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Voice Your Views on Poverty
and the UN Millennium Development Goals Saturday 4 February at 1:00PM est.
and Saturday 11 February 2006 at 1:00PM est.  |
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The MDG Chat's Featured Guest Speaker Biographies Marie Abbott (english) Whitehorse, Yukon-Canada Youth Marie Abbott is 15 years old and is a Grade 11 student at F.H. Collins Secondary School in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. She enjoys karate, creative writing, spending time with friends and travelling! Marie's interest in children's rights was sparked by her Grade 7 teacher. Her interest soon developed into a passion for raising awareness and taking action on issues such as child labour, education and HIV/AIDS. Marie is now an experienced public speaker and presents to all ages spreading her enthusiasm to those she meets. She spends her time on creating political change and coordinates fundraising campaigns. She has attended many international and national youth conferences and has travelled to developing countries to learn about issues first hand. She recently travelled to Tanzania as a grand prize winner of Canada's International Development Agency's butterfly 208 contest. Marie is also very involved in Free The Children, Amnesty International and is a member of the Foster Parents Plan Youth Advisory Council. Marie is constantly inspired by the incredible courage and perseverance of children she meets who are faced with horrific realities. This is why she is so dedicated to help. Pierre Girardier (french) World Bank Paris, External Affairs Vice Presidency Amil Husain (english) New York. New York-United States of America Global Youth Coordinator United Nations Millennium Campaign Amil Husain serves as the Global Youth Coordinator for the United Nations Millennium Campaign. In his position, Amil coordinates the establishment of national youth campaigns around the world, and helps establish partnerships with international youth groups with the objective of involving more young people to take action on the Millennium Development Goals. Cynthia Lacasse (french) Canadian Commission for UNESCO Cynthia détient un baccalauréat en science politique et une maîtrise en relations internationales de l'Université Laval. Durant ses études, Cynthia s'est impliquée au sein de la délégation de son université pour le National Model United Nations (NMUN), d'abord comme déléguée puis comme présidente et conseillère académique. Le NMUN est la plus grande simulation des travaux des Nations Unies au monde et se tient annuellement à New York. Cynthia a travaillé comme auxiliaire de recherche à la Chaire de recherche du Canada en sécurité internationale et au Centre d'études interaméricaines, tous deux affiliés à l'Institut québécois des hautes études internationales. En mai 2005, Cynthia a complété un stage de sept mois au bureau de liaison auprés des Nations Unies de l'Organisation internationale du Travail à New York. Elle a rejoint la Commission canadienne de l'UNESCO ce même mois. Cynthia est en charge du secteur jeunesse de la Commission, dont l'objectif est de promouvoir l'inclusion et la participation des jeunes dans le travail de la Commission, de l'UNESCO et au sein de la société civile. Julie Larsen (english) New York. New York-United States of America United Nations Youth Unit Originally from Montréal, Julie Larsen is a graduate of international development studies from the University of Toronto and has contributed to projects on sustainable housing in Mexico, gender equality in India, and agro-forestry in Thailand. She currently works with the United Nations Programme on Youth at Headquarters in New York. The Programme acts as a focal point within the UN system on matters relating to youth, particularly in relation to the priority areas identified in the World Programme of Action for Youth (for more information, visit: www.un.org/youth). It aims to build an awareness of the global situation of young people, as well as to promote their rights and aspirations. Julie strongly believes that young people hold some of the most promising and innovative solutions to the development challenges faced by our world today. Latif Mouhamed Mbengue (french) Afrique de l'Ouest Edieur Regional pour les OMD Mouhamed est le co-fondateur du réseau sénégalais du sommet de l'Emploi des Jeunes (YES). Il a obtenu un Master en Etudes Américaines de l'Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar. Il vit au Sénégal. Alex McClelland (english) Toronto Local Host for the International AIDS Conference Alex is a 26 year old man who has been living with HIV since he turned 19. Since then he has been an advocate for the unique issues that face young people at risk and youth living with HIV in Canada. For the past 5 years he has been involved in HIV/AIDS work in Toronto with Positive Youth Outreach a peer-based program of the AIDS Committee of Toronto for HIV-positive youth. He is also a Director on the Canadian AIDS Society board. Alex is a Co-investigator in the Positive Youth Project (PYP), a community-based participatory research project which studied the needs of youth living with HIV in Ontario. The research for the PYP was done in collaboration with youth living with HIV and a website was then developed based on the results, www.livepositive.ca. Currently, he is the Youth Coordinator for the XVI International AIDS Conference, which will be held in Toronto from 13-18 August. His role is to ensure the meaningful involvement of youth throughout the conference and support and facilitate youth activities. Ben Peterson (english) Toronto, Ontario-Canada Co-Founder and Executive Director of Journalism for Human Rights Ben Peterson, 28, is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), an NGO dedicated to building the capacity of the media in Africa and Canada. Since JHR's founding it has sent more journalists abroad than any other Canadian NGO and has positively altered the media landscape in several African nations. Previous to JHR, Ben worked in Ghana's Ministry of Justice, leading Ghana's efforts to write reports to the United Nations on various international human rights treaties. Ben's work helped bring about many changes in the country, including revisions to the criminal code and ministerial reorganization. Ben has also worked for the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy, and in the offices of David Bonior, the former Democratic Whip in the United States House of Representatives. Ben is an Action Canada Fellow (2004/2005). Each year, Action Canada selects the top 20 young leaders in Canada for this fellowship. Ben currently resides in downtown Toronto. He has a BA in Economics and a BAH in Political Studies from Queen's University, and an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics (LSE). Lindsay M. Petrillose (english) One Laptop Per Child Lindsay Petrillose currently works as the Special Assistant for International Affairs at One Laptop per Child. She holds a BA in Political Science and Public Policy from Wheaton College in Norton, MA and also studied at Beijing Foreign Studies University in China. Lindsay is married to her husband Carlos (Brazilian) and has one son, Brian. She is conversant in Mandarin Chinese and fluent in Portuguese. Carmela Prinzo (english) Youth Outreach Officer Youth and Educational Outreach Canadian International Development Agency Carmela Prinzo has worked in Youth and Educational Outreach at CIDA for over 3 years. She has also worked in Guatemala with the Guatemalan non-governmental organization, Centro Pluricultural para la Democracia, in Quetzaltenango. In secondary school, Carmela traveled to the Dominican Republic to volunteer with youth in two rural communities. Later in University, while studying International Business, she traveled to Malawi to research youth engagement and education in that country. Carmela has also worked on development projects in Colombia and Morocco. Christian Robittaille (french) Quebec City, Quebec-Canada Coordinator of the Youth Forum in Quebec City Agé de 32 ans, Christian Robitaille réside dans la ville de Québec avec son fils de 4 ans. De 1994 à 2002 il a étudié à l'Université de Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Depuis 2002, il a coordonné le Forum de la Jeunesse de la ville de Québec. Passionné par la question des jeunes, de leur rôle au Canada et dans le monde, il a été impliqué dans différentes organisations de jeunesse pendant plus de 10 ans. Il se souvient de son rôle de Président de la Fédération des Etudiants de l'Université et de son engagement dans le mouvement étudiant de 2000-2001. Christian travaille actuellement dans l'organisation représentant le Congrès Mondial pour la Jeunesse qui se tiendra dans la ville de Québec en août 2008. Romi (english) Vietnam Millennium Development Goals Youth Editor A student at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi, Romi has been a leader for many years. She initiated and organized a five-week donation campaign for a brain cancer patient, and was the Executive Coordinator of the Youth Coordination Centre of Vietnam. Charlton Tsodzo (english) Zimbabwe Millennium Development Goals Youth Editor Charlton C. Tsodzo is a 24 year old from Zimbabwe and is currently the Southern African Regional Youth Editor for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Campaign with TakingitGlobal. Presently, he is focusing on capacity building of youth organizations and institutions in his country so that they are effectively able to respond to the needs of their respective constituencies. He has taken particular interest in Results-Based Management of youth projects and has been working towards strengthening youth organizations to carry-out outcome based programming ensuring that the right programmes reach the right targets. Charlton has consulted extensively in UN projects focused on development-based responses to HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe, gender equity as well as poverty alleviation projects. Charlton has also worked with the British Council Zimbabwe on developing the best strategy the institution could undertake to respond to the emerging youth developmental needs in the country. He accepted an invitation to work with the British Council Regional Team on Multi-culturalism, Identity and Diversity project between Southern Africa and the U.K and handled needs assessments of young people with regards to issues of multiculturalism and diversity as they related to youth development. At present, Charlton is involved with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Zimbabwe where he is a Social Policy Researcher and Lecturer. Some of the work they do is guiding national developmental policy in Zimbabwe, especially targeting young people. He also serves in various advisory capacities with local NGOs as well as the National Taskforce on the MDGs, mainly dealing with strategic planning and Results-Based Management systems. Terri Willard (english) Winnipeg. Manitoba-Canada Project Manager, International Institute for Sustainable Development Terri Willard is Project Manager, Knowledge Communications at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. A Rhodes, Henry Luce, and Hearst Scholar, Terri holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a M.Sc. from Oxford University. She has provided advice on web organization and management to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Environment Canada, and the United Nations Environment Program. Terri has recently co-authored a book on Managing International Knowledge Networks for Sustainable Development. |
Voice Your Views because you can! Monday 30 January to Saturday 11 February 2006 mdg.tigweb.org/discuss |
