Following the principles of the Earth Charter, youth play an important role in the Worldconnectors Roundtable.
The Worldconnectors aim to develop new perspectives on global issues by bringing together people from different professional sectors, religious backgrounds and walks of life to share and exchange views and opinions. Many of the Worldconnector themes are issues that affect current and future generations. Young people make up almost half of the global population and are therefore indispensable stakeholders both at the Worldconnector Roundtable and in the international arena.
Our Youth Worldconnectors are Willemijn Aerdts, Alpha Barry, Sandra van Beest, Anna Chojnacka, Adrian de Groot Ruiz, Leontien Peeters, Sayida Vanenburg, Zita Schellekens, Erik Thijs Wedershoven, Masooma Yousufzai, Lynn Zebeda and Michel Scholte.
Youth and Young Professional Worldconnectors on tour!
From November 14th until the 22nd 2009 the Youth and Young Professional (YP) members of the Worldconnectors went on a mission to Washington DC and New York City. During this week they registered all their activities on camera, and via the weblogs on this website!
Aim of the mission
The main aim of the mission focused on theme of ‘what makes Millennials TCK, for a sustainable future’? What activates young people to be the ‘agents of change’? This theme was chosen as an interesting angle from the approach that the current financial crisis is an opportunity for a sustainable future. Furthermore it is a goal with a natural relevance to young people and a goal which can contribute to the various themes on the Worldconnectors agenda.
Why the US?
The United States of America has been chosen as a validation country to validate the hypothesis which will arise from our Dutch research due to up rise of youth/young professional participation during the last President elections. The objective of the trip is to develop a toolkit which provides information on how to engage a new generation into the civil movement. In addition, the participating Worldconnectors also used this opportunity to gather input on specific themes on the agenda that they are actively involved in themselves, such as Financial Systems, Sustainable World Citizenship, The Earth Charter and the MDG’s.
And now what?
The participants will share the outcomes with (Dutch) young people and young professionals in the form of a toolkit. In addition, the initial outcomes of the mission were presented at the Worldconnector meeting on November 23rd in the Netherlands and therefore included in the Financial System statement. The participants will also share the outcomes at other events for young people and young professionals in the Netherlands including Clean Drinks, Jong OS borrel, YES Event in Stockholm 2010.
Youth Worldconnectors Blogs
Do you want to know more about what happened in the US? Read the blogs written by Willemijn, Sandra, Leontien, Sayida and Masooma and watch the videos below!
Youth and YP Worldconnectors Videos
For more information on this project and the results, please send an email to roundtable@worldconnectors.nl
World Cities in Global Crises by Erik Thijs Wedershoven
The e-journal 'World Cities in Global Crises' is the product of a semester-long capstone research of the bachelor degrees of Erik Thijs Wedershoven and Jens Pohlmann at University College Maastricht, the Netherlands. The e-journal has been structured around three main themes: the Global City, the City of Citizens and the Green City. These three themes are interlinked and the articles within them, but could be read independent from each other, with one overall introduction and conclusive discussion.
Alpha Barry in Heilige Huisjes
Read Alpha's essay 'De Spiegel van Gandhi'
Sandra van Beest in Viva
Read an interview with Sandra van Beest.
1 2 3 4 5
Sandra van Beest in Libelle
Libelle magazine has interviewed Sandra as a young women we will hear a lot more of in the future. Read the interview
Worldconnectors in IS magazine
Willemijn Aerdts, Leontien Peeters and Sayida Vanenburg were interviewed by the Dutch magazine IS about their reasons for being actively involved in international cooperation. Read the interview
Pumpkin Soup on World Food Day
According to the Dutch magazine Viva, World Food Day (16 October) was a good occasion to interview a few Worldconnectors about their lifestyle. Anna, Sandra and Willemijn were asked why they are Worldconnectors, when they think the world would be a better place, and what they eat on World Food Day. Are you inspired by these Worldconnectors? Then skip meat and eat pumpkin soup!
Read the interview
Worldconnectors in Viva 400
The Dutch women’s magazine Viva has published a list of the 400 most successful young women (under 38 years old) in the Netherlands. The list has been divided in seven categories: business, rich, good, creative, smart, tough and upcoming.
Youth Worldconnectors Willemijn, Anna and Sandra have all achieved
a place on the list. Read the interview with Sandra here.
Anna Chojnacka in Grazia Magazine
Youth Worldconnector Anna Chojnacka talks about growing up as an immigrant child and about her work with the 1% Club in Grazia Magazine. Read article (in Dutch)
Sandra van Beest wants influence
Sandra, one of the Youth Worldconnectors, explains in Opzij Magazine why and how she made her voice and the voices of young people from all around the world heard at the United Nations. Read article (in Dutch)
