Keeping intergenerational friendships alive during lockdown – The Award

For two and a half years, Gold Award participant Lauren, from New Zealand, has been reading to Shirley Macdonald who is blind. She would visit Shirley at her retirement village every Saturday. While it started as Voluntary Service for her Gold Award, the pair have formed a strong friendship. “Reading to Shirley has been an amazing part of my life,” Lauren said. COVID-19 and lockdown brought them closer.

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A global movement that funds youth-led community projects across the world is aiming to expand its efforts. Led and implemented by young people across the world, Global Youth Mobilization (GYM) has been operational since December 2020 and already invested in schemes in 125 countries, with young people tackling issues such as the mental health of young people fleeing the war in Ukraine to child victims of sexual abuse in Zambia. Now they are seeking a further $15m over the next three years to expand the initiative.
Join us in February 2023, for the Global Youth Mobilization (GYM) virtual events celebrating 2 years of youth-led global action and the launch of our final impact report, highlighting our reach and investment in young people globally since our start in December 2020. Hosted by the Big Six youth organizations, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Foundation (UNF), we will launch our final impact report looking back at the initiative’s youth-led COVID-19 response and recovery during the main virtual event on 15 February 2023.