The 45th edition of the Fe y Alegría International Conference has taken place from the 16th to the 19th of October under the motto “Youth Culture, Citizenship and Peace” in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia.

This is a yearly gathering for the 21 national Fe y Alegría representatives currently present around the world. In its 45th edition, youth between the ages of 16 and 22 years old attended the conference as representatives of every country where the International Federation is present; Nicaragua, Colombia, Italy, Spain, Haiti and Chad among others.

The goal of this encounter was to dialogue about what it means to be a young woman and a young man today: who they are, what they are doing, what are their challenges, what are the demands of their social contexts and how they can contribute to generate proactive participation and a culture of peace in their places of origin and the world.

According to the last United Nations report on “the State of the World Population”, there are about 1.800 million youngsters in our planet. This means that today more than 25% of the world population is aged between 10 and 24 years old. 

Adolescence is a very special stage for the development of one’s full potential to live a life with dignity and encourage responsible participation in public life. Fe y Alegría is clear and speaks about “youth” from an inclusive, rights and gender-based perspective as an acknowledgment of the diversity of people and realities, since there is a great complexity and differences among young people today depending on the social, cultural, political and economic contexts in which they live.

Acknowledging the importance of this group of people, the International Federation Fe y Alegría agreed to address the 2015 Conference to youth in order to listen to their reflections, wishes and challenges in their path towards personal development.

The new Federative agenda to be developed in the next years will arise from these contributions and, therefore, be the guidelines to follow in the work with youth from the different countries that make up this movement.

You can take a look at the Conference sessions and updates on the site http://movimientos.feyalegria.org/ and through the hashtag #FeyAlegriaCulturasJuveniles