Safe Spaces and the Power of Youth Voices
Listening to Young People to Achieve the SDGs
The Global Citizens’ Dialogue gives citizens a platform to voice their concerns, solutions, and criticisms. This blog series presents highlights from the 3rd Annual Global Citizens’ Dialogue, which was held during the 70th World Health Assembly and brought together adolescents and youth from Bolivia, Nepal, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda and the Philippines with health ministers and other leaders.
My name is Maryam Ahmed. I am 17 years old and I have been an activist for 4 years, since I was 13.
Every year I organise safe space discussions for 25–50 adolescent girls where we talk about things like boys, pubic hair, and menstruation — but these topics always digress into deeper and more serious things like rape, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and sexual issues.
During these safe space discussions, I have found out that most of the girls I have spoken to have been raped and don’t know what to do, who to talk to, and how to take care of themselves because of stigma and because they don’t were never given an education on these things.
Throughout my advocacy, there are times I get very discouraged because most times there are promises with no action. But, as more people have spoken out — and with more youth being involved — governments are finally listening.
I was given the opportunity to share their stories at the Post 2015 campaign. I used these stories — along with the voices of many adolescents — to demand what we wanted to be included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were created the year I was born — 2000 — had expired, and new ones were being created that we wanted to contribute to. I believe that these SDGs will be more successful because there is youth involvement which the MDGs did not have.
Throughout my advocacy, there are times I get very discouraged because most times there are promises with no action. But, as more people have spoken out — and with more youth being involved — governments are finally listening.
When I return to Nigeria, the girls and I have a meeting with the Commissioner of Health, Niger State, Dr Mustapha Jibril, to tell him our demands and how he can involve us in the decisions he is making. This gives us peace of mind to know that we are being involved.
I would like to end by telling governments not only in Nigeria but around the world to provide youth friendly health centres where we can talk about our problems without feeling judged or feeling like we would be the talk of the town. These friendly centres will also help with us giving accurate information and not hiding anything because we know it is safe for us to talk. This is very important because we have a lot to offer and also because we are the FUTURE and we are part of TODAY.
In 2014, a group of civil society organizations, including World Vision, Save the Children, White Ribbon Alliance and the International Planned Parenthood Federation, began working together to advance citizen engagement and citizen-led accountability for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health at local, national and global levels. Since then, the Coalition has supported more than a thousand citizen hearings in more than 22 countries across the world, giving citizens the opportunity to be heard on matters about their own health, and share their recommendations for how health care can be improved in their community, district and country.
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