A mustard seed for child participation: why supporting children’s presence online matters 

Paula Cantor, communications and advocacy advisor for the Amplifying Children's Voices project, shares about her journey working with adolescents from Bangladesh, Brazil and Canada and the importance of empowering youth globally to address social issues effectively. 

9 February, 2024 

In a world where hunger and malnutrition are everywhere, a mustard seed could be seen as nothing, but it can change everything. The snowball effect that small actions bring can suddenly be the most powerful tool to solve problems in a community, a country and the whole world. Although governments globally have promised to listen to children on the issues that affect them, some efforts do not lead to real action, and other times children and adolescents are not involved at all. Young people have the knowledge about the issues occurring in their communities and they have the proposals to overcome those issues. 

Over the last year, we’ve been working to address just that with adolescents from Bangladesh, Brazil and Canada - to strength their advocacy, communication and digital safeguarding skills. Their commitment and passion have overcome borders when proposing solutions for global issues. The project - Amplifying Children’s Voices Digitally - has been an amazing experience, not only to see the ideas and content from the young people, but in what they have taught me, too. Participants from Brazil have taught us how impactful the sense of community is when solving issues. The adolescents from Bangladesh have highlighted the importance of speaking up with respect and humility to make people join the cause. And the group from Canada has shared creative ways of raising awareness.  

Each one of these participants has a different story, an incredible story that is worth the world knowing. That’s why one of the main goals has been to build a global network of adolescents who can speak up, advocate and raise awareness together. Their ideas are looking for solutions to local and global issues; our dream is that combining them will lead to real change in their communities and even countries. 

One of the 40 young people who have taken part so far is 16-year-old Lukman from Bangladesh. According to him: “this project has been a trampoline. It makes me think and go beyond to help my community, my neighbours, my family, friends and children.” He started advocating young, at the age of 11, and today is working with leaders in his community to raise awareness about hunger and malnutrition, even attending the UN General Assembly last September to advocate for his cause.  

Like Lukman, Maria Clara from Brazil, Sahar from Canada, Monika from Bangladesh and all the participants are involved in different social projects in their communities and continue to collaborate together. They have been advocating against child marriage, ending violence against children and raising awareness about hunger and malnutrition. And we will continue open them spaces to amplify their voices digitally; we are working to realise the scale-up ambitions have been developed in consultation with children and the support of our partner Nethope. The world has promised children a voice, and we will all be so much richer if we listen to them. 

Paula Cantor is a communications and advocacy advisor for the Amplifying Children's Voices Digitally project. Based in Paris, she has seven years' experience working for UN and other child focused agencies. She is passionate about promoting children’s authentic voices and advocating for their rights.