12 August was first designated International Youth Day by the UN General Assembly in 1999, and serves as an annual celebration of the role of young women and men as essential partners in change, and an opportunity to raise awareness of challenges and problems facing the world’s youth
The first World Youth Day, held on Palm Sunday in Rome, had the goal of assuring young Catholics of their capacity to perpetuate the church’s traditions, spirituality, and work within the world. Since 1987 World Youth Day has been celebrated annually on Palm Sunday in every diocese
The theme of International Youth Day 2020, “Youth Engagement for Global Action” seeks to highlight the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes
This International Youth Day, under the theme “Youth Engagement for Global Action”, NEN created a platform for young people to freely express their experience of living in this pandemic and share with the rest of the world through art. With a total of 15 participants, these young people portrayed and shared their experiences in coping with this new lifestyle and how the pandemic has hampered their regular day-to-day activities and how they are coping with it.
As portrayed in their art, these young people have shared some common learning where they have familiarised themselves in accessing information through web portals, making use of the internet to further enhance their education. The desire to engage in social interaction with their peers and the necessity to wear a mask and maintain proper hygiene are depicted in their art. Tributes were also made to the front line workers by some of the participants.
Some of their art showed us that during this pandemic the youths would often engage in leisure activities such as doing household chores, gardening, reading, watching television, and school assignments etc.The event directed these young people on different levels where some remained optimistic and took the time to highlight some positive aspects on how this pandemic has healed the environment to a certain degree.
It is evident that this pandemic did not stop the youths from celebrating the occasion. In fact, this brought a different side of their creativity which for some didn’t even know existed
