The second international Youth Engagement Group (YEG) meeting took place on Saturday (July 17th 2021) through Zoom, and members from Brazil and India had a very insightful and productive discussion.  The meeting started off with a cultural exchange. The group from India sang a song about hope, whilst members from Brazil showed a Tiktok video they made about the Youth Apprenticeship Program, which is an initiative from the Brazilian government to connect and include young people in the job market. They also shared a song on Youtube that conveys the biased views towards youth in Brazil, and how their opinions are often discredited. 

As the Youth Futures project is at its halfway point, the rest of the meeting was structured around reflections on their experiences in the City Caravans project so far, their views on access to livelihoods and how inclusive they think their city is. For this exercise, we used Mentimeter. Everyone typed in their responses, and the results would show up either as a word cloud or a cascade of responses. Each question was followed by a discussion of the responses, and adult facilitators would translate for the group from Portuguese or Hindi into English, and vice versa. 

It was an engaging discussion, and the youth eagerly asked each other thought-provoking questions throughout the meeting. From the exercise, it seemed that gender, racism, and lack of respect towards youth were common barriers of discrimination shared between both countries, as well as difficulties to access resources. Not everyone had access to the internet, or had the adequate equipment, and as low-income groups lived in the peripheries of the city, technical issues combined with lack of transportation made it difficult for them to access livelihood opportunities and amenities. Apart from protests and making youth groups, YEG members felt that social media is becoming a powerful space for youth to make their demands heard, and to engage with what happens in the city. For them, it was important to have NGOs and community-based organisations, like YUVA and CIESPI, who provide them with support and resources to channel their voices out onto various policy platforms. 

In terms of their experience with the project, YEG members enjoyed how much they were learning. Some even commented on their personal growth from working in teams, and mentoring other youth. COVID and the migration to online technologies was something they found challenging, however. On one hand, it was convenient as they could conduct interviews from the comforts of their home. But on the other hand, not everyone had access to Wifi and it was difficult to contact people because of this. 

It was once again, a very lively meeting and the next YEG meeting will be held in October/November.