, our young activists met with 23 decision-makers, including members of the European Parliament (MEPs)...