Voices of Future Generations (VoGF) Middle East winners announced in Dubai

Gulf News

Voices of Future Generations (VoGF) Middle East winners announced in Dubai    See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  #voicesoffuture #VoGF

Transcript

00:00Voices of Future Generations is under the auspices of UNESCO and it's a global competition

00:07for children across the world and we were very fortunate to be able to launch the Middle

00:11East segment of it, thanks to our goodwill ambassador, Highness Sheikha Hussain bin Hamdan

00:20bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who has been supporting it from the very beginning.

00:25So why is it important? Because the idea of Voices of Future Generations is that children

00:33between the ages of 8 to 12 write an adventure story, but within the adventure story include

00:40sustainable development goals, so they're part of the plot and also rights of the child.

00:45So first of all, every child who enters the competition will get to learn about the 17

00:52sustainable development goals, which, as you said, maybe children here have no idea

00:58about what's going on in the rest of the world. They also learn about the rights of the child.

01:03So they are then putting that and creating characters, creating a plot and telling these

01:08beautiful stories, which then go into the competition, then they are judged.

01:14I think it's important before anything that we hear children's voices, hear what they

01:20think is important and be able to read their ideas, their stories. They might come up with

01:27things we've never thought of and having children on stage telling us what they think and how

01:35the world should be, I think, is more enjoyable than hearing all of us say it first.

01:39Why is it important that young people write about this? As well as educating themselves,

01:44they will be able to educate their peers, so students in their class, students of their

01:51age will get to read these stories and because it's a young person speaking to them, they

01:56believe them, they are speaking with one voice and I believe that the young people who are

02:02part of this competition will go on and be tomorrow's leaders. It is so important that

02:09we give young people a voice.

02:11I go to the stage and Her Highness Sheikh Ahssa bin Hamdan bin Rashid celebrates with

02:20me and gives me this medal and I am very happy about that.

02:24I'm super proud and happy of myself. It's my third or second time. I love coming or

02:34participating in this competition and I will not stop writing stories and I hope I'm going

02:45to be in the future someone that everybody will love to be like.

02:53We're focusing on the children's stories, making sure that they can publish stories

02:58and have support behind them because I know how hard it is for different writers to write

03:03a story, fall in love with it and not find anyone to read their draft. So that's important

03:09to us and that they have the confidence to speak for themselves after all these competitions.

03:14I feel like I'm responsible to promote the SDGs and inspire my peers to also act for

03:20a better future.

03:21I feel like I'm one step closer to making a difference. Like Nicaroman said, the child

03:28ambassador of the UN, there are so many problems but we are the children, we are the generation

03:34that can do something to fix it. And being able to share my voice to so many people around

03:40the world, it's a really awesome experience and I hope I can do something, some more to

03:44help the world become a better place.

03:46To everyone out there, if you have children under the ages of 14, when is the last time

03:55you sat down and shared a story together with them? When is the last time you read to your

04:01child? You know, your child might be 2 years old, they might be 5 years old, they might

04:05be 10 years old. If you want your child to be a reader, you need to share books with

04:11them and that means choosing a book, reading a book, spending time discussing it. That

04:17is my message to all of you today.

Category

Transcript

Recommended