In her opening remarks, Vice President of the Vietnam Red Cross Society (VRC) Huynh Thi Xuan Lam highly appreciated the selection of the theme “Resilience Rising: Inspiring Youths’ Leaders in Innovative Disaster Preparedness” for this youth forum, which, she said, affirmed the passion, high determination and efforts of young people in continuing previous generations’ noble humanitarian missions, as well as their role, task and responsibility of joining hands to solve problems facing humanity.
She expressed her hope that young people from red cross associations in the Asia-Pacific region, including Vietnam, will promote their intelligence, youth, creativity, and enthusiasm to participate in and actively contribute to the success of the forum; and affirm their pioneering role in activities and initiatives of the regional and international Red Cross - Red Crescent movement.
Vice President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Maha Barjas Hamoud Al Barjas said that people are living in a world filled with ongoing humanitarian challenges, including wars and natural disasters.
Humanitarian crises have imposed disproportionate impacts on young people, and caused challenges of disruption to education, unemployment, exposure to or risk of being affected by violence (sexual violence, gender-based violence) and health risks, she said, stressing the need to change the way to think, work, and become more connected to maintain sustainability and suitability for the current and next generations.
At the forum, delegates discussed skills and solutions to participate in intergenerational dialogue, how to build a foundation for participation in the Youth Engagement Strategy (YES) 2.0, and build up knowledge about innovation and digitalisation, and disaster preparedness.
