Young Voices Against Poverty

In 2013 a video contest was organised prior to the European Development Days (EDDs) 2013 encouraging young people aged 13-24 to create a video showing how they imagine the world will be in 2030 and what they would do to eliminate poverty from today's world. 

There were four categories based on age (13-17 and 18-24) and region (EU and non-EU). The competition was run using Facebook and the winners were voted for by users on Facebook. During the EDDs, capacity4dev.eu caught up with two of the winners, Evelina from Russia and Anatasia from Latvia. 

"I saw the announcement of the competition and decided to take part. I wanted my voice to be heard. I didn't do it as seriously, as some of the other participants, but I used my imagination as many children do. I sent my video almost right after the competition announcement. If I shot it now, I might do it a little differently. But... my humour was pleasant to people! Especially, the last phrase: 'Only together!'" says Evelina.

Anastasia entered the competition as she was attracted by the main prize: a trip to Brussels to attend the European Development Days. "Brussels for me was a very mysterious city and since I was a child I really wanted to visit it and to know more about it. And now I’m here and I’m very happy. And of course, I wanted to express my opinion about poverty. It is quite new theme for me and maybe my video is not so serious but I will try to develop my idea and that is why this contest is really important for me."

Stina Soewarta, the Head of Unit for Communication and Transparency at EuropeAid, met with all the competition winners and commented that the videos "spoke strongly in very visual terms about how to fight poverty. They were very impressive young people who really wanted to make a difference. We had winners from Russia, Brazil, Latvia and Croatia and so it was also interesting to see that it was not necessarily young people in the countries where you would have expected that they would come forward with something on poverty eradication."

The four competition winners joined the EDDs Youth Ambassadors, 12 young people who were selected from around the world to attend a high-level auditorium session where they were encouraged to join the debate by asking questions and sharing their thoughts. The programme was action packed including a visit to the European Parliament and meeting the European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs. There was also time for some sightseeing with a trip to the famous Grande Place in Brussels.

Anastasia was inspired by her experience and the Youth Ambassadors: "these people really inspire me to become a young ambassador and to do a contribution in world changes, I think it’s great. I learned a lot of new ideas, because everybody has their unique ideas. I learned that I need to share this experience with my country, with my classmates maybe, to involve more people in this development."

Find out more about the competition and watch their entries on the EDDs website