Empowering Youth: Honoring Courage, Fighting for Change & Shaping a Better Future
In June, we celebrate Youth Month in South Africa, marked by an annual event on June 16. The national holiday commemorates the Soweto uprising, a youth-led protest that challenged the former apartheid government. The protest took place on June 16, 1976, after over a year of mounting frustration from Black communities across South Africa due to a new policy that required Afrikaans and English to be the only languages taught in Black schools. It entailed upwards of 20,000 participants and created the beginning of the end for South African apartheid after the protest attracted international scrutiny that would continue to put pressure on the government until the establishment of democracy in 1994. Let us use this day to remember the many students who passed away in the protest and allow their legacy to live on as a bastion of action and courage that can inspire the next generation of youth to fight for their rights.
Children on the move are part of some of the most vulnerable groups globally. Refugee children can experience irreparable traumas that force them to try and flee to a better life, whether that is familial separation and death, malnourishment, human trafficking, etc. During this process, they can miss out on education and medical treatments, which are essential for a child’s development and a healthy life. Youth Day reminds us of the power that these children have. United, they have powerful voices that can create change and make it impossible for the world to ignore them.
For children on the move, maintaining courage and confidence can feel almost impossible. Still, thanks to organisations like the United Nations Refugee Agency, they fight to keep children on the move safe and provide them with the right tools to grow up healthy. Hali, a deaf girl who was fleeing from conflict in Niger, faced many obstacles that wouldn’t allow her to get a proper education. However, the UNHCR developed a coordinated plan to enable her to learn alongside other children and to empower her to the point where she dreams of becoming a nurse. Her story shows that empowering the next generation can change societal norms and break down barriers, allowing the world to grow with the youth into a better place.
Youth Day is celebrated to remember all the children whose courageous action and sacrifice on June 16, 1976, led to international pressure on the South African apartheid government, introducing international sanctions and scrutiny from which they would never recover. Their bravery serves as an example to any individual or group fighting for equality, showing that their actions today can create lasting change, empower others, and be memorialised and celebrated nearly 50 years in the future. Happy 49th anniversary of Youth Day, South Africa!
Photo by Martijn Vonk on Unsplash
Ref: https://www.unhcr.org/africa/news/stories/barriers-bridges-empowering-refugee-education-west-and-central-africa
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