HYDERABAD: RSai Praneeth Reddy from Vaishnavi School of Architecture and Planning in Hyderabad, is back from representing India at the 2017 Summer Youth Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City from August 9 to 12. Needless to say, he is mighty impressed with what the event exposed to him. Peter Thomson, president of 71st United Nations General Assembly, of course, left a deep impact on him, he said.
Praneeth remembers how Jayathma Wicramanayake, the Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth addressed some issues facing by the youth and lacking of opportunities across. Sabarullah Khan, Ambassador of Sri Lanka personally came up to Pareeth to shake hands and spoke to him.
The duo exchanged notes on being neighbours the problems faced by Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
“I spoke about the quality education and no poverty goals, how to reach them and how youth should take initiative to make this goals come true by 2030.”
“I also spoke about the youth getting into politics and how important it is in the mainstreaming youth in all sphere of society session and Alessandro Motter, Senior policy Advisor for economic and social affairs at the inter-parliamentary union gave me the ideas and solutions for this,” recalls Praneeth.
He says the sessions titled ‘Everyone in for 2030 Agenda, working together and leaving no one behind by Karen Newman, UN Consultant for the UN Development Program gave inputs to the youth on how to reach it. The session on Youth, Peace and Security was impactful, he adds.
“In the session titled Dear World, Message Shoot, it was about giving a message to the world through a photo shoot. My message was: You are not aged, you are just experienced to the senior change makers fo the world. At the closing session on the final day, I wanted to show my country’s culture at the UN, I wanted to promote our ethnic handlooms. So I went in to the general assembly hall by wearing pancha, kanduva and a kadhi shirt with a turban which also represents farmer, India’s backbone. The fellow delegates from various countries were floored by the Indian outfit and took photographs after the session.”
“I went in as delegate and came back as a changemaker,” says Praneeth, while thanking his family and his cousins in the US for supporting him for the programme.