Global Youth Sounding Board November Report

Global Youth Sounding Board Meeting in November

KIYO's Global Youth Sounding Board (GYSB) connects youth from youth organisations from no less than five countries around the world: Belgium, Burundi, Brazil, DR Congo, and the Philippines. This provides the youth with opportunities to address important themes in their youth work and exchange their experiences with each other. Since the launch of the GYSB in October 2021, these youth have already met twice and, in what follows, are some key points from their second meeting. 

“Art in service of the environment”

Arclaine and Epitace, two Burundian youth, presented their project on recycling art. Using youtube videos, they transform the large mountain of plastic waste into beautiful pieces of art. Together with other youth, they follow a process of collecting, designing, cleaning, and making the final product, after which they can sell it. Arclaine also participated in a UNDP competition with this project, winning a prize and 3,000,000 Burundian francs. Congratulations Arclaine!

Want to know more about it? Be sure to check out this video of Arclaine in French:

Struggles and Successes of Youth

In addition, when discussing the struggles of youth, it became clear that there is a mindset of dependency of the youth on those who support them. Often they lack self-esteem or grow up in difficult circumstances, which prevents them from developing their abilities.

Experiences from DR Congo were also shared. Congolese youth do take the initiative and have entrepreneurial ideas, but the government discourages youth to take action. Moreover, there are not that many decent jobs created by adult employers for youth. As a result, many youth who have completed their studies just stay at home, since they cannot find a job. In addition, there are struggles for the mentors of youth organisations themselves, such as the lack of financial and material support. But in the midst of the struggles, some successes such as organising art projects and art exhibitions and putting the role of female leadership in the picture.