Youth For Change Conference 2024: The Unequal Plate

On 7 Dec 2024, 56 youths attended World Vision Singapore’s ninth edition of the annual Youth For Change Conference, held this year at Singapore Institute of Management. The theme of this year’s edition, “The Unequal Plate”, aimed to educate young people on the global hunger crisis and how various local and international interventions that are seeking to support and mitigate the imbalance of food access, through the sharing of World Vision’s interventions and success stories. Participants also got to hear from local and international youth with experience in running their own hunger-related projects, allowing for cross-country sharing of ideas and networking.  

The session started with Dr Than Thi Ha, World Vision Vietnam’s Global Strategy Director, who came in-person to share with all participants about how hunger has affected children around the world as our keynote speaker. She gave an overview of the hunger crisis, key SDG goals relating to the hunger crisis, as well as current interventions and its impacts on the vulnerable, using key examples from World Vision Vietnam’s context.  

Youths were also able to learn from and be inspired by each other during the Human Library segment, where they went around listening to four youth groups share about various food-related projects they were implementing in their communities: 

1. World Vision Korea’s child club shared about the climate advocacy work they do and how climate change has been affecting farmers and food production, as well as the steps they have taken to advocate for better practices.  

2.  World Vision Indonesia shared about their projects in food security and how nutrition gardens help to alleviate food insecurity in their AP. 

3. D2L.sg shared about food redistribution and their journey of starting a ground up initiative, turning ideas into reality.  

4. A station was also set up for participants to reflect on their contexts and how they can contribute to food equality. 
 

During the workshop sessions, participants were able to attend one of 3 workshops of their choice, each centered around a different aspect of food inequality and intervention: 

1. TerraSG held a workshop about converting food waste into usable detergent through the use of eco-enzymes. 

2. Mr Sopharan Ny, Operations Director of World Vision Cambodia, came to share about how humanitarian organisations conduct ground assessments and due diligence procedures in setting up an intervention plan for identified community needs. 

3. D2L.SG shared about the process of creating a start-up and the startup journey from conceptualization of a cause to a successful organization, using their organization as an example.

Participants also had the opportunity to virtually visit a World Vision project in World Vision Timor Leste. First, Ms Irim Tolentino, Area Manager in Bobonaro in World Vision Timor Leste, shared about the nutrition projects currently being undertaken by World Vision in Bobonaro, along with statistics on the current progress of the intervention. While the field conditions were not able to support live interviews, video footage of the AP and the beneficiaries was screened in place of live interviews.  

Finally, Ms Mary Njeri, Global School Meals Director, concluded the conference with a summary of the impacts and progress of global hunger in the world today, inspiring participants with her personal experiences from her work as Global Hunger Response Director and Global School Meals Director.  

Hear from our participants! 

“I really liked how different World Vision countries came together to talk to us about the situations in their respective countries.” 

“I found the human library and workshops was the most enriching part of the programme for me. I was able to listen to different insights and interact with passionate individuals and their efforts of change. It was inspiring and eye-opening.” 

“The most impactful takeaway for me is that we must always be grateful that we have access to nutritious food, and that we as youths can play a part in contributing to the tackling of food insecurity and malnutrition, whether it is on a small or large scale.” 

“Despite learning about all the complexities of the hunger crisis, I am glad that YFCC helped me understand that I can also do something simple to make the world a better place, by buying only what I need.”