My message to the young and the young at heart: Today is International Youth Day. It’s a day to recognize all the unique gifts that young people bring to this world. Among others, these include their boundless enthusiasm, their creativity and their unwearied quest for social justice. Last month I had the pleasure to witness just these qualities in the company of 250 young people at the first-ever Youth Town Hall to End TB, organized jointly by WHO with the Indonesian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with Center For Indonesia’s Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI).
The Town Hall strengthened my conviction: we need the youth on our side in the fight to End TB. With the first milestones of the WHO End TB Strategy targets and the targets of the UN high-level meeting on TB looming ahead of us, we need youth power to move the needle to end TB. Young people can be strong advocates, and hold leaders and organizations accountable for their actions. Seeing them in action at the Town Hall, proposing solutions and making pledges to take concrete actions, was nothing short of inspiring. Have a look at the Youth Declaration to End TB, adopted at the Town Hall, to get a sense of their commitment.
“Transforming education” is the theme of this year’s International Youth Day. It highlights efforts to make education more relevant, equitable and inclusive for all youth, including efforts by young people themselves. Raising awareness and sharing accurate and useful information about TB is also an essential part of this, and young people can play an indispensable role in this. They can help strengthen public awareness, learn and teach others to recognize typical symptoms of TB, and spread information about options for TB care and prevention. This is at the core of ‘each one teach one’, one of the suggested actions of the WHO 1+1 initiative that can have a big impact towards ending TB. Launched during World TB Day this year, 1+1 is the first youth initiative on TB. What does 1+1 equal to? You might rush to answer ‘2’, but I challenge you to consider another option: millions. If one person reaches out to another, and that person to another….we could reach the millions needed to end this epidemic.
In closing, I would like to inform you of the impact we are already seeing. In Indonesia, we have a sizeable group of ‘End TB converts’, with 73% of the Youth Town Hall participants “very interested” to get involved in the fight to end TB. Young leaders around the world are making a stand against TB, from my young friend Madhusudan Kaphle who is enthusiastically leading an awareness building campaign among young people in Nepal, to Nandita Venkatesan in India who opened the UN high-level meeting on TB. She is leading efforts to end TB as a member of the WHO Civil Society Task Force on TB along with Jeff Acaba from the Philippines who passionately advocates for the rights of those with TB and HIV. Many others are joining us in solidarity with persons with TB by putting on a face mask for a day to take a stand against stigma and discrimination. Join the challenge by posting your own photo with a mask and tagging it with #OneDayMaskChallenge.
Are you inspired? Would you like to join us? Please share your ideas, stories and experiences with us and the rest of the world using the hashtags #EndTB and #Youth2EndTB or post on the Trello board set up for this.
Each one reach one, each one teach one and each one for each one. One plus one, together we will reach millions, together we will End TB!
Best regards,
Dr Tereza Kasaeva
Director
Global TB Programme
WHO