Vanessa Geffrard, 21 Advocates for Youth; International Youth Leadership Council
College Park, Maryland, USA
Being on the International Youth Leadership Council, I’m involved in issues like maternal mortality, AIDS, adolescent reproductive rights. Our overall goal is having young people to teach other young people and move and influence people.
Researchers underestimate us. Just keeping us away from the information and not telling us what is out there is inhibiting us. The more you share with us, the more we are able to grow and make better and wiser decisions. I always believe one is a product of one’s environment. If you don’t educate young people, if you don’t give them the facts and resources, then they are prone to make bad decisions.
I also believe that a lot of great historical moments and movements have been done by young people as result of getting motivated and getting educated and starting their own revolutions. I feel a lot of us are complacent. That is not our fault. We are just not given the issues and topics that we should be passionate about. Older people are giving us what we should know and should and shouldn’t do. I believe that inhibits us from thinking outside the box, from starting our own clubs and organizations and really getting involved in issues that really affect us. So if older people don’t empower us and include us in decision-making that affect our lives as young people, we won’t be equipped with resources to lead ourselves and be better advocates for ourselves.
Interview by Brian W. Simpson, editor of Johns Hopkins Public Health magazine.
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