Urgent Appeal: Put our Love in Action for YCW Haiti Following Brutal Earthquake
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IYCW Urgent Appeal - Early in the morning of 14 August 2021, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti, causing hospitals, schools and homes to collapse, claiming thousands of lives, and leaving communities in crisis. An estimated 1.2 million people, including 540,000 children, have been affected by the powerful earthquake.
YCW Haiti is appealing for our support!
There are 300 YCW members living in the affected region of Les Cayes in the south of the country who, thank God, have all survived. After a first visit to the region, they reported 250 affected YCW members whose homes were destroyed and who are now living and sleeping on the streets. They are therefore directly exposed to street violence and urgently need new accommodation. Many also have to cope with the death of a family member. The Haitian YCW leaders have already been able to provide initial support in the form of emergency packages with soap and other items, as well as food such as rice, because the other YCW members in Haiti who are not directly affected are also showing solidarity.
The IYCW, the ICA, YCW Haiti and Weltnotwerk are sending this urgent appeal together, calling for your donations.
A History of Representing the Youth Across the World
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Since the year 2000 we celebrate the International Youth Day on the 12th of august, aimed at drawing attention to issues faced by youth across the globe. On the occasion of the 2021 International Youth Day, KADOC searched the IYCW-archives to highlight some ways in which IYCW has drawn attention to youth.
The IYCW is not only an organization of youth, but also an organization for youth. Since its conception, it has not strived for improvements in the life conditions of young workers but also for representation of young workers and youth in general. The archives show that the International Youth Day was preceded by several festivals, gatherings and federations which brought youth to the attention of the world. In many of these, the International Secretariat played an important part even before it had developed into the IYCW.
In Baudour, a small town in Wallonia (Belgium), former YCW members have kept the values of the YCW alive for over 40 years!
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When they welcomed the IYCW secretary-general (Orlando) and the ICA coordinator (Arlindo) last July, several former YCW members had the opportunity to meet and exchange on the realities and challenges of the IYCW and the ICA. Moreover, a delegation of the Walloon YCW came to join us. It was also an opportunity to present the different projects carried out by several former YCW members. Without giving a detailed description, the place is home to a collective vegetable garden, where some fifteen gardeners get together one day a week to grow various vegetables and share a common meal with products from the garden. The main objective of the garden is to encourage people to live together, creating social links through a vegetable garden which, it should be noted, does not use any pesticides.
The other initiative is a "Repair Café". This is a project that gives a second life to various electrical appliances, machines, clothes, tools, after being repaired for free by volunteer technicians. This is a way to fight against the overproduction of waste and thus preserve our environment.
Young Workers for Change Towards Decent Work and Fairer World
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IYCW News - The Americas YCW (JOCA) organised a virtual exchange on 9 and 16 July 2021. The aim was to share about realities, needs, challenges and actions re unemployment and precarious young workers in the world of work at the continental level.
Participants in the event were young workers, activists and adults from different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, such as Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Guatemala, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, as well as a young German volunteer in Peru.
“The current global health crisis (Covid-19) has made even more visible the inequalities that we live in our societies; some of us have reinvented ways of work for survival while those who still have a job are submerged in long working hours and faced with double workload. Their salaries are often not enough to cover one or two meals a day plus other fixed costs. In addition, the cost of food, transportation and connectivity has increased,” Ana Cecilia from the Americas YCW team explained.
75th Anniversary of UNESCO: Youth to Take the Lead
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Basma Louis, IYCW leader
IYCW News - On 12th July the NGO-UNESCO liaison Committee organized a preparation meeting for the 75th anniversary event which will take place this coming September by virtual means.
The NGO-UNESCO liaison committee works with more than 240 NGOs, but only 40 attended this meeting when asked to delegate young people under the age of 30. It is obvious that the NGOs need to include more young people in their organizations and structures.
The objective of the meeting was to develop a Position Paper on Youth and Guidelines for Advocacy to be presented at UNESCO’s 75th Anniversary celebrations. During the meeting, the delegates split into 4 different breakout rooms to discuss more specifically the position paper and the launching of the event.
The IYCW leader Basma Louis attended the meeting and brought the proposal of the movement to be included in the position paper.
