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The One Voice Summit which is held annually has come and gone but the impact made cannot be forgotten in a rush. This year summit was held in Washington DC from 26th- 29th of March 2010 with participants from different states in the US, colleges and international activists from Jamaica and Nigeria.
The summit was organized by Advocates for Youth, the Sierra club, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United State (SIECUS) and the Americans for Informed Democracy (AID). The session was interactive, informative and Educative as youth assembled together to discuss issues we young people face based on sexual reproductive health and proffer solutions to the problems. Issues that were discussed include: “Politics of sex education” where there is need to decide what to be taught in schools about sex, know more about the differences between comprehensive sexuality education and abstinence- only- until – marriage. Other issues discussed during the sessions were sex, justice and sustainability. To have a sustainable future, we must acknowledge global poverty, lack of access to basic health care and the root causes of environmental degradation.
The major purpose for the One Voice summit was the advocacy, media and messages, and community action planning. The session brought about the main elements of lobbying, how to communicate to the media, and deliver a good message to the congress men during lobbying. During this sessions, we were taught on the 3 ask when we go out to lobby the congress men which include:
- the REAL act
- the one billion dollars to support international family planning programs
- the global sexual and reproductive health act 2010
In order to build a strong ally with other young people from different campuses in the US, we visited several universities such as George Washington University, Northwestern University and the Rutgers University which we did a video screening on issues young people face from Jamaica, Nigeria and Ethiopia. After the video screening, students from each universities sign petitions to advocate for the 3 ask and we lobby at various city visited were the universities are located.
These whole experiences has really shown that as a young person, I am the leader of today and tomorrow and there is need for me to standup and make my voice heard to our leaders. We can desire a change in our respective countries only if we stop keeping quiet and let our voices to be heard.
