By: Felice Valeria (Content Writer Intern)
The phrase “the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow” by Nelson Mandela is indeed true. As the future agents of change, it is crucial for youths to begin generating positive changes in their own communities. Initiating and partaking in youth volunteer movements is one of the examples of how they could fulfill their duties as leaders of the future. Henceforth, it is no doubt that there have been abundant volunteer movements established by young people all around the world to bring about betterment to their communities through the projects and initiatives that are carried out under the movements. These are a few examples of notable youth volunteer movements that have been acknowledged by the international community as having been contributing to the said causes:
- ONE Youth Ambassador; This campaign and advocacy youth organization has fought for the alleviation of poverty and preventable diseases in Africa, which has involved more than nine million people around the world. The teams are widespread across many countries, which include the United States (US), the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and so forth. One of its remarkable achievements includes its success in securing legislation in the US, Canada, and the European Union (EU) to generate transparency in the extractives sector, in which corruption could be eventually eliminated, and thus, there would be more allocation of money for oil and gas revenues in Africa to fight poverty.
- Afrika Youth Movement; This movement is known for its advocacy and empowerment efforts to protect and guarantee the rights of African citizens to be fulfilled. This youth-led movement consists of more than five thousands members across 40 countries in Africa and the diaspora. It is the participation and development of African youth that are highly encouraged, which have been encouraged through numerous real actions and initiatives. The acknowledgement of untapped voices of the Africans was the main motive of the establishment of this particular movement, which has made this movement becoming invaluable and prominent for the development of African youths.
- Count Me In; Count Me In has claimed itself as the world’s largest youth-led movement, in which 10 million youths across 100 countries have been positively impacted by the programs carried out by the movement. This movement aims to empower young people through their connections with the world to take initiatives in contributing to their communities, such as through volunteerism, mentorship, and community development. Hundreds of community service projects have been developed by this movement, with over 100 million volunteer hours to date and over $2.3 billion value.
Those are only three out of thousands of volunteer movements that are spread across the world. The voluntarily-taken initiatives show how more youths have been caring to the causes that might determine the future of our world, and how it is not impossible for young people to generate both small and big changes for the betterment of the world despite their young age. Hence, stay motivated and let’s contribute to better our world by initiating or joining volunteer movements! Everything starts from small changes before they are collected and forming larger things, which would gradually show off their prominence per se as time goes by.
