These Teens Don't Want To Be The U.N.'s Token Youth Activists
Two gender equality activists from Turkey and Zambia had a chance to speak at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris last week. But they say they are disappointed by their experience.
Yande Banda, 17, and Selin Ozunaldim, 18, don't want to be the world's token youth activists.
But that's how they felt at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris last week.
The three-day in-person and virtual event, hosted by U.N. Women and the governments of Mexico and France, aimed to create a global roadmap for gender equality and address the pandemic's unequal burden on the world's women and girls. French President Emmanuel Macron, Hillary Clinton and Melinda Gates were there, as were hundreds of policymakers, activists and young people. (The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a sponsor of NPR and this blog.)
Banda and Ozunaldim were invited to the event as U.N. Women youth ambassadors. Over the last nine
