Recomendados
Recomendados
Mais conteúdo relacionado
Semelhante a UNCRC - Hafsah Ali presentation
Semelhante a UNCRC - Hafsah Ali presentation (20)
Mais de Equality and Human Rights Commission
Mais de Equality and Human Rights Commission (11)
Último
Último (20)
Notas do Editor
- Good Morning to you all, today I am going to share my experiences with you after the Our Space summer camp, I hope you enjoy hearing about what I’ve done and learnt...
- Our Space was the first summer camp I had ever been to, but I can now say, that it will always be the best. Never have I made so many great friends and learnt so much in such a short space of time. But the main thing that I took away was that we have to accept differences and truly appreciate diversity. Our Space opened huge opportunities for me, from volunteering to market the Muslim Youth Helpline around Leicester, and just generally, realising that there’s more to life right now than school...
- I realised that this is what I enjoy doing, meeting new people, promoting equality and giving something back to my community. I was hugely inspired by people like Tom Robbins, a young campaigner promoting more Random Acts of Kindness, and Matt Fraser, a disabled actor who visited us at camp to inspire us to tackle any issue we wanted and to not let the fact that we are just teenagers, stop us. So as soon as I returned from the LD, I began, on what I call a journey, thanks to Our Space...
- The first thing I am going to speak to you about is the power of poetry. Not many people that I know realise how powerful poetry actually is. I started writing properly this summer, after a festival called the Lyric Lounge. It was there that I realised that this is one of the ways in which I can get my message out there, so I did. Throughout the week, I performed in front of hundreds of different people, making them aware of issues that concern me as well as entertaining them...I write about everything and anything. Poetry doesn’t have to be serious, or funny, or romantic, for me it’s just whatever I’m feeling at that time in that particular moment. And so I signed up to be part of the Journal’s Project, and kept a record of my experiences with this festival and the Special Olympics. I ended up with a collection of around 20 poems which are going to be kept in an archive so will still be around in 100 years time for people to read. Other ways in which I get my message out there, are by either performing this poetry at open mic sessions around Leicester, or entering competitions. Last week, two of my poems were chosen to be published with Young Writers. One on Identity and one on Diversity which I’ll read at the end…
- Also when I returned to Leicester, I joined the Youth Committee of 2 Funky Arts. The best way to sum them up are are: a non-profit creative arts and development agency committed to the creative learning and development of children and young people. So as part of their youth ambassador’s team, I represent the views of what young people want to see happen, like events or opportunities. Basically we decide what they spend their money on. More importantly, we organize and run the events from scratch, giving us work experience, the chance to meet new people, helping to build our confidence, and developing our community in the interest of young people, like ourselves.
- However, one of the main reasons I enjoy being part of their organisation is because it gives me the chance to take action on improving the portrayal of young people, not just in the media, but in general, across our society and in our community...Oh, and I get free, v.i.p entry into all the events! A lot of young people say they’re unhappy or hurt by the way we’re portrayed but they either don’t do anything about it or they can’t because they don’t know how to go about it. And so my main goal is to do this, as well as providing opportunities for other YP to do so as well. The most recent event was the Urban Arts Showcase, which I volunteered to help at. I performed a poem on Identity for the first time so I was quite nervous, but so many people came up to me afterwards and told me that they wanted to see me again because they could relate so easily to what I was saying and that my poetry was so relevant and reached out to everyone...This motivated me to carry on and so after being asked to be interviewed on the radio, I said yes. I spoke about why I write poetry and then performed Identity again live...Basically, you can see what I’m trying to do, to make my poetry reach out to as many people as possible, of all types.
- Well that’s all I’ve got to say about 2Funky and my poetry for now, but something else I did recently was apply to become an Article 12 Advisor for Unicef and this shows why this article is important to me. They were looking for young people to represent the voices of young people to decision makers on child rights. I had to write 1500 words on different aspects, such as why I would be good and what I know about children’s rights. I was then asked to go to a selection day in London, which took place a couple of weeks back, they wanted to narrow down the 20 people chosen to 4. After an ice breaker session, I had to present a 2min presentation on an issue that I felt affected young people and I chose the media. After this, we did some group activities, learnt more about children’s rights and then presented back to everyone what we had decided. One of the things we discussed was what a child friendly community is and how we would use children’s rights to ensure a community is child friendly. At the end, they revealed to us that their decision is too hard and so we had to vote for four people who we thought would be suitable with ourselves as the first. Unfortunately, the competition was tough and I didn’t get chosen, but I can still be involved with the project. It was an incredible day, again, I met some brilliant people, learnt about children’s rights in the UK and discussed important issues with other young people like me.
- So, you’re probably wondering, what are my plans for the future, well, tonight when I get back to Leicester, I’m going straight to the Leicester’s got Talent auditions to perform some poetry, and I even have a backing track. If you still think I’m mad, it seriously is the best way for me to get my message out there, because not only are people hearing how I feel, but at the time same time they’re finding out in a fun and creative way. 2Funky have just had funding to run a new showcase which I am managing from scratch, with my main aim being to improve the image of YP and provide an opportunity for them to showcase their talent and of course I’ll carry on being a Youth Ambassador for them. I’m also working on standing for election to represent my region for the UKYP which I’m really looking forward to. Of course, I’m going to carry on writing and performing poetry to spread my message. I’m going to keep in touch with Unicef and help with their projects and of course, the organisation who are down to everything that I have done, the EHRC. So I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank them and especially Ajeet for opening huge gateways for me to give something back to my community and most importantly: making a difference!
- To end with, I’m going to read you one of my poems, inspired by Our Space…