The final day for signups for the United Nations Association of Canada’s (UNAC) program “Generation SDG” is tomorrow.
Sophia Mirzayee, the United Nations Association of Canada community Liaison, says the program is implemented in Kemptville, Ottawa, Cornwall and Gatineau and allows youth to work with a mentor to address issues they are interested in. Mirzayee says ultimately all of the youth projects are tied to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. So these are 17 goals that were put out by the UN that countries are supposed to achieve by the year 2030.
“For example one of the goals that the United Nations has put out is quality education. Another goal is no hunger, another goal is climate change, climate action, sanitation, water, water rights.”
Other goals include gender equality, goals targeting good health and industry and infrastructure, according to Mirzayee.
When youth ambassadors are accepted to the program they will go through four different weekends of training and are matched with a mentor to help with the process and each youth group is given a $500 grant to implement their project.
Youth can be between the ages of 15 and 25 to signup for the volunteer projects and mentors can be between the ages of 18 and 35. Mirzayee says the mentor will commit to around eight to 10 hours per month from August 2020 to February 2021 and they will be matched with two to three youth to help them create tangible community projects. Mentors will get training and the position is volunteer.
To apply, visit the UNAC website here.