From May 30 to June 23 I was proud to be part of an international team of young political, economic and social leaders, participating in the International Visitors' Leadership Program "Youth Empowerment" in U.S.A.
This program is aimed at dentifying potential young leaders from all over the world and bring them to the US in order to establish partnerships with their peers from the US and other countries, develop common projects and launch initiatives.
This year in our team we had 18 participants representing 17 countries (Mexico, Moldova, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Palestine, Haiti, South Africa, Tanzania, Cameroon, Netherlands, Namibia, India, Macedonia, Tunisia, Malaysia and Sweden). This group of young leaders was as diverse from religious point of view, gender, colour of the skin, background (political, economic, social) and even sexual orientation, things which made our group unique and strong.
During our visit in the US we learned about the US political system, had meetings with young politicians from republican and democratic wing, both at national, state and local level. We gained an understanding of the Civil Society working in the States, volunteerism, as well at national, state and grassroots levels. We had meetings with many youth organizations from the United States, schools, university representatives, and we had the opprtunity to share our expriences and learn from what they do.
During this visit, we had the chance to travel all across the United States, startin in Washington D.C., Seattle, Albuquerque, Portland and New York.
This was trully the best experience in my life, during those three weeks I became an empowered youth.