Concern Agents of Change - International Youth Summit

Agents Of Change Event

On the 23rd of April, Transition Year students in Loreto Balbriggan attended the Agents of Change International Youth Summit held by Concern Worldwide. It was hosted by Eve McGann, Patrycja Skydula and Zara Stafford, a student of our own. The girls were amazing hosts and their passion to make a positive change in our world really shone through. This was the main aim of the event, to show young people that they have a voice and they can use it to make a difference!

We were first introduced to Blanche Eilis, an illustrator of incredible talent. Participants were asked to look at a picture of our Earth and share any words or phrases that came to mind. Using our ideas, Blanche created this beautiful drawing to our left with images of family, home, nature and wildlife. Throughout the event she did more illustrations with participants’ input on current global challenges such as climate change, racism, gender inequality and more...

Following Blanche, we met our first guest speaker, Valery Molay, a social justice activist. She shared her experience about how she had to fight to have her voice heard and get opportunities. Something that she said which really stood out was “if I don’t involve myself in my community, I won’t be seen.” When she moved to Ireland it was the first time that she realised she was a ‘black girl’ and felt that society viewed her as inferior and irrelevant but instead of letting that put her down she used her experience to relate to society, her community and people. She is really passionate about fighting for economic equality, she believes that without it issues such as climate change and poverty can’t be dealt with. We need to adopt a new economic system as the one we have now where “money is the king” doesn’t include everyone and many people are left behind when it comes to infrastructure, health and money. Her advice to young people on how they can take action is to find what you are passionate about, be open and listen to people, and join groups to learn with others. 

After Valery, we were joined by Shorshor Burgesson, a social entrepreneur. Although she is only in her early 20s, Shorshor has had a lot of life experience and has explored many of her interests. She is not afraid of trying new things and is ready to follow her passions even if that means changing paths. Throughout her talk she spoke about many of the paths she has taken including designing clothes, shoemaking, working with young people, organising events, opening her own retail store and at the moment consulting with small businesses. She is really passionate about education and also shared her experience studying in the African Leadership Academy for two years. She learned lots of skills there such as problem solving which she now applies to her life on a daily basis. One of her biggest goals is to encourage entrepreneurship among young people which led to her starting a blog during lockdown called the BUILDer class where she shares what she has learned and experienced over the past couple of years about entrepreneurship. 

Then we met with Karen Aguiar and Alexandra Azevedo, the founders of Go Dance For Change. This is an organisation that promotes different dance styles from a wide range of cultures and backgrounds. Their aim is to promote positive social change in themselves and those around them, particularly in relation culture, mental and physical health. After speaking to us all about Go Dance For Change, Karen and Alexandra showed us a very lively, upbeat video of dancers from all different cultures coming together and dancing in the streets of Dublin. It was really positive and uplifting to see. Then they made us all get up and taught us a Brazilian dance. All of the students had such a fun time dancing and felt so energised afterwards!

The final guest speaker was Michael Doorly,  the Head of Concern’s Active Citizenship programme. He talked about the potential and opportunity he believes our generation has to make a big difference and to create a ‘new normal’ where we protect people, our planet and bring peace. However, this will only be possible if we all unite worldwide and work together in reaching this goal. We need to give each other the courage to bring about change. His advice was “if you want change, make noise, make lots of noise!”

Towards the end of the event each speaker was asked to share a piece of advice that viewers should take home which I felt was worth sharing and remembering:

Valery: “You have more power than you think you have”

Shor Shor: “Don’t ask people about their opinions of your dreams, ask them about your actions”

Michael: “Everyday commit to people, planet and peace”

Karen: “Be curious and educate yourself”

Alexandra: “Believe in yourself and look for wisdom rather than knowledge”

The feedback from TY students from Loreto Balbriggan was amazing. They all felt really inspired and uplifted after listening to each talk. They were really engaging and all of the speakers brought something new to the table which meant that every student was able to find an area of interest. I am sure that in the future there will be many activists from Loreto Balbriggan.  

Written by Nikolet Serbezova