Luisa Lichtenberger and I, Max Kallenbach, are both Master students at the university and have worked at the Robert F Kennedy Foundation (Switzerland) for more than a year. The idea for the Youth Ambassador program first arose out of the wish to involve young people in the work of the Robert F Kennedy foundation. The idea to become an activist for human rights seemed to be a little intimidating for many young people. To combat this image and the fact that there just wasn't a platform for young people to talk about human rights, eventually led to the creation of the Robert F. Kennedy Youth Ambassador Program Switzerland. Our goal is to raise awareness of human rights and to give young people the platform to share their ideas and thoughts on human rights. Every young person has a voice in the world and can make an impact. We advocate respect and dignity for all people no matter their race, gender, or status, and fight for the equality that every human being deserves.
The moment we started this program and were looking for young people to join the program, we emphasized two major points: young people and independence. we wanted to listen to them and their ideas, not talking them over with dos and donts and a ton of orders. No, in this very program, it should be them taking a leading role. Luisa and I only chaired the very first meeting. In the second meeting, we moved to the background the new board took over. That's how we wanted it to be. They should be in a leadership position while we wanted to be in an advisory role. The foundation supported our idea that we wanted to give them sort of a framework, but also some independence when it comes to projects and activities. This turned out to be the best decision we have made.
About two months have passed now and we are already in the middle of planning a conference in 2021, participating in the Human Rights Film Festival and publishing articles that our Youth Ambassadors wrote for the program. Our social media audience is growing and we reach more people with our posts. One of the highlights was definitely our third board meeting when President Kerry Kennedy and STTP Program Director Karen Robinson joined us from the USA and talked about their work and how they can support our young team. We were happy both of them took the time and told us they would be available for more questions and guidance. Both of them were impressed by the board's dedication towards Robert Kennedy’s vision for a world filled with justice instead of oppression, freedom instead of aggression and love instead of hatred.
We have seen so much energy, dedication and a deep sense for social justice that leaves us so impressed and hopeful that the younger generation cares so much about our world. Within only two months, we launched our social media platforms, held multiple online-meetings, created two commissions, published two articles, and had 20+ young people join our program. We are also thankful to our President Dr. Christoph Karlo, who encouraged us from the start. Christoph has always been an advocate for young people's work and we are happy to have him as our support.
We look forward to an exciting and interesting future. After only being able to meet online because of the COVID-19 emergency regulations (check out our special materials on this topic), we were very excited to hold our fourth board meeting in person and enjoy a delicious BBQ afterwords. Everyone got along great and the first signs of friendships started to form.
The fight for human rights is hard work, but it connects different people from different corners with each other that all share the motivation to make an impact in the world. We are sure the Robert F. Kennedy Youth Ambassador Program will make an impact in the world and we are so excited to see what the future holds for us!