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REPORT
SPECIAL SESSION ONLINE REPORT
A Young General Assembly Internet Conference
July 8 – August 3, 2002
Venue: Cyberspace
INTRODUCTION
The Special Session Online was created as an alternative to the Third Annual Young General Assembly Session and Special Session on Environment that was to meet in Kazinbarcika, Hungary July 26-August 3, 2002 hosted by the Teenager Parliament. Forty days before the children were to arrive in Hungary the newly elected Hungarian government told the Teenager Parliament they would not honor the promise of funds made by the former government. There was not time to raise the funds needed to pay the deposit for the venue in Hungary, so the venue was changed to cyberspace. The Special Session Online met from July 8 – August 3, 2002- a period of 4 weeks.
THE ONLINE SESSION
Twenty-two of the 108 people who had registered to go to Hungary registered to participate in the Special Session Online. In the beginning there was a total of 67 people registered from 27 countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Ghana, Hungary, India, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Turkey, Uganda, United States, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Only 42% of the participants were under the age of 18. The Young General Assembly aims to have 67% of the participants at its meetings under the age of 18 years.
Young General Assembly Ambassadors must be under 18 and be part of a Young General Assembly Member Organization. Organizations in 11 countries were qualified to select Ambassadors: Afghanistan, Cameroon, Canada, Ghana, Hungary, India, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, USA, and Vietnam. The Ambassadors from India,
USA, and Vietnam did not complete the Special Session Online requirements and were thus disqualified.
A total of 35 Young General Assembly Member Organizations had representatives participating in the Special Session Online (SSO). Only 25% of all the Young General Assembly Member Organizations participated in SSO, which was perplexing because all Member Organizations are paying for e mail service and there was no other cost involved. However, this small percentage of Young GA Member Organizations made up 57% of the organizations who had participants is SSO.
Eight sets of questions were sent out and the participants sent in their responses. Each participant had a file in which all their responses were kept. Also everyone’s responses to each question were complied. The discussion on brainstorming global priorities, and both discussions about Child Participation were combined by a committee of 4 USA teenagers into the Children’s Proposal for Decision Makers at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Rateb Ahmad thoughtfully put the responses to all questions on a web page which will be available on the internet until July 2003 at www.yga2002.8k.com. (could there be a link here ?)
EVALUATION
The lack of consistent participation was disappointing. However, the Special Session Online, although achieving only 53% of the project plans aimed for, achieved more than it aimed for.
Participation:
68 people registered for the Special Session Online.
12 of those never responded once and were dropped.
2 people sent in notification that they were unexpectedly going on holiday and would not be participating.
1 person dropped because of severe illness.
14 people sent in one response and nothing else.
12 people sent in all responses on time and will be getting certificates.
31 people sent in 4 or 5 responses.
The Special Session Online had 3 goals:
1. Write a statement for the World Summit on Sustainable Development
2. Create 60 project plans.
3. Conduct Young General Assembly business needed to run the organization through the upcoming year.
Special Session Online Achievements:
The statement for WSSD was written.
32 project plans were created (53% of the goal ).
A wealth of ideas for a booklet on child participation resulted from the two discussions.
Young General Assembly Ambassadors were selected.
2002-2003 Executive Committee members were selected.
2002-2003 Finance Committee members were selected.
2002-2003 Special Issue Committee members were selected.
The web site to post the Special Session Online results was set up by Rateb Ahmad.
Evaluations from Participants:
2. Did SSO cause you to think about topics you might not have thought about in your usual daily routine?
Yes, and I learned more on this Online Session. I needed time to think and answer all the e-mail as soon as possible. I'm very happy and proud that I belong on this online conference.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, especially topics relating to Child Participation.
Yes the programme made me think more than before in order to make good and accurate contributions.
The questions that were asked on the SSO e-mail made me think a lot more then I would in my day to day thoughts!
Very important topics were brought to mind, especially an issue of child labour which is a problem affecting my country.
Yes, of course. Child participation itself was never in my mind before SSO.
Yes it did. I spent a lot of time on thinking on all these topics. I think this type of conference is needed more often. This makes us children think and think. This thinking will develop us.
Definitely. It was kind of like a quote for the day, a question to ponder.
SSO Online turned around a lot of things with respect to thinking. The SSO series of questions makes me to think , even more outside when I talk with friends and elderly people for them to throw light on the issues treated by SSO. It has made me to gain a thinking idea tremendously. That is much deeper than the way I use to think before.
It caused me to think about the importance of child participation and caused me to think more deeply about getting involved in this organization - which I will.
3. Did SSO cause you to change your life in any way ? (start a project, start a club ?)
Yes, I shared all my thoughts and e-mails with my organization and they helped me to solve the questions.
Yes. Yes. Of course yes.
YES it gave me more ideas on child participation.
Yes, it changed my attitude towards children.
It surely has brought about changes in the way I think, but not any change in life physically so far. I want to do something more but I don't have good guidance.
The Special Session Online for me has been very inspiring. In the past four weeks I have discovered and learned new ways of going about my work (child rights activism) and also a total new approach to child participation. I know that the SSO will help all participants to properly organize programs for their organizations or clubs with practical child participation. It is a pity that I could not make new friends during SSO. Although I know two of the participants and I see them often here in Nigeria- i.e. Dayo and Benjamin. I hope that our statement will go beyond the presentation at the WSSD. Wishing all the participants congratulations for a job very well done.
Yes, I began to understand more things and my belief that we can change something became stronger. Although we didn't accomplish everything, we did a lot of work. I was happy to work side by side with everybody and I hope we'll continue ’til next year when all of you will come to Romania.
"NO"
This made me think a lot. We wrote a project plan about wastes and I think we'll implement that in the spring time.
Since there haven't been too many NGO briefings - it got me excited about the future, kept me informed and thinking.
I cannot hide this from the organizers of SSO: whatever makes me think deeply will definitely have an impact in my life.
The SSO has made a change in my life. It makes me have feelings about any condition that is not worth living at all. It gave me an idea of what might be happening globally. I am using this opportunity to thank the organizers of SSO for giving me an opportunity to be a part of this program. Thank you all for consideration and anticipation.
Yes because now I'll be involved in the YGA throughout the next year :)
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