At the Youth For Change Conference, we got to learn about the challenges of confronting child rights violations in both humanitarian and development settings, and how rigorous evidence-based approaches can be implemented to tackle the diverse causes of violence against children.

"Nobody should be deprived of opportunities just because of the different backgrounds that they were born into.” Find out what other lessons a student from Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) picked up following a visit with World Vision to Son Tra in Vietnam. This trip was undertaken in preparation for a Service-Learning project being developed as part of a Memorandum of Understanding between World Vision and NP.

On 1-2 June 2018, four student leaders from Hougang Secondary School participated in the 30 Hour Famine Camp for the first time, and took on the Backpack Challenge to learn about the struggles experienced by children and families in fragile contexts affected by conflict, insecurity, and natural disasters. Here, they share their most memorable moments from the camp and the meaningful lessons that they came away with.

Based on my experience as a Famine Camper in 2013, and as a Famine Camp Leader in 2018, I would say that this year’s 30 Hour Famine Camp was by far the most challenging yet. But despite how arduous it was, the camp was also extremely meaningful in highlighting the plight of refugee children driven out of their home countries by conflict and persecution, as well as children displaced by natural disasters.

At the Youth For Change Conference, we got to sit next to humanitarian and development workers and annoy them with a dozen or so questions — even then, we only scratched the surface of their world. They deal with the most complex issues hindering life and happiness around the world, and for several days they were ours to pester and blew our minds.

Project HungerFree was held on 15 July 2017 at the Bukit Timah Campus of the National University of Singapore. It was a humanitarian-themed youth festival, complete with music performances and a documentary photography exhibition, which allowed students and young professionals to deepen their understanding about the challenges in the developing world.