Millennium Development Goals:
Today’s Young People, Tomorrow’s Adults
The current socio-political situation of most countries all over the world is worrisome. The annual report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) highlights that the gap between poor and rich countries is growing. According to this report “the level of inequality is somehow appalling”. At the end of 2000, during the summit organized by the United Nations, the Heads of State from all over the world signed the Millennium Declaration by which they commit themselves to achieve eight goals by 2015. These goals were considered as irrevocable and irrefutable conditions to halve poverty. With the current trend, more than 40 countries, 33 in the Sub-Saharan Africa, a region having more than a quarter of the world population, will scarcely achieve, by 2015, half of the planned goals.
As we said, the main goal is to halve poverty by 2015, through the following actions:
• Eliminate extreme poverty and hunger
• Allow people to access the primary school
• promote gender equality and give more power to women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve mother’s health
• Fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Guarantee environmental sustainability
• Develop a global cooperation for development
The achievement of this goal is a priority for all countries and is the sole possibility to guarantee a pacific living in a globalized world. However, the lack of efforts by the governments, the lack of a “common action” and the rising number of conflicts in our planet hinder the achievement of a global reconciliation.
Which role may young people play in this action?
Today’s young people will be the tomorrow’s adults; the ones who should check the outcomes produced, and face the consequences of unsuccessful actions.
It is necessary to make them responsible, committed people and active participant. Other essential subjects are youth associations who should help young people to face and know these issues.
In this respect, it is required to:
- Make young people responsible and committed towards global issues linked to the Millennium goals and promote an active role in achieving them;
- Promote the skills of youth organizations to involve young people in the issues above through the exchange of good practices.
We organized short film competition in every country and the winner of Estonian competition Kristin Leis describe her prize- trip to Italy and Kenya.
Spoleto-Perugia-Malindi
Our trip started in Pärnu on the 9th of July when we started our car trip to Riga’s airport. In the airport in Italy we immediately met with three Greek, who helped us a lot. To arrive to Spoleto we had to struggle with a journey consisting of cars, plains and trains. Even though the trip was exhausting and unfamiliarly hot, we were given a warm welcome. Accommodation with its meals was applaud able.
We got in touch with our friends from Kenya immediately and talked to them for a long time. After our first good night sleep in our temporary house, we were taken to a local archeological museum, where we heard about Italian history and we could see different exhibits. Later there was a short conference, concentrating on the history of Spoleto and on its importance in modernity and the dangers of wooden industry.
After the lunch there was the first workshop, where questioner’s answers were being discussed in two groups and people tried to find consensus in understanding these. In the evening there was an opportunity to watch a movie but due to the mistake sin technique i missed the movie.
The next day, 11th of July, we visited the cathedral of Santa Maria, which made a good impression thanks to its architecture and art. After that we walked to another church, which was a bit more modest but still picturesque. In the hall of our temporary home was opened a picture gallery of Africa, which showed the importance of the women in Africa. We moved on to conference hall, where the lecturer was Marco and everyone could say their word in these matters. Estonians were quiet as is characteristic to our nation and because every country concentrated on their issues but these problems are unknown in Estonia.
On the fourth day we visited a farm which was located out of the town and where lived six men, who lived there voluntarily and out of touch with the rest of the world. It was a community which had persons who had had problems with alcohol, drugs or some other problem. We were given a small tour in their farm. We saw different animals and greenhouses and we were told their purposes. Later in the meeting we had a discussion over the rights of females and the arguments were quite hot.
The bigwig’s of the program tried to make the stay as likable as possible for everyone and so on the morning of the fifth day we, the Estonian girls, were given sausage and cheese instead of sweet croissants. After the breakfast we drove to the library in the next city, where the topic of the day was „clean drinking water“. Every country made a short speech and talked about the problems and the possible solutions with water in their country. After lunch we danced line-dance with our friend from Kenya and Ghana, after that we split into two groups and started writing our ten recommendations.
On the sixth day we were taken to Perugia, there was held a conference which took hours, and even though it was in Italian we were translated in English. Because we arrived too late we missed the dinner in our accommodation, so we went to a pizzeria where the food, wine and the company was perfect.
On the next day the two groups sat together and had to choose the best 10 recommendations from the twenty. Sadly we had to say goodbye to our Kenyan friends because their flight was a day earlier. In the evening four persons from Estonia, Ghana, Greece and Czech Republic wrote the final document, which was finally finished after midnight. On the final day the document was read in Italian and in English. Then it was time to pack the suitcases to drive to the airport in Rome to fly to Mombasa.
In Kenya we also got a warm welcome and we were taken to a resort hotel in Watamu. The Aquarius Resort was amazingly beautiful. The first day was given to get comfortable and to rest and because it was raining the next day the events of the program were cancelled. We join by new people from Kenya, the wig pigs of the project from Kenya, Aggrey and Billy.
On the 19th of July we were taken to a local tribe, who performed for us and introduced their culture and life. For example, their head of the tribe was 85-year-old but he danced like a young antelope and was a husband to a five women. After the lunch Moses did some games in the hotel and the introduction. It was pleasant that in the evening i was welcomed with birthday song, dance and a cake with candles.
The next day we went to nursery school, where the children and their parents did a small concert for us. It was a primary school, which had 3 grades and about 90 students. The school was built thanks to the donations from Greece.
On the 21th we went to a safari which wasn’t a part of the program. It started very early in the morning and lasted until 8pm, because it was getting dark already around 6-7 pm. In the safari we had a chance to see almost everything. There were elephants, giraffes, lions and reptilians’. With some monkeys there was a little fight, when one got into a bus and took the banana peels, but mostly it was a peaceful trip.
On Thursday we went to Malindi, where we were taken to a centre, where people are working with the problems with the rights of females (aids and prostitution). We moved on to a rehab centre where local people talked about their life and issues. In the evening we went to a school to see the movies made for the project and had won. The movies were interesting and different. The most memorable was the movie made by Kenyan John „My Sudan“.
On the last day we visited the local government and then had a brief lecture about garbage and recycling. Later we had a chance to visit the Indian Ocean. After the Swahili-themed dinner by the pool we sat together for the last time to give our thanks and say goodbye to those who didn’t fly back to Rome with us.
In the night we drove back to Mombasa by bus and then with a plane to Rome, where we spent another night before resting our feet in Estonia.
In conclusion the trip was amazing, despite the little tiredness and long waiting’s it was still a great trip, where we had opportunities to meet so many interesting people and learn many exciting things about other cultures and ideas. I am very thankful to the people for being so friendly and a big thanks to Sara, who did everything to make us feel as comfortable as possible.
