Anna Kelemen: Education and Youth Rights

For about 5 years I have been involved in working to solve social problems related to education and youth rights, both at local and national level.

When I was in school I had the impression that teachers were not very open to talk about life issues with students. It seemed to me that they were missing an opportunity, which could be of great help to the students. This led me to become actively involved through my school’s youth council, and gradually over time I managed to reach higher levels of youth representation.

During this journey, one of my inspirations was the Hungarian National Youth Council, which is often involved in national and EU projects, which have a significant effect on local youth activism.

In order to promote my work, I contact anyone who might be interested in youth issues, such as the local student council, the local government or representatives of local and national student forums. In addition, I often write articles for the national youth information magazine Országos Diáktájékoztatás.

One of the main challenges I face in my work as an activist is the passivity of students. Sometimes schools are not “brave” enough to initiate programmes that can help students and the low participation of the pupils in events is another challenge in the process.

To address these issues, I ask students what topics they are interested in and I help schools to get in touch with professionals who can be invited to talk to the pupils about these topics.

However, despite the challenges I may encounter along the way, when I see the result of the work, the satisfied faces of the participants and the effect it has on other people’s lives, I can feel nothing but satisfaction and motivation to continue doing what I do.

Therefore, I can only conclude by addressing all those young people who want to get involved in activism: Don’t be afraid, don’t hesitate, the opportunities, the needs of the people are in front of you, you just need to open your eyes, look for solutions and be active!