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The Kenya High School was once again in the African delegation to this year’s International Solidarity Forum (ISF) under the auspices of The World Youth Alliance. The World Youth Alliance (WYA) is an international, non-governmental, non-profit global youth organization, founded in 1999 at the United Nations Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+5) as a reaction of conscience on matters related to people’s needs which works to promote the dignity of the person at the international and grassroots level. The WYA works to build solidarity between youth from developed and developing nations between the ages 10-30 years.

The history of WYA dates back to a time when a young girl named Anna Halpine raised her concern about a lack of basic needs including access to clean water, sanitation,education, nutrition, health care and employment at a conference, citing that these issues were not being discussed. To make her point, Anna distributed flyers which stated that the young people at the conference did not represent all the youth in the world. She then called for a discussion on topics addressing basic human rights and necessities. The statement was well-received by many delegations and she was requested to maintain a permanent presence at the United Nations, as well as work with young people from the delegates’ countries. Indeed, the necessity of a strong and thoughtful youth-voice on issues was apparent, and thus, the World Youth Alliance was founded.

Each year the youth come together at the ISF- International Solidarity Forum which is a global training event that focuses on bringing together best members in a series of lectures and discussions on a particular global issue. The members then go through language negotiations as occurs in the UN conferences and together they come up with WYA declarations and statements.

The International Solidarity Forum (ISF), hosted at the United Nations in New York, brings together WYA members from each of the five regions [Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America]. It also brings together international advisors to the Alliance and members of the UN diplomatic community. Each ISF examines particular themes of global importance through discussions, workshops and cultural activities. Themes of past conferences have included:

• 2009 - Philosophy of Human Rights
• 2008 - A.R.T. and the Human Person (Assisted Reproductive Technologies and the Human Person)
• 2007 - Population and Development
• 2006 - Good Governance
• 2004 - Women and Development
• 2003 - HIV/AIDS

The International Solidarity Forum focuses on four areas:

Expert Lectures: Experts in the field of the theme topic including diplomats, researchers, and scholars, present global issues to participants. This expertise influences the positions expressed in the ISF outcome declaration.

UN Training: Hosting the ISF at United Nations Headquarters allows participants to learn about the UN system by experiencing it through attedance at concurrent UN Commissions or other meetings.

Language Negotiation: Each ISF produces an outcome document which serves the purpose of training participants in UN style language negotiations as well as drafting WYA position statements on global issues.

Cultural Events: ISF participants come from all regions of the world thus cultural events allow them to share their respective cultures. Major cultural events, such as the WYA Film Festival, demonstrate how different core ideas are expressed through culture.

The 7th annual International Solidarity Forum took place in New York City at the United Nations and World Youth Alliance Headquarters from March 21st through March 24th, 2010. Experts in the fields of Maternal Health, Policy, and Statistics gave lectures to World Youth Alliance members from the five regions and after listening to the experts, WYA delegates negotiated an outcome document articulating WYA's understanding of Maternal Health. The expert speakers for this year’s ISF were: Sarah Flood-Beaubrun, Dr. Bob Scanlon, Donna Harrison, Dr. Mary Healy-Sedutto and Mrs. Marie Smith.

The Kenya High School was nominated by WYA AFRICA to attend this years’ ISF after successfully displaying their prowess in last year’s week long Africa conference that was held in Nairobi, Kenya. The Students were Hafsa Abdi Duale, Angela Kanini Mathare, and their teacher-Club Patron Genevieve K’opiyo. Kenya High is the only School in Africa and around the world that attends the forum and is therefore the youngest participant, which has not affected their performance at the conference. The regional director shared the same sentiments - the School was attending the ISF for the second time after exemplary input last year where the trio was nominated to be part of the drafting committee.

As the School marks 100 years, they are proud to have gone a mile further in exposing the students to international forums through engaging in noble youth activities.

Apart from attending such forums, the institution also engages in activities back home to uphold the dignity of the human person such as: “Viviamo” which is a WYA cultural activity and Italian for “we live”. In this activity, Kenya High was involved in a jigger eradication Campaign and a food/clothing donation to children and old members of Gatundu Constituency under the umbrella of AHADI TRUST KENYA.

The institution also took part in “Project ABC” A Book for Change, which is an annual book donation and distribution channel to needy schools in the Country by the Kenya High School Community.

Genevieve A. K’opiyo is a teacher at the Kenya High School

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