Mellika Myers and Gordon Brown at the Junior 8 Summit in Rome.
UNICEF UK/Rome2009/S.Caleo
14 young people chosen to represent their countries at the Junior 8 Summit had the chance to meet with their leaders in L’Alquila, Rome where the G8 summit has been taking place to present their declarations and propose immediate action from their leaders.
Take a look at a photostory of the J8 Summit 2009.
Mellika Myers, one of four UK delegates chosen by UNICEF to attend the conference, met with Prime Minister, Gordon Brown to discuss what Britain is doing to tackle poverty, development in Africa, climate change and children’s rights in light of current financial crisis.
The 14 young people at the G8 meeting were part of a larger group of 54 delegates aged 14-17 from around the world who had been working on the official J8 declaration in preparation for this meeting during their week long stay in Rome. Each of the G8 countries and non-G8 countries participating had one young person as a representative at the meeting.
Check out this Channel 5 news report on the meeting.
These J8 representatives
presented the recommendations
to the 14 leaders attending the G8. US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were some of the dignitaries in attendance at the Junior 8 summit. Amongst their recommendations the young people told the leaders they want high quality education for all children and a safe trip to school.
‘If I could ask the world’s leaders to prioritize one thing to help children, it would be education,” said Sanjukta Pangi, 16 from Orissa in India “I had to struggle to go to school. If I hadn’t convinced my father to let me continue going to school I would not be at the J8. My parents wanted to keep me at home to look after my brothers and sisters.
I understand there are children's rights for everybody. I was inspired to find out that I have rights. I think it’s great that our recommendations are going to be given to global G8 leaders who will understand the challenges we are facing and find some solutions to the problems we have in South Asia."
At a news conference following their meeting, Nigel Woodrich of Canada, also 16, used his time with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to focus on Africa. "I told him that we need to treat Africa as equal partners on the world stage so that they will be no longer dependent on foreign aid."
Meanwhile, in Rome, the remaining 40 Junior 8 participants went to present their declaration at the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Fabio Giorgetti from the Italian J8team led the presentation. “As young people, we are the leaders of the future, and therefore will be the most affected by your decisions made today.”
Liang Xiaotian from China talked about ordinary people fighting the climate change. “I bike, although there is a car in my family, I use cloth bags instead of plastic ones when I go to the market, use air conditioner only when it is really necessary. Individual power is limited but if we unite we can make a difference.”
Finally, the young people expressed great concern about the impact of the financial crisis on their lives. ‘We did not create this crisis, but it will affect us the most and we resent it. We hope the leaders will listen to what we said and act now,” said Emmanuella Louidsor, 17 from France.