YLYP Delegate Champions

YLYP Delegate Champions for CSW67

We are thrilled to announce our YLYP Delegate Champions for CSW67! Through collaboration with Women Have Wings, the YLYPs have been able to grant five youth advocates funding to travel to NYC or host events and watch parties in their communities for the NGO CSW67 Forum!

Connecting young advocates like our Delegate Champions to the CSW processes is an essential part of uplifting the future generation of civil society professionals. As one of the largest gatherings of global feminist civil society and gender equality advocates, it is vital to represent the ideas, goals, and experiences of global youth. Engaging with the needs and concerns of younger generations can create a powerful effort to move the needle and accelerate progress towards mutual goals.

Jose Alberto Hernández Chanona

Program Coordinator, Latin America, RE!NSTITUTE
Advocate, HeForShe

2014 was an eye-opening year to me. As a male student at the largest university in Latin
America, I realized how inequalities showed up at multiple levels, but the one that was
more evident to me every day was gender inequality. At that time, there was also a massive increase of gender violence in the country, hence inside the campus. I couldn't stand this situation, so I questioned myself, what can I do? What is my role as a young man to fight against gender violence and gender inequalities? I took gender courses and I started to discuss this topic with my colleagues and teachers. Once I got involved, I decided that I would never take off the gender glasses.

I heard about the UN Women HeForShe campaign and I became one of the first males in Mexico to sign up. Then, I decided that the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) should take part in this campaign. A few months later I found myself sitting at the UN Women Mexico Office (still as a student) creating a strategy with the UN staff to bring the HeForShe movement to UNAM. We made it to sign the official commitment between UNAM authorities and UN Women and until 2019, I represented more than 125,000 students and 11,000 academics from UNAM as a gender equality ambassador for the HeForShe movement in national and international spaces.

During this time, me and my team were able to speak face-to-face with the students about the main challenges that we had in the campus regarding gender equality, and later we supported the creation and launch of the first official University Protocol for the Attention of Gender-based Violence Cases. I started a masculinities workshops series at several universities and I was able to train dozens of students to start their own HeForShe chapters in their faculties.

After being a gender speaker and facilitator in multiple forums, in 2019 I organized with my team the first HeForShe International Leaders Conference, in which young leaders from around the world gathered in Mexico City to discuss about our role in the most pressing challenges for gender equality, and along with other 2 HeForShe leaders from Jordan and France, we launched the International HeForShe Council, a network to connect and share our experiences with other young people leading gender movements in their communities.

Currently, I still support the HeForShe work as an advocate, advising new generations at universities and facilitating discussions and workshops when possible, while working for a non-profit supporting the work in Latin America in the criminal justice system, in which we mainly focus on gender-based violence in the region.

With every action that I have taken towards gender equality, I have been able to reflect on my actual role in this conversation, and in this fight. I am aware of my position as a male, and I acknowledge that this is not about me, however, I know that I have a big responsibility to contribute to the solution, as we, men, have historically been a main part of the issue.

Srruthi Lekha Raaja Elango

Co-Founder & Director, Polity Link International
Youth Focal Point, NGO CSW Geneva

Srruthi Lekha Raaja Elango is a 22 year old Indian development human rights consultant and women's rights activist. She is the co-founder and director of Polity Link International, which is an organisation working to promote human rights and women's rights through political education and international cooperation. In her leadership, several events, sessions and conferences on educating youth and their participation in the CSW have been accomplished. She has worked as the project leader and chief editor of the journal "Our Story" which was co-published by Frederiech Ebert Stiftung Germany and Polity Link International, which is a collection of stories of women around the world, including her own story of activism as a survivor of sexual abuse, who have been victims of abuse and discrimination and their fight against matters such as victim blaming, shaming, insult, violence etc.

She has worked with the Women's Federation for World Peace International as its UN Representative to Geneva and the CSW. She served in the Bureau of the NGO CSW Geneva Committee as its secretary and is currently working as the youth focal point, facilitating the importance of youth in gender equality. She has worked with UN Women Germany as the founder and leader of the first ever volunteer body of UN Women Germany, composed of students and youth for gender equality. Part of this was also her leadership in hosting the first ever Youth UN Women Germany conference.

She is a major of international relations and currently pursuing her masters at the UN University for Peace in Development studies and Diplomacy. She has also served as the Moderator of the panel on the importance of good governance in the UN Human Rights Council Social Forum 2021 in Geneva. She also serves in the group of friends to the UN Social Forum. She has in the past worked for UN OHCHR as an intern and currently with.

Carlos Infante

Founder & Executive Director, Movimiento Creando Ciudadanos (MOCRECI)
Founder & President, Generation Change International Partnership Platform (GCIPP)

Carlos Infante is a Lawyer graduated from the University of Falcon, He is a Human Rights defender, Activist, founder and executive director of the Movimiento Creando Ciudadanos (MOCRECI) an NGO that aims to give to everyone interested a free and high-quality formation in human rights, equality, justice, good governance, transparency, democracy, and justice. Infante is also the Founder and president of Generation Change International Partnership Platform (GCIPP) a platform created to support and help local activist from across the globe to empower their work in human rights and gender equality. He is the coauthor of the book “Glosario de Justicia Internacional Penal” (Glossary of International Criminal Justice). Infante is 25 years old and passionate about the world of activism, human rights, gender equality, democracy, government transparency, equality, justice, and education. Infante is a volunteer, ally, and collaborator in various non-governmental organizations and foundations.

Njili Ireline Mercy Mbinoh

Mifali
NGO CSW Africa

Ms. NJILI IRELINE MERCY MBINOH is a Second-year student of Bachelor of Commerce Hons with ACCA at GITAM University, Bengaluru India. She has over three years of experience with the importance of education for a girl child, adolescent leadership, and child and forced marriage which she was a victim of. Mercy was given out to marriage at the age of 14 and after one year of being in an abusive marriage she was later saved by an NGO called Women for a charge Cameroon (Wfac). She is a GCE Ordinary and Advanced level holder. She has a certificate in menstrual hygiene management training of Trainers, she is also computer literate. She is skilled in Mobilization, advocacy, Communication, and Accountability. Mercy is a committee member of Mifali, an adolescent-led movement in Cameroon. She is passionate about; Music, politics, and humanitarian activity. Since she ended her child marriage, she has always dreamt of putting an end to child marriage and continue to educate girls about their importance, and the disadvantages of getting into early marriage. Over the past 7 years, Mercy has helped over 20 young girls that were suffering from depression after early childhood marriage, she has also helped approximately 15 girls that are suffering from poor self-esteem and thought that they can be nothing in building their self-esteem and encourage them to believe in themselves. She has organized numerous programs with support from Mifali and Wfac that were intended to educate girls on their values and their impact on the universe. She has also coached women, girls of her age and below about their contribution in the shaping and structuring of their own future. On the 20th of December 2020, Mercy carried out a campaign in her secondary school students that was titled “GENERATIONAL EQUALITY”.

In addition, Mercy has mobilized some girls from local communities and educated them on gender inequality which is a common practice in Africa. In many regions in Africa, precisely Cameroon, Girls are either sent into early marriage or they are sent in the street to sell while their brothers are in school. With this being a major problem faced by girls, Mercy has been able to build the intellect of some girls in her communities with the support from Mifali and coaching from Wfac. With such assistance those girls are now using the knowledge to also educate not only girls but boys, and parents.

For this cost (putting an end to gender inequality) Mifali in collaboration with Wfac, have organized workshops and seminars with the intent of providing girls with the knowledge needed in making and helping them build their self-confidence which is a pallor to their personal growth. In addition to providing knowledge on how young girls can build their self-esteem, Mifali has hosted an in-person and virtual workshop that focuses on menstrual hygiene management. This program hosted 24 persons from various regions, and also empowered the participants in order for them to carry the message of good menstrual hygiene across especially in rural areas.

Furthermore, from Aug 10-13 2022, Mifali organized a workshop focusing on advocacy, communication, gender base violence, sexual reproductive health and right (SRHR), and adolescents’ responses to climate change. At this event, there were three key speakers, Victory Nswila from Zambia, FOHOU Hilux from Cameroon, and Eloge Nininhanzwe from Burundi.

In conclusion, Mercy is currently collaborating with other gender equality advocates in preaching the message across the African Continent in order to prevent the next generation from experiencing such inhuman acts.

Fernanda Vázquez Rojas

Advocacy Officer, Elige Red de Jòvenes por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos
Youth Leaders, NGO CSW Latin America & the Caribbean

Fernanda Vázquez Rojas studied International Relations at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) with a specialty in Public Policy and Gender Justice from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO). She defines herself as a decolonial feminist and now works as an Advocacy Officer at Elige Red de Jóvenes por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos, a Mexican organization that fights for the rights of young people where she has developed her advocacy skills at the national, regional and international level representing the organization in events like Regional Conference on Population and Development in Chile, the Forum of Latin American and Caribbean Countries in Costa Rica and the UNGEI feminist education coalition in New York.