Dariana Labour: "We have to educate ourselves on how to make demands"

Neyba Bahoruco province.- Dariana Labour, 26, is the coordinator of child and adolescent leadership and participation for World Vision in the province Bahoruco. She became an employee of the organization four years ago, but she has been linked to it since she was a World Vision sponsored child and a youth leader for more than five years of the Child and Adolescent Protagonists National Movement (MNIJP); a network that is integrated and directed by hundreds of children and young people from seven provinces in the country with World Vision support.

In 2009, she traveled from her native Neiba to the United States to take a course of administration of small and medium enterprises for two and a half years at Kentucky State University, after winning a scholarship sponsored by the Agency of the United States for the development (USAID).

"When I left I did not know any English, I only knew a few things, but did not know much to get into college. It was a challenge for me because in the first three months if you did not learn the language you had to return to your country. So I forced myself, as I had the commitment with my community, to learn the language", she says.

She is currently studying two degrees simultaneously: Tourism and Business Administration at different universities. However, she makes time for what she loves: "I love to sing and write. I write many things that occur to me. I love traveling, to learn, I like to see my country".

Labour is proud of the involvement of children and young people of the villages in the province Bahoruco in the Protagonistas Movement (MNIJP): "Young people from the bateyes felt abandoned. It was tough to go to the bateyes to find no one to work with. Now we have 63 active youth community leaders and what these boys and girls have achieved and the relationships they are growing have been of the best experiences I've had. It was hard to bring vocational technical courses to this region, and they have brought those courses",she explains.

Dariana hopes to finish her two careers and a master's degree in hotel industry. Her message to youth is clear: "We need to educate ourselves and learn how to make demands. One of the biggest disadvantages we have in our municipality [Neiba] is that we do not know how to do that and even though we know who those people we must bring our demands to are, the ignorance about how to do this leads us to remain in the same situation. We have to motivate young people to learn their rights and how to claim them", she concludes.