Brock University SDG Youth Training Event
Action Africa Help International (AAH-I) was invited to showcase their work at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Youth Training event at Brock University, Canada, on 11th November 2017. The aim of the event was to educate youth about the 17 SDGs and to empower them to identify innovative ways of implementing the goals to promote a sustainable global future.
Dr. Irene Podolak, a Senior Research Associate with AAH-I, and an Adjunct Professor at Brock spoke on behalf of AAHI. There were over 200 students at the event, along with two global speakers representing the United Nations.
Christian Curtis, a Human Rights Officer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was the keynote speaker. Also in attendance was Steve Lee, a climate change activist and policy advocate to the United Nations was the key facilitator for the daylong event. Steve is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Environmental Stewardship, and a member of numerous groups and agencies such as: World We Want 2030 Policy Strategy Group, UN Major Group Children and Youth, UNEP Tunza, UN Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development, and Youth Commission on the Status of Women Taskforce.
Irene’s presentation emphasized Action Africa’s contribution towards implementing many of the SDGs, for example: reducing poverty, good health and wellbeing, quality education, clean water, sustainable communities, economic growth, and gender equity. She also spoke about how AAH Kenya, with a number of global partners, is starting a new project in the Mara in Narok County to inspire and empower adolescent girls to improve their sexual reproductive health and rights, and also improve their livelihoods.
Students were invited to visit the AAH-I exhibit table, which included a poster board of the linkages between Action Africa’s strategic goals and the SDGs, plus various AAH-I documents. Many students came to the exhibit and expressed how impressed they were with the impact that has been achieved in AAH-I’s Country Programmes. Two graduate students were heard to say “Are they amazing or what – I hope someday I can work for an organization like this and really make a difference.”
AAH-I is a regional African-led non-governmental organization that supports livelihood-challenged communities in East and Southern Africa to sustainably improve their well being and standard of living. With Country Programmes in South Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Zambia, Djibouti and Ethiopia, AAH-I has over 25 years’ experience working with communities in conflict and post-conflict situations, including refugees, internally displaced people, and host communities.