European Youth Forum - Bulgaria and beyond

The final chapter of my trip to Varna, Bulgaria representing YMCA Europe as the official delegate to the European Youth Forum (YFJ). 

DISCLAIMER: this is more of a photo album than a blog.

Day 2 

It was a big day -  not for me - but for brave candidates that had put themselves forward to govern the YFJ. ELECTION DAY. Before casting our votes, we had an opportunity to attend thematic squares (workshops) and I chose to attend 'Migration and Health', subjects I'm very interested in and priorities that align with theme of the new YMCA Europe strategy. The workshop surpassed any expectations I had. We discussed the challenges in Europe around increasing migration and the health challenges faced by young refugees especially their mental health. We had a conference call with a World Health Organisation practitioner who gave us great insight into the issues and also how we can contribute to the solutions. 

Voting time!

YMCA and the Award 

The rest of the day as consumed by the elections. Congratulations to the newly elected board which includes our good friend from WOSM - Ville Majamaa and also a big congratulations to our Big 6 friend the Duke of Edinburgh International Award for becoming an observer member of the YFJ. 

Big 6 - WOSM, WAGGGS, YMCA, YWCA, IRFC & IAA

The day passed quickly and in evening one thing became clear, we needed to prepare ourselves for hearing one word 150 times....AMENDMENTS. The following day we would have to stand up in front of a lot of people and defend our amendments to the Resolution on EU Youth strategy and Work Plan 2017-19. I was not sure whether or not we were ready but the support we had was unmatched and spurred us on. 

Support group - Value Based Members 

Day 3 

We prepared and we were ready. We had 15 amendments in total aiming to ensure the language around increasing migration was not negative, YFJ worked closely with youth organisations and the papers had strong positions that would prompt action from the EU. I'm glad to report a good amount of our amendments were passed by the assembly and we achieved our goals. With the amendments behind us, both documents were adopted and the meeting was closed by some great closing speeches from the exiting board members. Things got pretty emotional, they were tears, standing ovations and laughter. It was great to see that people had really made a family out of the YFJ and we visibly saddened by the thought of having to leave the family.

Meeting closed, it was time to socialize and make the most of the evening. We shared an amazing evening with people that I can now call friends and I hope I will see them all again. 

Closing thought

During my time at the forum, I was exposed to many young organisations, national youth councils and political parties doing great work to advocate for young people across Europe. This made me reflect on our own organisation and one thing was clear. We are a huge organisation. We impact on the lives of a huge amount of young people. We speak up for millions of young voices. It is something I knew but took for granted. It has really inspired me to continue to work hard in my YMCA work and also empowered me to know that we are doing some really great work especially locally and should build on that.