ICYO   Youth Information E-Newsletter

 December 2003 

 

] ICYO - Platform of 350 Youth Organizations in India.          

Z ICYO - India’s largest network of urban and rural youth.                           ICYO Membership is open now for youth, age groups 14-26.

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Partnership UNESCO-ICYO:  “Breaking the Poverty cycle of Women:
Empowering adolescent girls to become the agents of social transformation”

 

ICYO has been identified by UNESCO’s Section for Youth as a partner organization in a UNESCO project pertaining to the organization’s cross-cutting theme “Eradication of poverty, especially extreme poverty.” Based in four countries (India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh), the main objective of the project is to empower young people, in particular adolescent girls aged 14 to 18, to become the agents of social transformation, ensuring their participation in society as equal and valuable partners.

 

This unique and ambitious program comprises a number of interlocking components to promote education and skills development, awareness of science and application of technology, micro-finance for entrepreneurship, health and legal counseling and the development of guidelines for related policy.

 

A major challenge of the project is to monitor and evaluate the process of empowerment of the young girls/women and to measure the levels of social transformation, hence development impacts. In accordance with UNESCO’s strategy of action WITH and FOR youth, which strives to involve young people as equal partners in all aspects of project planning and implementation, local youth NGOs are directly involved and in charge of the Monitoring and Evaluation component of the project.

 

The Peer Group Monitoring and Evaluation used by ICYO as the selected local youth NGO in India is an innovative approach that will provide project partners with a better reflective mechanism to evaluate the project’s progress from the recipient’s experience, i.e. from a youth perspective. By observing the progress of the project and its objectives through the young people’s eyes –it is they, after all, who are the experts on their situation-, UNESCO is striving to ensure that the needs of the adolescent girls and the objectives of the project are truly integrated and fulfilled. Furthermore, this component of the project provides a substantial opportunity for capacity-building of the youth NGO partners assuming this challenging task.

 

The knowledge gained from this impact evaluation study entrusted to ICYO and the local youth NGOs in the three other countries will also provide critical input into the appropriate design of future programs and projects. With this approach to the monitoring and evaluation dimension of the project, UNESCO is the first international organization to include direct youth participation in poverty eradication strategies.

 

For more information on UNESCO’s strategies of action with and for youth, please also consult www.unesco.org/youth

 

AIDS/AIDS/AIDS/AIDS/AIDS/AIDS/AIDS/AIDS/AIDS/AIDS/AIDS

 

Miss Universe, Amelia Vega Promotes World AIDS Day  

 

Amelia Vega is the most beautiful woman in the world. But the reigning Miss Universe is less concerned with her striking looks than with striking a blow against the ugliness of the international AIDS epidemic. 

 

"The problem is people are afraid to talk about AIDS in my country," Vega says. "We need to talk about it, learn about it and begin to solve our problems through education and changes in behavior that put people at risk. Young people are at risk and they need good information."

 

WHO and AIDS

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) called on developing countries to train and organize 100,000 health care and nonprofessional workers to carry out its plan to begin delivering antiretroviral drugs to three million AIDS patients by the end of 2005.

 

The WHO said 6 million of the 40 million people infected with the AIDS virus were in immediate need of antiretroviral treatment, but that only about 480,000 were receiving it.

 

6000 Young HIV+ Every Day

 

The face of HIV/AIDS is primarily young, and all too often female. Almost 12 million young people (aged 15-24) and 3 million children live with HIV or AIDS. The majority of new infections are among the young - 6,000 young people and almost 2,000 children become HIV-positive every day, UNICEF says.

 

Youth Must be in involved in Decision making

 

ICYO strongly believe that youth do not have the opportunity to participate at decision-making levels, even in issues that affect them so much. As regards HIV/AIDS, the youth are key stakeholders, they are the most vulnerable and they are the most infected. Hence, they are major agents in the fight against AIDS. Out of the 40 million people infected world over, youth constitute 30% (12 million) are youth and this calls for urgent action.

 

Every third girl will experience violence in her lifetime: UNIFEM 

 

The United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, says one in three women will be raped, beaten, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. The United Nations released its findings to coincide with Elimination of Violence Against Women Day on 25^th November. UNIFEM Director Noleen Heyzer says the stark statistics sum up the crisis confronting women throughout the world.

 

"If we imagine a classroom, one in every three girls will experience violence in her lifetime. We also know the terrible cost of violence against women," he said. "It is a cost that it is too high. We need to end violence against women. We need to end it. In fact, not a minute more can we put up with this violence against women".

 

UNIFEM's findings are based on a series of regional reviews conducted last year. The report also marks the 10th anniversary of the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights, which placed women's rights on the international agenda for the first time.

 

Up - Coming Events:

 

Int. Cultural Youth Summit

 

The Youth Without Barriers Movement will be hosting the first International Cultural Youth Summit with the theme Young People Creation a Global Culture from 14-18 January 2004 in Philippines.

 

The main objectives are including Promote intercultural education as factor for youth empowerment, establish sustainable partnerships among youth organizations around the globe, and highlight the imperative of cultural development and preservation in the evolving global order.

 

The Summit is open for Youth Delegates age 18-34 from around the world and of diverse social, cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds.

For more information contact: reauy_opasc@...

 

Digital Generations: Children, young people and new media

Date: 26-29 July 2004

Location: London, England

Organizer: Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media Institute of Education, University of London

Contact: newmedia2004@... 

 

Europe, Youth and Globalization

 

From 5th to to 9th May 2004, the Directorate of Youth and Sport of the Council of Europe, in co-operation with the North-South Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity, will hold a large-scale youth event in Strasbourg, France, on the theme "Europe, Youth and Globalization".

 

Workshops Trafficking and HIV/AIDS

Date: 10-11 December 2003

Location: New Delhi, India.

Organizer: STOP and Regional HIV and Development Programme, UNDP.

Theme: Trafficking and HIV/AIDS – Disaggregating the Vulnerabilities

Contact: romadeba@...

 

3rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences

Date: June 16 - 19, 2004

Location: Honolulu Hawaii, USA

Organizer: East West Council for Education, Center of Asian Pacific Studies of Peking University

Contact: social@...        http://www.hicsocial.org

Global Medical Parliamentarians Conference

 

AFPPD and IMPO with UNFPA and the Japan Trust Fund for Parliamentarians will organize yet another unique event for parliamentarians from all parts of the world who have medical background.  The conference will take place in Bangkok from 6-7 December 2003.

 

DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO launch Mondialogo

DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO have launched a new partnership programme known as Mondialogo to promote intercultural dialogue and exchange, respect and tolerance.  In short, it aims to help different cultures to live together by encouraging young people to interact with their peers from other parts of the world.  It will do this via an interactive website, a school contest and an engineering award.

 
For detail visit: www.mondialogo.org

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This is newsletter from ICYO

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations

Khare Apart. 194-A, Safdarjung Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093 

Phone/Fax: 91 11 26183978

Email: icyo@...   

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Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO) is a registered non-profit, non-governmental network organization, committed in developing areas of mutual cooperation and understanding among different youth voluntary agencies, youth groups, clubs and individuals working in the field of youth welfare in India.  ICYO functions as an umbrella organization of youth NGOs in India. Its family consists of over 350 organizations spread in 122 districts of 22 states from different corners of India.

Affiliation:  Consultative (Roster) Status with ECOSOC, United Nations; Consultative Status with Commission on Sustainable Development; Full Member of World Assembly of Youth (WAY); Full Member of Asian Youth Council (AYC); Member of Youth for Habitat International Network (YFHIN); Affiliate group of ECPAT International, Bangkok, Thailand.