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UYD 2022 – Young Migrants Can Achieve Change

This past week SIRIUS took part in the University of Youth and Development, which is an event that aims at improving youth participation, intercultural dialogue and global citizenship. It gathers hundreds of young people, youth workers, experts from the field, institutional representatives and decision makers, all working towards exploring the concept of global education through a non-formal approach. This year, the event was held in Mollina (Malaga, Spain), in the Euro-Latin-American Youth Centre (CEULAJ).

We invited 10 young migrants and refugees to step into roles as activists in their own communities from our members organizations Superacció, Olive, Multikulti and Unleash Refugee Potential. We were thrilled about their personal and professional development where they showed us that the right environment and a minimum of support can transform them into serious campaigners for issues both close to their heart and vital for the promotion of education and inclusion. 

The training at UYD is part of a European Parliament funded SIRIUS project, ‘Young Migrants Can Achieve Change – YMCAC’ that brings together young people to enable them to raise their voices and put forward their instances in order to influence policy decisions, even if they cannot vote for the European Parliament.

Our next phase in this project is supporting our participants in finishing and implementing their campaigns in their local communities. Afterwards, they will be able to present the results of their work to Sirius and also to MEPs. 

With a final step of engagement and empowerment- where we look forward to inviting our young participants, Members of European Parliament and others to the final event, which will take place at the end of April 2023.

We wish to thank the UYD, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the North-South Center – and, particularly, the young people we met and enjoyed a week with – for showing us that collaboration, good will, hard work and passion can bring change.