Global Changemakers

Day Three of the Global Youth Summit here in London was focused around skills development. We had workshops about fundraising, media and press, time management, presentational skills, team building, social media and so on. Fundraising workshop really stood out because we were lectured by a people who had been working with World Economic Forum for a long time and raised millions in funding. One observation would be that we in Europe are quite privileged with programmes like Youth in Action and others in terms of funding availability for young people. A lot of other countries have to depend on private donors because any other organized schemes lack in comparison to Youth in Action. This is where British Council steps in and provides the basic funding for Changemakers in countries where funding is not so readily available.

Among all the things we learn it is also important that we build friendships, trust and ultimately a global network that we could later use in our activism. We kind of serve as role model for each other, for example, today I again met an inspirational fellow Changemaker Michael Zhan, an American/Chinese who is studying Economics and International Politics at Yale University in the US. He is working to breach the gap between American and Chinese students by sending Americans into rural areas of China and doing educational work with them.

In the past Global Changemakers have been proven to be very successful - the total Changemakers family is now represented in more than 90 countries and individuals’ projects are reaching out to more than 30’000 people worldwide. Hopefully this summit can increase those numbers.