WFWPI Webinar for Young Professionals "Role of Youth in Family and Society"
Written by: Mion Tsuchiaka
The WFWPI Young Professionals Team is an international-level creative think tank for practicing cultural diplomacy, exchanging ideas, information, art, language and other cultural aspects to enhance mutual understanding among young people. The team, established in March 2021, is engaged in a variety of educational and fun initiatives, each contributing their skills and expertise to the development of WFWP, and together achieving great results.
On October 30, the Young Professionals Team hosted a webinar, "Role of Youth in Family and Society." The invited panelists were young professionals who are making contributions in different parts of the world, as builders of the future of their community and the world by playing an active role in creating and promoting peace and raising their voices for positive change, coexistence and harmony. In this webinar, the panelists shared their best practices and life stories with a focus on the role of youth in the family and society.
WFWP members and guests, 265 people from 58 countries registered and participated in the webinar live via Zoom and YouTube platforms. The webinar was interpreted into six languages: Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese.
The webinar began with an opening remark by Ms. Akiha Suzuki, a team leader of the WFWPI Young Professionals Team and the youth group in WFWP Japan. She welcomed the audience from all over the world to this educational and interactive webinar and hoped that by the end of the event, many people would have gained new knowledge and inspiration for creating a culture of peace together.
Ms. Jeongwun Rachel Shin was born in the Republic of Korea, studied in the U.S., and is now working as a doctor in South Africa. She shared how difficult it is to play multiple roles in her life: fulfilling her role as a mother, ensuring the health and safety of her children, and at the same time, never neglecting her duties as a doctor, “I think the most important thing for me is that my husband and I share the same values and priorities and that I have the support of my parents and family. We enjoy our work, but we love our family even more. Family is the source of our happiness.”
The second speaker was Ms. Ja Young Naphtalie, a social innovator from Kenya. She spends a lot of her time designing and implementing solutions to solve social problems in a more effective, efficient and sustainable way that adds value and balance to people, the planet and profit. She has an academic background in Law-Paralegal Studies and Entrepreneurial Leadership and has been working with various types of community programs and organizations for the past nearly a decade to impact the lives of young people through training and mentorship. Speaking about the role of youth in society, she said, “Young people represent the hope and possible realization of yesterday's dreams. Young people who grow up in a healthy environment have the choice and responsibility to carry on and adopt positive traditions and culture, and can bring this to their communities and society, whatever their sphere of influence.”
The second part of the webinar was moderated by Ms. Kefilwe Lebepe, an active member of the WFWPI Young Professionals Team, who is passionate about finding solutions to problems affecting youth and the disadvantaged, and is working to achieve the UN SDGs 2030 with the support of WFWP. She introduced the third speaker, Ms. Bonay Van Der Schyff, co-director of “Clothes Nappy Collections For Change,” a South African non-profit organization. Using social media, her team has successfully distributed cloth diapers to over 900 babies in South Africa and raised funds by using Facebook's cloth diaper platform and by holding small auctions twice a year. They focus on dignity, consent, reduction of single-use plastics and environmental impact. They contact the baby's parents directly and talk to the primary caregivers to identify the family's needs. Ms. Van Der Schyff explained the pros and cons of cloth nappies, showing samples of their products, and saying that cloth nappies can reduce the environmental impact of disposables.
The last speaker, Ms. Bruna Santos, is a student of languages, literature and culture at the University of Porto in Portugal and is eager to pursue a career teaching Portuguese and German. She used to volunteer with the Vertos Pledge program, and currently is participating in activities as Coordinator of the Communication Department at the university group HeforShe FLUP. She emphasized the importance of education “It is a very responsible job to be involved in the education of young people because they are the future force that will move humanity forward. An educational system that is based on the pressure to achieve the best results and where students learn only things that are not directly useful in their daily lives is not a healthy educational system. The inertia of today will cost us our future. The responsibility for this lies within the youth.”
The panel presentation was followed by a Q&A session where attendees were able to interact with the speakers and ask additional questions. It allowed the speakers to share their personal and professional life stories and experiences with the audience. At the end of the session, a poll was held to ask the audience what topics they would like to see discussed in future educational webinars. Many people expressed interest in topics such as family values, peace initiatives, healing and spirituality.
Ms. Suzuki concluded the webinar with an announcement inviting the audience to join the WFWPI Young Professionals Team to raise young voices and take action for peace together on an international platform. The WFWPI Young Professionals Team promises to conduct more programs and projects by expanding its network and connecting with young contributors all over the world for creating a true culture of interdependence, mutual prosperity and shared values.
