Hey hey hey welcome back to my New York series!
So today I’m going to tell you all about the United Nations Youth Assembly that my siblings and I were fortunate enough to be young delegates from Nigeria at. It’s an amazing assembly of bright & active youths that have positively impacted their different societies and communities from across the globe. It happens twice a year, a Winter and Summer edition and it takes place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
Here’s an adapted excerpt from the UN Youth Assembly’s Press Release:
With youth at the core of the discussions, the 19th session of the conference aimed to highlight the interdependence and universality of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by exploring multifaceted global issues such as poverty, education, and sustainable consumption and production. Each topic was viewed in depth under the lens of various SDGs and their targets. The conference also brings to the fore contemporary discussions on youth’s role in policy-making, present-day humanitarian crises, and their impacts on global development.
Interactive workshops led by notable organizations were designed to equip participants with practical skills and know-how to develop and implement fresh ideas that support the implementation of the goals. Deliberations provided a conducive space for youth participants to contribute to a Youth Plan of Action that aims to capture and elevate youth voices in realizing the 2030 Agenda.
The conference itself lasted two days and the third day was a designated tour day, there were multiple sessions here are a couple of them in the itinerary that we all got mailed ahead:
Each session was packed with relevant information on how we can effect the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in our communities, with the aim of starting our effect NOW rather than waiting for external support, which tends to delay action.
My personal favorite session had to be the #ActionBeginsWithYouth which was hosted by Instagram officials – and my sister Joyce Peters got selected for an interview based on how she uses her Instagram! For those of you who don’t know, Joyce Peters is a photographer who uses her Instagram to display her work and concurrently inspires many people; I was the proudest person in the room watching her share her thoughts about Instagram’s role in social good. She gave really simple but effective ideas: share what makes you happy and don’t be afraid of what people might think or say – it’s your Instagram, someone will be grateful for your posts.
I too had a quick interview about my favourite SDG – mine is SDG 5: Gender Equality, because it really sums up all the community work I do, I work towards a society where women are respected and given equal opportunities with their male counterparts.
We met some super amazing people and we made our own UN Clan haha:
Of course Joyce the Photographer took the opportunity to get some quality photos for her portfolio! Meet some of our new friends:
I’m sure you knew I couldn’t pass up the chance to get some professional photos myself haha:
A lot of people have messaged me about getting involved and I’m super happy to hear this! My advice is to sign up for updates at www.youthassembly.nyc so that once anything is going on, you’d automatically get the information.
Here are a bunch of beautiful photos from our tour on Day 3 around the United Nations Headquarters:
We later went to the United States Permanent Mission to the UN and we met with Julie Jolles, the US Foreign Services Officers who talked with us on issues relating to immigration, political transition and many other hot topics – it was an enlightening experience.
Later that night we went to the famous Times Square for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and we caught some street entertainment on the way!
On our last day, we decided to visit the renowned Central Park that is always in the New York based movies lol, have a look at our photos, we had such a great time even in the cold because the sun actually came our haha:
And before we knew it, it was time to go home!
New York City was awesome, made lovely lifetime friends and we all hope to empower our societies – with each other’s help, we just might succeed in bringing positive change ❤
Oh and to answer the question of how I got involved – I was literally fed up about the state of the country one day, I think it was when I went to buy spaghetti for the first time in awhile and the price had more than doubled – so I went online looking for ways to get involved at the international level – and this came up!
So yeah, check out www.youthassembly.nyc – they’re currently looking for interns too and that’s a great step into the UN in my opinion!
Hope you enjoyed the post!
Till next time,
ETP xo