Youth

This video portrays young men and women from various sectors and social movements in urban and rural areas throughout Colombia and shows their issues & struggle in the 2021 national strike movement.

The region has the largest network of subterranean rivers in the world; its objective is to preserve natural resources in spite of large polluting companies. Yamili Salazar Ku is a young Environmental Engineering graduate who, since 2013, has been leading the largest network of water guardians throughout the Yucatan.  She promotes environmental education, water care and human rights.  

The article describes and discusses social protest in the southwestern Colombian city Pasto within the framework of the so-called "National Strike". The situation was characterized by an unprecedented social mobilization and an alarming escalation in the use of repressive violence by the state.

Patricia Trigueros gathers fragments from the different women's collective workspaces and composes an essay that reflects shared learning. Meme Flores responds to the rhythm and flashes of scenes with shots, movements and sounds that accompany the portrait.

The historic Latin American Youth Climate Summit took place in 2022 in the city of Cartago, Costa Rica. Three days of pure reflection, exchange and debate led to the drafting of a participatory regional document with 10 recommendations for national governments and another 10 for large emitters.

Rinu Oduala, also known as Savvy Rinu, has become a popular figure for her active participation in the nationwide #EndSARS protests. We spoke to Rinu about the legacy of the protests and her views on the future of Nigeria's politics.

This text explores the contents, forms, agendas and disputes that have confronted youth movements (in terms of art and culture) in Colombia over the last 20 years. All this is in order to recognize and acknowledge ourselves in the midst of a path that attempts to erase experiences and hinder solidarity.

In one of their most recent projects, UnidosMX developed a citizen handbook in collaboration with other NGOs like “Ciudadanos por la Transparencia”. The aim of the book is to give the youth an easy tool to know how to report issues in their communities, make use of public institutions, and know how to contribute their voice and ideas to public policies. The handbook was disseminated in two local schools, where young students participated in artistic workshops dedicated to public space rehabilitation. 

The judge's words still sometimes echo in her mind, even years after Juthamat Srihatthapadungkit observed the trial against a group of community rights defenders in northeastern Thailand. "What do you know about anything? Do you even have a fourth grade education?" the judge's voice thundered across the courtroom. The incident shook the young law student, leaving her with a nagging doubt about Thailand's justice system. She began questioning her dream of becoming one of the country's few female judges, an ambition she had worked hard for. But it also opened up a new path for her. 

Dressed in colourful traditional garb, the village's female elders gather around a young woman as two large cameras begin recording. In a soft but firm voice, 18-year-old Pornchita Fahpratanprai explains why they are standing up against a coal mine threatening their peaceful community in the mountains of northern Thailand.

India’s northeast has had a chequered history of youth movements and has been home to some of the recent strong pro-democracy movements in the country. Being young in India’s northeast necessitates acts of social interventions of various kinds. In this conversation, Dr. Kaustubh Deka and Dr. Soibam Haripriya reflect on the locality of youth movements and the long history of the culture of protest in the region, as well as its larger resonance.

At the age of 18, Natthapan Saengtab crashed her motorcycle into a stranger's car. It set off a chain of events that would see her parents lose their land, sending the family on a downward spiral. But against all odds, the fateful accident set Natthapan on the path to becoming a prominent land rights defender in southern Thailand. 

Alisa, who goes by the nickname Fon, went to a high school located right at the beach, prompting her to develop a deep interest in the coastal communities of her hometown. She then became inspired to pursue a career in law, hoping to bring the voices of local communities into the country's environmental laws and regulations. Today, the young activist is one of the pioneers of encouraging young people in Thailand's South to raise their voices for change. She became one of the few youth representatives in national politics dedicated to community struggles in the country’s coastal areas. 

Until the second grade, Songseang Supanya did not see a problem with commuting to school in a saleng, a three-wheeled cart her parents used for scavenging in the streets of Bangkok. Then, in third grade, she switched to a school van, supervised every morning by teachers. "One day, I overheard a teacher talk about picking me up from home. 'She lives in a slum!' she said. I felt terrible. I questioned whether living in a slum meant I was not a [good] student," Songeang recalls.

Indonesia, like its neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia, has a long history of student activism; from the participation of indigenous and Islamic students to end Dutch colonial rule and a wave of protests in the 1970s against corruption, student movements became a strong force in Indonesia’s democracy. With the changing landscape of technology has also come a shift in how students and youth in Indonesia become politically engaged.

Yureesa Sama was a high-school student when the police officers showed up at her doorstep for the first time in 2010. Her family lived in a small house surrounded by rice paddies in a Malay-Muslim community in Pattani province in Thailand's Deep South. The officers questioned her parents, family members and neighbours. Then they left, only to return the following week, the one after that and so on. Sometimes they just hung around the house for hours watching who came and went. Yureesa sensed her parents' concern and knew something was wrong, but she didn't quite understand what was going on. Finally, she was told not to worry and focus on her studies. In most other places in Thailand, the officers' conduct would have raised eyebrows, but the Deep South has been ruled by martial law since 2005. Growing up in a region affected by a prolonged separatist insurgency, Yureesa was taught not to ask too many questions. 

The prose of Indian poet Haripriya Soibam describes youth's struggle to preserve and promote democracy. Read her five poems for "Young voices on the rise - Youth and democracy in the Asia-Pacific region".

At the age of nine, Nalutporn was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy. For the rest of her life, she would use a wheelchair – and for the first part of that life, she had to make it through the Thai educational system. People with disabilities in Thailand have few rights sanctioned – a hot political issue for Nalutporn.

Sitting in front of Songkhla’s city hall, a seaside city in southern Thailand, a young woman dressed in a hijab wrote a letter to the country's prime minister. Choosing each word with care, she called on him "to listen to the stories of the fisherfolk’s children who grew up and bonded with the sea, protected and took care of it." It was in May 2020, two days before a week-long public hearing session for the Chana Industrial Estate project that is poised to transform the quiet fishing villages of Songkhla province into an industrial zone.

Homophobia, prejudice and hatred marked Patchara Kumchumnan's childhood. It's taken him a few years and some hundred kilometres to escape the prejudice and hatred in his hometown. But, while the scar of discrimination never faded completely, the experience became his driving force to defend the rights of others.