convinced that teenage children and
young people can change the world and not
I always thought about it and in fact when
first time I had the idea with time
I discovered that I underestimated the
ability to have children ago
12 years I had the opportunity to talk
with the director of UNICEF in the country
Dominican republic and she told me that
a group of teenagers from a
poor community of the border had
saying
we do not want you to come
to bring us projects
Teach us how to do it and best of them the
money to us that we
we do and she told me look at that idea
like but I do not know how to put it in
practice we do not have the
structure for something like this to work and
from there we came up with good
but why can not we make them
the same children and adolescents who do
your own project because we have to
come the adults to tell them what
is what they have to do and
we started to develop an idea that
eventually it became a
project called youth councils
children and the idea was to develop
municipalities of children and adolescents
real city councils
here the important thing of this idea because
another country in the world
We knew that there were simulations that
they are born as a game we have not
we want to do it really another we want
that the children choose their
representatives of children and youth and
that it is authentic that it is a process
authentic politician and that they be the same
children adolescent girls from municipalities
we wanted to do it locally that they
choose
who want to be represented and
what are the projects that they
they want to do and this idea that a
principle was it did not seem like it was a
pure madness but good we do not know
no country that has done and we said
but we’re going to do it and try it
and I personally had a lot
concern that politicians
adults were going to try to manipulate the
process because in the end we are doing
policy and we take many measures to
that this did not happen and in fact what
important part of this project was to go back to
recover the real definition of the
politics and politics is the art of
serve the community and that children
teenagers learned not in theory
but practice that is true
so we did this process in which
the children had to present
proposals nobody could be a candidate or
candidate without a solution proposal
what enables them we go so that they
they could do this so he could
write projects for children and
teenagers
it was absolutely forbidden to speak
wrong of another candidate who emptied
automatically removed there was no
money in between
everyone had a poster for everyone a
poster for everyone and when the
promotion that will be an election campaign
real went to television they were made
rallies
the difference was that they were all together
and it was not a competition
that was not the sense it was really not
it was that the best winner would win
best idea
the best proposal was a debate of
proposals
we are talking about children of 11 12 13 16
years and in many cases those who won
they were children of just 11 and 12 years old
I was really surprised at the end
We started in 55 municipalities and it was very
successful so much that years later the bbc
london must cover the selection
three Dominicans and ended up doing two
reports of this project and just one
let’s see this video a part of that
reported the bbc of this experience there
meetings in the town hall of
Asua a municipality in the south of the
Dominican Republic
here the politicians do not exceed 18
years and the debates are about the
problems of children and young people
this is one of the city councils
children and youth an initiative in
the one that children vote for
representatives and work together in the
issues that affect them
with the aim of giving voice to the most
small have been launched a
total of 16 youth councils and
children throughout the republic
Dominican but do not think that this
it’s a children’s game
the initiatives have a real impact
in their communities and this is a
story that we are going to tell you in four
chapters I just told you the first
chapter and I want a person that
he was a member of this project he tells
your experience I will not tell you
but it is she who tells you
who lived in this experience
good morning my name is john a
margarita núñez
I am 18 years old and participate
youth council having just 12
years in the municipality of baní in the
2011 management
participate the youth council
childish has been the greatest experience
I ‘ve had in these years of life
I imagined I was 12 and now I have 18
what to participate in a project in which
be so democratic to you it impacts you in
that a child barely eight years old can
vote for you can see in piece
ability to guide that ability to
lead that ability to promote
projects and not just promote them and not
carry out projects based on children
without
the teenagers of a municipality that you
mark totally in your whole life be
that you do not have to wait to have
18 years to make a change in your
municipality to make a change in your
community
you only being a child is the child
that all of you are awake what
in order to generate change the republic
Dominican have been made around
300 projects nationwide that have
come from children to you says a child that
Dominican republic sometimes we do not give
much the opportunity that a child does not
can make a decision can not have
a space for participation
that makes youth and children’s council
either if I had not gone through
youth and children’s council and me
I was here I was not in front of
that audience expressing my experience
in my municipality in baní very proud of
be banileja have been made 70
projects in the 70 projects thanks to
70 project in different areas of
education sport culture medium environment
but one of the projects that has most
impacted has been impacting the
childhood
we think 13 children that we are
we were 13 million then we
we locate in a very poor community
of baní called villa progress better
known as the torto imagines the
first name
we went there and we had the
opportunity we say the opportunity to
interview more than 3 135 children
wow we gave the opportunity are children
to say what is the social problem
that has already with that survey we
we realized that still the
Dominican republic there are children who
they do not know their rights
one wonders there is still the
possibility for a child to know which
are your rights and what we did was already
we put in talks with the mayor without
movement the community empower the
community the community did not help to go to
the houses not only we arrived
there that we serve the problem
set but the community sector
project and today is a community
most organized of the municipality
that’s really impact another of the
projects was to give her a smile
little girls
we went to the orphanage of
there are children in baní sayona full and without
parents and mothers a project that I proposed
and we all did it really and I went and
that girls like me had no father or
mother and that I complained in a moment
I said I do not have this I do not have what
another milestone to be able to transmit a smile
that girl
that’s worth saying that that girl
more than one change needs a problem
social something that happens to you have of your
childhood can generate a change that happens
the juvenile city council as
tita the opportunity that your rivals
that one has to have 18 years of
age to do advocacy as he thinks
that we should know and give it a little more
of opportunity to young people simply
I had infant more developed of such
developed way to develop my
skills as a leader is nowadays
can be here I find out of my
comfort zone cried in town halls
juvenile childish when something to much
people did not close the door to many
people of our province will not close
the door for everyone and we have to
achieve we realize we have made two
courts a field valued at 800,000
weight but such a shocking thing was
that we participate in the
participatory budget and we go to the
community help people to choose
his work and also to choose the
people who were going to represent that
community to a 12 year old boy did that
and where bayone núñez one of my
dream is to make the set of
young people a global organization of
emerging leaders who do different
projects and my other big dream is the
President of the Dominican Republic
[Applause]
[Music]
now I will introduce you to the third chapter
Where is the Youth City Hall going?
childish good I am randy custodian
brito
good later what’s good what they see
there is a picture of when I was in
the youth and children’s councils
at that time I was 17 years old and I was the
first youth council
the president of the council of aldermen
of the 25th city council that daniel mentioned
of the first pilot project whose
participants of the first one that was done in
asua at that time had already entered
the university and the question of
why we are coming of age
let’s do
what will happen to the city councils
youthful then that experience
derived in that we created the network of advisers
of youth and children’s councils
that has emerged to give advice to the
current efforts and continue to give
continuity to the works that we
we started after all that happened
many things in my life
I entered the university and among others
things what is happening today with me and
with many young people is that we are
advising there are many young people who have
out of town hall juveniles that are
advisers to mayors and mayors who
they direct the girls’ departments of
its municipalities that are the assistant of
legislators who work instances
governmental and what you see
here on stage today is a unicorn
he’s hunting dinosaurs
I am the first elected alderman for a
real town hall because the others are not
lie but people assume that not that
they are not, it’s not that it’s not a
reality
I am the first elected alderman in the
asua municipality that has left the
youth councils
i
and that room where I was where I was
made the video of the bbc is my place
of work
in that place that is my house the living room of the
council of city councilmen
municipal of afa
I am the youngest alderman of all the
municipality and the region too
so what I am doing now is
enforce the law in the
Youth and children’s councils
The first thing he teaches us is taught
is the parliamentary parliamentary order as
City Hall function and it has been a shame
for me to get to a town hall with
people who are more than ten years old
according to the management and find me not
they know they do not know the municipal law
who do not know the constitution and
related laws for management
transparent inclusive and all that has not
either the easy story is not
pink color
I have had to fight many prejudices
many stereotypes
everything starts only with seeing the profile
suspect that I have now and the app
it’s a boy a boy who does not have
political experience that does not know of
politics that is not political that was
artist and that he can not direct a
city and us in the city councils
juvenile
we have been being trained we have been
formed to make municipalists and
our idea now is to continue
reproducing and I am a vector of
I change a bridge between the social and the
political
I understand that the personal is political and
that it is a personal decision to change the
look change the world and I’m
trying together with daniel and with jona that
he invited them
we are trying to change the world
from our space that we call zone
of comfort
and a chapter that is the fourth and
is the one that we will complete all
together and with our inner child every
one of us can change the world
that surrounds us thanks
[Applause]
”
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