Two Days to the Youth Advocacy Institute
An exciting week’s coming up for ASAP. It’s two months since we announced our Youth Advocacy Institute, and we are now just two days away from it.
In the past two months, we’ve reviewed some excellent resumes, and read through very inspiring application letters. Thanks to funds from the Packard Foundation and Mama Cash, we are now looking forward to hosting 14 potential youth champions in our very first advocacy institute for young people.
Why the youth? ASAP strongly believes that young boys and girls are eager and ready to take their future into their own hands. They are less intimidated than the generation before them by cultural and traditional values, and more willing to explore evolving ideas on sexuality, sexual health and reproductive rights. Moreover, it relates to them and to their future, and they are anxious to challenge existing political and authoritative frameworks.
We hope to shape their ambitions by introducing to academic work on sexuality and gender, human rights, abortion policies and laws. We also hope to provide them with interesting tools for advocacy through sessions on social media, board games, and interpersonal skills.
To add to the excitement, our youth champions are from all around Asia: India, China, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Iran, Cyprus, Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Nepal. We hope to give each of them an opportunity to present their perspectives, and learn from sharing their experiences. More exciting, we hope to learn from them too.
I’ll be updating this blog with more information on our sessions, with the outcomes and takeaways. Keep watching this space!
