I remember walking into the New Global Citizen office and feeling completely freaked out. I was 15 years old and it was the first day of my new summer internship. While the office felt warm and welcoming, the lofty goals plastered on the walls were overwhelming. When I looked at their descendants, I soon realized that the citizens of the New Global wanted nothing less than to change the world with the power of youth. Who thinks I can play football in the league?
You could say that I have always had a globally oriented mindset, but the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia convinced me to take action. My friend and I realized that we should see each other if we could help each other. At a moment’s notice we decided to de-decorate the Christmas tree and donate our proceeds to the Red Cross. Basically, we charge people a small fee to remove ornaments and decorations from Christmas trees. We proposed to raise $100,000. We were both surprised and shocked when we wrote down the final receipt of $1,200.
I soon heard about the new Global Citizens and loved their youth and global focus: a rare combination among non-profit organizations. The mission of New Global Citizens is to mobilize young people in the United States to help solve the world’s greatest problems. They seek to awaken members of Generation Y to ask, “Why does half the world live in poverty? Why do 1.2 billion people have no access to clean water? Why do 1,200 children die every hour from preventable diseases?” They believe that young people are uniquely poised to tackle the world’s biggest issues and that the citizens of the New Global exist to harness this potential.
Over the past two years, I have watched New Global Citizens grow from a non-profit startup to an established organization with a model for high school clubs across the country. Word would get out about New Global Citizens, and when my friend Anna approached me in our junior year, around the beginning of our club at Berkeley High School (in Berkeley, CA), more than I studied to join.
work for women We wanted to focus on childbirth care in Mexico. New Global Citizens joins us with an amazing woman named Sandra Peniche, who is a member of the non-profit organization Ashoka. Ms. Peniche works to equip doctors to better suit the needs of women and to train women to take care of their health She also created a coalition of public health professionals to help doctors fight cervical cancer and improve women’s care. The coalition brings together representatives from civil society, medical associations and government health services to shape training and careers for medical students and institute- the guards as well. His main target group is the indigenous tribes of the Yucatan Peninsula. With some further research, Anna was discovered, while cervical cancer is the 12th leading cancer in the world, the killer in the world, the first of women in Mexico. This type of cancer kills an estimated 300,000 Mexican women every year. It seemed imperative to us.
Fortunately, New Global Citizens has been extremely helpful. They provided our club with two intensive training sessions: one at the beginning of the year and the other in the middle. The first session focuses on developing great skills including fundraising, re-energizing key community members, effectively communicating “big ideas” and running a productive meeting. The second training session was an “advanced” course on similar material. The new Global Citizens gave us advice and helped us create a season of the year. In addition, New Global Citizens provided our club with an activity and training manual, technical and reliable technical support from the Program Service, a web page, and regularly developing a “menu of projector options” designed in partnership with recognized leaders in the field. the development of international affairs.
After founding the New Global Citizen Face, Anna and Our Fundraising, Advocacy and Community Education plans for the club, which they had written YALAH (Youth Advocate of warm bodies .The group has completed our objectives. We have decided to establish our community of Penichae in Mexico, selling goods in the field, a the silence of the auction. , and the communication proceeds from the production of the students of the Vagina. According to the general argument, we have decided that the vaccine, while the most controversial, can prevent the virus HPV is contracted, which can lead to cervical cancer. .
In addition to being able to live in Mexico from my high school in Berkeley, California, I was learning how to be a leader in my community. From my experience in training New Global Citizens, I felt comfortable leading a meeting and inspiring others to want global change. I also learned to set my goals high, but baby-steps to achieve them.
But the greatest part of being a New Global Citizen is that I was never alone. While Anna and I were helping women get better health care and awareness in Mexico, students across the country were fighting poverty and saving ethnic groups in Romania Through New Global Citizens, clubs can share ideas, strategies, success-story”>success stories and friendships. This year , New Global Citizens are clubs in California, North Carolina, New York, Texas and Minnesota projects that they create for their clubs.
EgSchoolSchool School, which is called Plant Read, in India, the girls of Castilleja, for example, chose their work. The project aims to promote adult literacy and human rights using Subtitling Language (SLS) software that makes reading a casual, automatic and subconscious part of popular television entertainment at a low cost per person. SLS refers to the subtitles of the movie song programmed in the “same” language as the audio. So Hindi programs are subbed in Hindi, Tamil programs in Tamil, and so on in every local language. The main idea is that what you see is what you hear and then the two reinforce each other. The strength of SLS lies in the fact that it is secretly educational. No extra time, transportation, or money should be spared, as reading becomes a home experience that complements other reading and literacy activities.
The Leland High School students decided to work to end infant mortality by financially supporting Children in Zambia. The Global Fund for Children Project helps orphans and other children in the area with their immediate needs, including food, shelter and medical care. The town therefore nurtures children in a safe, family-friendly environment and provides high-quality education for students who have primary dropped out or never attended school in the first place .
It’s so easy to wrap up, and absolutely anyone can do it. First of all, it’s important to know that you don’t have to live close to New Global Citizen offices in San Francisco. You don’t even have to have a club in high school. New Global Citizen clubs can be with any form of youth gathering, whether church groups, social clubs, community centers or high schools. For more information in your area, email [email protected] or simply visit www.newglobalcitizens.com.
First of all, if saving the world sounds as good for you as it did for me, I beg you to get involved. I learned both from my own experiences and from the wonderful staff at New Global Citizens. They allowed me to learn about a culture very different from my own and to really see the world from a new position as a global citizen. The staff is extremely supportive and has been behind me every step of the way, not only teaching me high goals, but also achieving them.
The New Global Citizens are big on inspirational quotes. So I leave the thought of ending with Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” and hopefully everything else will fall into place.
