Channel Five & NCFC’s Informed Teen Reporters at the WYC!
Tonight we introduce to you a new feature to our News Five line up. Over a decade ago, Channel Five partnered with the National Committee for Families and Children (NCFC) to create a space for youths to express their thoughts and concerns about issues affecting them through the newscast. The NCFC then established the Informed Teen Reporters or I.T.R.’s for short; they are a group of teens from across the country who were trained to become intrepid reporters. The program has recently been resurrected, and tonight we feature the newest I.T.R.’s. They spent the past five days at the World Youth Conference and have put together the following story.
Abby Godoy
Abby Godoy, Informed Teen Reporter
“The World Youth Conference is coming to the Western Hemisphere for the first time under the International youth conference, and Belize has the honor of hosting this prestigious event.”
Almost two hundred youth leaders were selected to represent as many as forty-three nations from across the world. They represented youths from as far as Afghanistan and South Africa. During these three days, the convergence of young minds explored the social issues affecting all of us. But it was more than just looking at problems, as Dominique Noralez, president of the Belize National Youth Council told me; it’s really about identifying solutions.
Abby Godoy
“We understand that one of the outcomes for this conference is the mahogany declaration, could you tell us more about that?”
Dominique Noralez, President, Belize National Youth Council
“The Mahogany Declaration speaks to the commitment or recommitment of young people in the agenda 2030. We are dealing with the sustainable development goals, and young people play an integral role in achieving the agenda 2030. So the declaration speaks to that commitment, and it will be a tool that the young people take back to their national youth council, young parliament or government representative also have youth advisory council how to advise the government on policies that directly affect youths policies, agricultural policies, health policies.”
Kendice Armstrong
Kendice Armstrong, Informed Teen Reporter
“The conference brought together national, regional, and international youth leaders under the Theme “Globally Running to 2030: Becoming Sustainably Strong.” Here’s what we found out.”
Hamerlin Flores, Informed Teen Reporter
“What are your expectations for the upcoming days of the World Youth Conference?”
Nikoli Edwards
Nikoli Edwards, Commonwealth Youth Council, Trinidad
“Looking forward to a lot of collaboration. At many times youth people bout have a voice are not knowledgeable about issues that affect them that would face them at large and the fact at young are every much affair of what is taking place in their country and community and in the wider world. So over the next couple of days in expect some in-depth conversations and fruitful collaboration moving forward and it’s about impact when we go after here. It’s all well for us to meet and have discussions but we need to map up where go next that I what I’m most keen about.”
Stefan Nolberto, Informed Teen Reporter
“What makes the conference different from the last year or the previous one before?”
Kelvin Antoine
Kelvin Antoine, Former CARICOM Youth Ambassador, St. Lucia
“We find a lot of times when these situations are being addressed in first world countries it’s the first time being held in the Caribbean it is more pertinent to us to address because we can feel it is now here for the countries being affected I think the opportunity is now here to speak on the issue that we are being affected for the young people in the region to have a better appreciation on what is happening and the best way forward.”
And in between all the work, we managed to have a good time as well – after all, we are youths! We enjoyed the exchange of cultures, our guests enjoyed visits to our historic Mayan sites, and most importantly we made new friends and contacts from all over the world. For the Belizean participants; this experience has been very rewarding.
Adriana Avilez, Informed Teen Reporter
“What do you feel will be the impact on young people of Belize as we hold the World Youth Conference 2017?”
Andrew Munnings
Andrew Munnings, CARICOM Youth Ambassador, Belize
“This is an opportunity for the Belize youth to come here and show of the entire world what is going on here in Belize. Yes there is a lot more to be said, and more youth discussion that needs to happen when it comes to youth development. But this is the start for young people how on a everyday basis work for youth development but young people little boys that cannot read and little girls how bout even know what is youth development this is an opportunity for young people to come together to come and discuss what is coming on here in Belize not only what is going on in Belize to have discussions with young leaders from around the world.”
Kyra Lambey
Kyra Lambey, Informed Teen Reporter
“Reporting for News 5 from the World Youth Conference 2017 we are the Informed Teen Reporters.”
The feature was produced through the collaborative efforts of the I.T.R.’s, Anita Gladden of the NCFC and Marleni Cuellar and Rick Romero of Channel Five. Be sure to look out for future news features from these teen journalists.
