React & Change is the first Brazilian youth-led and online-driven platform of youth activism committed to activating youth to end gender inequality throughout the country and beyond. The project was informally idealized a year and 7 months ago at the British Council Global Youth Summit 2009 and now it is a network reaching more than 3000 young people in Brazil through the pure desire of standing up for gender equality in the country. We have just launched the Youth for Empowerment Campaign: A sequence of frequent forums that will take place in all regions of Brazil enabling different young people, from distinct economic backgrounds and cultures to advocate for an advance in terms of social balance. We want to give voices and practical tools for those people to learn how to obfuscate their fears and how to foster decision-making participation of women in a dynamic, collective and effective way. We have already promoted the 1st YEF in Fortaleza in July 2011, and we are heading to the 2nd YEF to take place in the Amazon August 2012.

Problem

Although Brazil has one of the most powerful economies in the world and has had developed itself in several contexts, it still fails on providing decision-making opportunities to young people. Firstly because even the opportunities exist, they are restricted, do not affect all economic backgrounds and are never spread in a national scale. Secondly, Brazil lacks of youth-led projects and capabilities exposure. Then, enterprises and organizations hardly ever apply credibility on youth, making social apathy expansive. By acting directly on this issue, we build bridges to attack and tackle other issues as well as ensure that Brazil will succeed with its emerging leaders. Finally, Brazil has never held a Youth Forum like the one we have started to promote. So, we leave an inextinguishable mark in society.

Solution

We created a Non-Governmental Organisation aimed to prioritizing young people as the most powerful tools to tackle global issues. How we did it? • We have created a virtual platform where all Brazilian citizens have free access to online Forums and discussions, also opportunities to interact with exemplar professionals, community leaders and social activists (http://www.reactandchangebr.com/); • Promote events where we gather a group of the network “React and Change” users, (through a selection process) for them to discuss about global issues like: Human Rights, Economy, Politics, International Dialogue and Cooperation, etc. • Create interaction amongst Brazilian Youth and important Political Leaders, such as Governors, Senators and Presidents; • Release opportunities of academic and social cultural exchange programs; • Support social initiatives developed by the participants of our events by providing them small grants to shape or start projects. • Encourage enterprises and governmental organizations to working with social projects, created by youth; • Cooperate actively to the approach of the Millennium Development Goals in Brazil; • Promote self-esteem to all individuals involved directly and indirectly with the project. More specifically, our main project is the Youth for Empowerment Forum. An event that consists on gathering 40 young community activists from all regions of Brazil and economic backgrounds, aged between 16 – 20 years old, for them to be empowered with capacity building, tackle global issues, create innovative projects and meet important young leaders and national organisations interested in sponsoring youth-led projects.

Example

Our work is unique because it does not only engage youth in tackling social problems, but it also gives them tools to create solutions to these problems and to put this solutions in action. Our work motivates team work and solidarity among Brazilian youth so that these youngsters have in mind that they are not just ending a local problem, but moving Brazilian society forward as a whole. To summarize what makes us unique, a brief statement from one of YFE 2011 participant, translated into English, is presented: “The Forum was a true bridge to enhance our knowledge; it was an event of real interaction of everyone in behalf of Gender Equality and Youth Activism. Thus we were stimulated and inspired to continue the fight in our communities and to be true agents of change!” Luna Farias Lima – Banabuiu City/Ceará State/Brazil

Marketplace

Our scope is national; we work with young people from all of Brazilian regions. However, the projects our participants create are, generally, of communitarian, local and, sometimes, regional scope. Our members are spread all over Brazil and we aim to impact every kind of social reality within our continental size country, this is why our focus is national, but the projects we encourage our participants to do are local. The smaller scope of the participants’ projects enables us to reach all sorts of social and gender problems existing within the country. Having a national scope brings us challenges regarding, generally, our communication costs. If our funds are small, we face great hardships to communicate with the members of the organization (even in our administrative decision-making process) and with the youngsters involved with projects supported by React & Change (that is, the projects created in one of our Forums) around Brazil.