How Youth Networks Helped Achieve a Dream for Luis Despite an Impairment
By Luis Sapòn, aged 26 from Guatemala
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are the master plan to achieve a sustainable future for all. They are interrelated and incorporate the global challenges we face every day, such as poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, peace and justice. Guatemala has committed to taking actions to achieve these Sustainable Development Goals.
My name is Luis Sapòn, I am 26 years old, and I live in Totonicapán, Guatemala with my mother, Graciela, and my brother, José. I love music and when I was a child I was very active, curious, and dynamic. I was always interested in knowing more than I knew. When I was 10 years old, I started having sight problems and over many months they grew worse. Although I had several surgeries, none were successful and I was diagnosed with total blindness. As I became a teenager, my visual impairment caused me many challenges, including physical difficulties, depression, extreme disappointment, and feeling so many conflicting emotions about my life. Somehow I managed to persevere.
During my adolescence, despite my many difficulties, I had the opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and discover new abilities through athletics, in which I participated regularly. Through sport, I was able to travel throughout my country and, as one of my country’s best young athletes, had the joy of competing in Panama. I also became very engaged in music and this served me as both as artistic and professional medium. Since graduating from high school, I have pursued musical studies as I saw it as a great opportunity to move forward.
I have since been involved with World Vision’s Puentes project, in which I earned a diploma in Entrepreneurship; this was a very special experience for me as I learned the knowledge and skills to help me excel in my work. I have felt an immense amount of support through this project to practice my profession.
Sustainable Development Goal 16 is to “Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies” and SDG 16.7 calls on states to “Guarantee the adoption at all levels of inclusive, participatory and representative decisions that respond to needs.”
Through the Youth Networks in Guatemala, who interact with civil society organisations, government institutions and municipalities - I have participated in different spaces that have been opened to people with disabilities to contribute to decision-making. The Youth Network members have worked with the laws that help us today as a society, by having all these tools in our hands so we can carry out great actions.
I had the experience of being on the municipal council, which contributed a lot to my professional career. Knowing that my ideas for improvement, accessibility, and new resources will help support people with any disability are taken into account have made me given a lot of strength to participate in even more spaces where the importance and prioritisation of issues of disability are promoted and made known. I like that this medium, the Youth Network, has encouraged me to lead and make decisions together with others as a team.
My dream for the future is to expand my professional career in music and to create new mechanisms to be more independent despite the limitations I have, Train myself in other alternative areas of my career in order to always be available for any opportunity that presents itself to me.
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Puentes is a positive youth development project funded by USAID which aims to improve the quality of life and unlock the potential of youth ages 15-29 in Guatemala. The project provides youth with soft skills training and provides opportunities for youth to pursue their goals in education, employment, and entrepreneurship, Through Puentes, youth have accessed alternative education, vocational training, STEAM education, agricultural training, entrepreneurship training, support for starting businesses, workforce readiness training, job placement support, psychosocial support, and vocational orientation.