Time flies, and we are now more than halfway through the Shaping Youth Futures project! The young people in Brazil have completed their research projects, producing a manifesto as one of their outputs, while the team in India are wrapping up their data collection. On November 27th, YEG members and City Caravan youth researchers gathered together online for the first time as a larger group to share about their research projects and experiences. Adult advisors and consultants on the Brazil team also joined. 

After a quick, jolly round of introductions, the young people in Brazil presented a timeline of their activities throughout the project – from the initial trainings and data collection, to producing the manifesto and meeting with key stakeholders such as government officials to disseminate this. The group also went on to showcase their manifesto, which outlines the main difficulties which youth encounter in entering the workforce, and proposes action points that the public support can take to better support young people. Some examples of this include professional training that meets actual demands of the job market, study help, IT support and digital training in school, and ensuring youth participation at various stages in the formulation of policies and programmes. As the India team is currently wrapping up data collection, it was helpful to learn from the Brazil team’s experience about the kind of outputs they produced, and how they disseminated their findings. 

Meanwhile, the young people in India produced a play that very creatively depicted the everyday scenery of various lives on the streets in Mumbai. One of the girls acted as the narrator, while the others roleplayed various individuals such as a shoe-shiner, a food delivery person, a homeless migrant person, and a transgender. These various livelihoods were also topics that the youth were exploring through their research projects too, and throughout the play, they explained the different issues and challenges which these various identities faced. Those working in food delivery services such as Swiggy, face various forms of harassment and discrimination, whilst transgender people are seen as “public property”, and face lack of social acceptance because of their gender identity.  

One of the young people in Brazil who was from the transgender community commented on the similarities, and said that in Brazil, they continue to be a very marginalised group. Many commit suicide and also face a very low life expectancy of about 35 years old. 

Following from the presentations, adult facilitators developed a few discussion questions to reflect on experiences, and similarities/differences they found with the other partner country. This exercise was done through Mentimeter, so the cascade of responses were displayed in real time for everyone to see. The discussed questions were, “How does your experience resonate with the other partner country’s experiences? Do you see any similarities/differences?”, and “How has your participation in this project changed your understanding of livelihoods, cities and participation?” Many of the youth commented that youth voices were not being heard by the state in both countries, and that marginalised communities such as transgender people still face lack of resources and support. Being a part of this project has allowed them to unpack the term “livelihoods” and learn about the systemic discrimination which various communities face. With this increased awareness of livelihoods, it has motivated them to continue reflecting on possible solutions to improve welfare. 

The International City Caravan meeting ended on a musical note from both Brazil and India. The Brazil team showed a video of two of their youth who received a scholarship to participate in an orchestra featuring instruments of Caribbean origin. It was a way to convey diversity and showcase Brazil’s history and cultural characteristics. Meanwhile, the India team sang a song, with the lyrics capturing experiences of different parts of society. As the young people in Brazil and India noted at the end, music is a cultural aspect of livelihood, and a different expression of livelihood. 

It is through international exchanges like these which encourage us to recognise the multiplicity of livelihoods, and reflect on new forms of knowledge exchange.