Young people carrying the torch for poor and needy

This week's INM Irish regional newspapers' column

Michael Commane

On Thursday, November 19 over 400 young people from all over Ireland attended a seminar in the RDS on how to make this world a better place.

It was organised by the National Youth Council of Ireland and Concern Worldwide.

You might be inclined to throw your eyes to heaven at the thought of such an adventure. You might say it’s inspirational nonsense.

World leaders have agreed a set of 17 goals to be achieved by 2030. These goals focus on such topics as poverty, hunger, health, inequality, education, climate change, gender equality, development, water and sanitation, disability, employment, peaceful societies and partnership.

Throughout the day it was palpably clear to see that young people must be at the centre of shaping a fairer world for all seven billion people. Young people have the potential to have a say. 

There are 1.8 billion people aged between 10 and 24 across the world and half the world’s population is under 30.

Dominic MacSorley, CEO of Concern Worldwide, explained how he has been 33 years with the aid agency.

“When I joined Concern at 26 I thought I could change the world in two years, 33 years on and we still have a long way to go,” he said.

He stressed how Ireland’s history of poverty, famine and emigration, gives us a special role in our fight to make the world a better place.

“We need to move from goals to demands. Everyone, no matter where they live, has a right to a job, to food, to human rights,” the Concern Chief Executive said.

“In a globalised world a disaster like Ebola is just one plane ride away.

“The refugee crisis is not ‘over there’, it’s on our doorstep and if we think Europe has a crisis, it’s a disaster in Syria.

“While in Lebanon in early November I met a young Syrian girl, who is living in a UN camp. She always wanted to be a teacher. That’s all changed and now she will get married at 16 so as to support her mother. It’s called ‘survival sex’. 

“It’s right now we need to be making changes that will allow that girl be the teacher she once wanted to be,” MacSorley said.

Kevin Kelly, from the Department of Foreign Affairs, gave a rundown on the history of the United Nations.

This year Ireland celebrates 60 years as a member state of the UN, which was founded 10 years earlier in the aftermath of World War ll. The world wanted peace and it certainly needs peace today. 

Kelly admitted that there are many who will say the UN is not doing enough but as a senior Civil Servant pointed out to me the UN is simply the countries which make up its membership.

During the last 60 years Ireland has had 66,000 people working as UN peacekeepers in trouble spots around the world. That’s something we have every reason to be proud about.

Did you know that Irish farmers feed 18 million of the world’s population? It was a statistic that the president of Macra na Feírme, Seán Finan, told the gathering.

MEP Brian Hayes pointed out that we Irish should demand for the poorest of the poor around the world the rights we have.

It was impressive to see so many young people expressing such interest in topics that have the potential of making or breaking our world.

Looking around the room, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon’s words came to mind: ‘young people are the torchbearers of Sustainable Development’.

It’s up to us to follow their lead and keep those torches alight.