August 18, 2022.- This August 18 will be carried out jointly the installation of the Youth Volunteer Program of the Pacific Alliance 2022, virtual modality, in order to generate a space for common participation among the participating volunteers, and to publicize the objectives and description of each project.
The welcoming remarks will be given by Álvaro Calderón Ponce de León, director of International Cooperation and coordinator of the Technical Group for Cooperation of the Pacific Alliance. Likewise, there will be the words of the youth and/or volunteer authorities of the four countries: Rafael González Gordillo, national director of the Special Administrative Unit of Solidarity Organizations of Colombia – Youth Volunteer Coordination of the Pacific Alliance 2022; Juan Pablo Duhalde, national deputy director of the National Youth Institute of Chile; Guillermo Rafael Santiago Rodríguez, general director of the Mexican Youth Institute; and Darío Barboza Fustamante, national secretary of the National Youth Secretariat of Peru.
As part of today’s activities, the volunteers from the four countries will take part in an interactive dynamic that invites them to participate and reflect on the value of cultural differences, the recognition of identity and the possibility to build community even at a distance, as well as expectations, experiences, and motivations with the exercise of volunteering.
Finally, the event will close with the artistic presentation by Leonardy Pérez, Colombian cultural leader and the farewell words by Angela Bohórquez Avendaño, Coordinator of Synergies and Special Attention to Women – Uaeos.
It’s worth to mention that the 2022 edition of the Program had the application of nearly two thousand young people from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, of which around 240 will be integrated into the projects that will be executed by each of the four countries.
The installation of the Program can be seen live from the Facebook account of the Pacific Alliance: https://www.facebook.com/thepacificalliance, as well as through the Facebook accounts of INJUV Chile: https://www.facebook.com/INJUVChile/, UAEOS from Colombia: https://www.facebook.com/UaeosCo, IMJUVE from Mexico: https://www.facebook.com/IMJUVE.Instituto.Mexicano.dela.Juventud/ and SENAJU from Peru: https://www.facebook.com/senajperu/
Youth Volunteering of the Pacific Alliance
Participation in this Program provides an enriching social and cultural exchange experience between young people from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, in which significant links are created and proposals for change are built in the face of social and environmental problems that affect the region.
In 2022, the Youth Volunteer Program of the Pacific Alliance will be focused on facing the difficult global, regional and national context generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected young people in health, education, economy and work. Thus, the actions proposed in the four volunteer projects are intended to be a window of opportunities and possibilities to motivate young people in their initiatives, on the road to recovery.
With these types of activities, the Pacific Alliance promotes the formation of solidarity behaviors in young people, which have a positive impact on society, considering that youth are key actors in social change.
The projects presented by the four countries are:
CHILE:
The general objective of the project “INJUV Laboratory: Leaders for transformative volunteering” is to create a network of youth leaders to promote integration among young people from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, in order to promote transformative volunteering initiatives in their communities.
The project seeks to strengthen the volunteering ecosystem, supporting young people from the different countries of the Pacific Alliance in mutual learning to strengthen their actions and the generation of common networks.
COLOMBIA:
The general objective of the project “Generations that Connect and international solidarity as the articulating axis of Youth Volunteering” is to promote a network of young volunteers who support older people, and who, through the exchange of knowledge and intergenerational experiences, mitigate the effects of loneliness, isolation or discrimination; seeking to maintain the health, well-being and dignity of the elderly and young people, and at the same time strengthen volunteering in its international dimension with a transforming purpose and commitment of social capital to the development of the region.
The project seeks to integrate young people into the government strategy “Generations that connect” with a view to solidarity, in post-emergency times, towards older people, providing tools in soft skills, communication and humanized accompaniment strategies that materialize their volunteering, as well as providing knowledge and understanding of the concepts associated with volunteering such as assistance, philanthropy, charity, altruism, and cooperation in its international dimension, with a transforming purpose and commitment of social capital to the development of the region.
MEXICO:
The general objective of the “Tierra Joven-Voluntad Joven” project seeks to strengthen the integration of young people from the four countries of the Pacific Alliance through actions that contribute to their empowerment and leadership, to intergenerational solidarity and to the reconstruction of the social fabric. The project seeks to strengthen skills for the creation and development of socio-environmental impact projects to improve their actions in environment protection and climate change mitigation and promote exchange in educational matters through digital tools, all this from a perspective of gender and having as its center the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda.
PERU:
The general objective of the project «A-Gente de Cambio: Constructing experiences for the promotion of adolescent mental health» is to contribute to the strengthening of regional integration within the framework of the Pacific Alliance through the training of agents of change to the promotion of mental health in adolescents at risk in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The young volunteers will participate in a virtual training process to design and execute a mental health promotion program aimed at adolescents from the Comprehensive Family Development Centers (CEDIF) located in different regions of Peru to strengthen their skills to face the challenges of life in the context of the pandemic and the return to attendance, as well as to contribute to their community as agents of change.