Cristelle is 21 years old. She lives in a poor neighborhood near the YWCA center and has been attending the Horyzon program of YWCA Haiti for 8 years. Before that, she felt like she didn't exist at all and believed she was worthless because she was a girl. It was only at YWCA Haiti that she understood that she too has rights. In the workshops on self-esteem, she learned to believe in herself and that even as a girl she can achieve anything.

Thanks to the tutoring, Cristelle has also become a better student. She used to be teased because she often missed school. Today, she is much more self-confident, can stand up for herself and has a big goal: she wants to become an office IT specialist and is currently studying for the last year of secondary school. She wishes there were more centers like YWCA Haiti's so that more girls could experience the same positive change she did.

Andres (19) and Jeison (16) have been members of YMCA in Guayabal, a rural village in Colombia without prospects and jobs for young people, for several years. YMCA Guayabal is trying to remedy precisely this problem and supports young people, among other things, in the production and sale of homemade food, such as dumplings. The two young people have already completed two training courses.

They now come to the center every Saturday morning and bake dumplings. With the proceeds, they can buy school materials, among other things, which they urgently need in order to finish high school. Andres was also recently able to enroll in a gastronomy course at the local vocational school, where he can further deepen his knowledge. This course is run and also financed by the Colombian government. The number of participants in these courses is very limited and Andres can only take part because he was already able to acquire practical knowledge in the YMCA course.

Nabaa is 20 years old, lives in Bethlehem and studies Human Rights and International Law at Al Quds Bard College. Nabaa was a participant in the 2019 Journey for Justice, a Joint Advocacy Initiative activity. During the Journey for Justice, Palestinian and foreign students visit together specific sites in Palestine that showcase the difficult living conditions of Palestinians under occupation. For example, Nabaa led a group of Norwegian and Danish students through an Israeli military checkpoint, which they must cross daily to get to their university.

Often, Nabaa is stopped at this checkpoint and is therefore late for class. For Nabaa, participating in the activities of the Joint Advocacy Initiative is an opportunity for personal and professional development. She especially appreciates the exchange with the international students and the opportunity to do important awareness-raising work based on her own knowledge and experience.

"I live together with my sister, parents died. In total I have 2 sisters and 7 brothers. However, I do not know much about part of my family. But what I do know, thanks to the activities of the YWCA Yambio, is how to use contraception and how human reproduction works biologically. This will help me in the future to be a responsible adult woman and to take care of my health. I myself gave birth to my child at the age of 17 and was already thinking about having a second child. But I stopped and now I want to focus on education.

The My Body My Right My Future project is changing perceptions, the activities I participate in are encouraging and whenever a man approaches me, "My Body, My Right, My Future" goes through my mind. In a few years I would like to become a midwife and help and care for pregnant women. That would be a beautiful future. I wish others could see a more positive future for themselves as well."

The example of Marko Polo shows the importance of psychosocial support for refugees from South Sudan: Before he fled to Uganda, Marko Polo and his two daughters had to watch his wife being shot dead during an outbreak of violence in South Sudan in 2019. As a single father with a physical impairment, he faced discrimination within the community, even police harassment.

Due to the significant psychological stress he experienced, Marko Polo is one of the survivors accessing the program's psychosocial support. When Marko was arrested by the police because of a misunderstanding with another refugee, he turned to the program's counselors, who helped him mediate and brought his daughters to safety. As the police were initially reluctant to release him, the program's counselors intervened and Marko was released and reunited with his daughters.