"Little tiny projects don’t help us at all"

“The council member told us that he would help us out with little projects. But I told him that we’re not interested in little projects. We want support for youth coordination”

“The most significant change for me over the past year has involved the youth meetings in which the coordinating bodies for youth have been established, because now we have our very own spaces.

As a youth, I have always invited other youth in my community to these activities, but it’s hard to achieve their participation. There are communities where the parents won’t give permission. They’re afraid of leaving the community, or they don’t trust their children, or they’ve heard that there’s a lot of violence on the highways. And there is still a fear that the kids will become delinquents. On the other hand, in my case I was given permission to participate. Sometimes I leave and don’t see my father, but when I get back he asks me how everything went. He tells us about his struggles, too.

I’ve had the opportunity to gain more experience, more knowledge, through my organization Mamá Maquín. I like being in an organization, discussing how we live, learning more about our reality.

Sometimes one wants to organize other youth, but it’s as if they won’t listen. They don’t want to hear about the reality in which we live. They think they know all about it already. That makes me think: is it that they don’t want to learn, to be in an organization? Many of them want to go to other countries to work. They don’t see the opportunities we have here, what they can do in their own community.

For these reasons, we have been holding youth meetings in which we analyze our reality, because there are differences between young women and adult women. It’s important to listen to older women, but young people don’t want to take part in so many workshops. They get bored. We need a space for local youth, where we can develop our own proposals in response to our own needs in our community and municipality.

When we had our second meeting, the first council member from Nentón told us that he would help us out with little projects. But I told him that we’re not interested in little projects. We want support for youth coordination in 58 communities so that the different youth groups can join together. Little tiny projects don’t help us at all. If you have a chicken project, for example, one day it will come to an end. But if you raise the awareness and strengthen the capacities of youth, these things will never be forgotten and will lead to permanent progress in the community.

That’s where I’ve seen changes: more and more of my peers have joined the youth meetings. Coordinating bodies for youth have been formed in each municipality and at the departmental level.

The third youth meeting will be held here in Nentón, and the mayor will attend. We want a municipal office for youth, with a budget, so that youth can call attention to the needs in their communities, such as where there’s no school, for example.”