António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, addressing the ECOSOC Youth Forum 2017 via video. (Photo : United Nations/YouTube)
Three Chinese young nationals participated in the 6th United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum in New York, where more than 500 participants from member-nations are encouraged to take part in solving world issues.
The two-day forum that opened on Monday tackled issues such as poverty, climate change, inequality and unemployment, among others.
China's participants were Wang Yuan, Zheng Bozhong and Sun Hairuo, and they shared with state-run media China Daily their experience.
Zheng, 16, and Sun, 17, attend a secondary school associated with Beijing's Renmin University of China, where they are both known as active student leaders.
Sun, a co-founder of China Youth Environmental Forum, said the youth forum provided a precious opportunity to learn about how the youth of other nations take and address problems they face in China. Reproductive health, for example, which was taken up during a health conference, is an issue that is usually evaded. But Sun asked the participants on the youth forum on what Chinese youth ought to do about it.
"A girl from Belgium share her own experience," said Sun, "and encouraged me to stand up, to speak out and to talk to policy makers."
Meanwhile, Zheng at a young age has already been giving motivational speeches. He said he draws inspiration from those who had already effected some "real changes in the world."
"Some representatives have developed mobile applications to contribute to good causes and others have done outstanding scientific research," said Zheng as quoted. He added that someday, he will be among those who have contributed to mankind.
16-year-old Wang is famous in China not only because he is a pop-star, but more importantly, Wang has experience working with the United Nations China Youth to endorse "Imagine 2030 campaign," which seeks to encourage Chinese youth to "reflect and envision the world" as they want it to be when sustainable development goals are already ripe for reaping.
United Nations Economic and Social Council Youth Forum was organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in cooperation with the Office of the Youth Envoy of the Secretary-General as well as the United Nations Inter-agency Network on Youth Development.
