Q and A with Pacific Youth Champion from Fiji at Rio+20

Ms. Brianna Fruean, 14 years, Samoa

Brianna Fruean and Kelvin Anthony

19 June 2012, Rio de Janeiro - Pacific Youth Champion and UNICEF Pacific Ambassador, Mr. Kelvin Anthony aged 24 has been in Rio since the 4th of June.  He attended the World Youth Congress funded by UNICEF Pacific, which concluded with 20 solutions to submit to the Rio Earth Summit before joining the Fiji delegation at Rio+20.  Below is a Q and A between Brianna and Kelvin, two Pacific youth champions at the world's biggest youth conference.

Brianna Fruean:  Q.  What Brought you to Rio?

Kelvin Anthony: A.  I was invited to be part of the World Youth Congress, an international youth gathering where we came up with 20 solutions which will be put forward to Rio+20 so that the world leaders can see the possible tangible solutions that can actually help the problem.  For me here, my mission is to get all the pacific youth aware on how these international negotiations go about and how it affects us.

Brianna Fruean:  Q.  What have you been doing at home (Fiji)?

Kelvin Anthony: A.  In preparation for Youth World Congress, I had a lot of support from young people in the pacific region as well as Fiji. I did a lot of media work getting ideas and opinions of youth from around the pacific so I can bring that to the World Youth Congress and as well as the Rio+20.

Brianna Fruean: Q.  What have you learnt from Rio+20?

Kelvin Anthony: A.  Well this is my first big international meeting and being an Ambassador for UNICEF Pacific, Fiji and the Pacific in general. For me, its been very frustrating because things are happening very slow and to me as a young person, I would like to see things move a bit faster especially the negotiations and discussions from leaders around the world. It’s been really sad because the way these discussions are going and the personal interest put out in these discussions, its very frustrating. Whatever the outcome of this meeting, it’s up to us to personally make the best out of the outcome.

Brianna Fruean: Q.  So if you go home and the results of Rio+20 and the commitments weren’t put through, what would you do?

Kelvin Anthony: A.  Well my focus is to go home and whatever the results, the output is since its been discouraging how the negotiations are going right now, but whatever the output is, I will take home with me the results we came up with at the World Youth Congress, come up with an Action Plan. The 2 things that I will focus on, is Education on sustainability development and try and put this into the school system. I will be using a lot of social media to get young people to start pushing for this thing. The 2nd thing is Climate Change, how can we adapt to the effects of Climate change into the way we live. Im still optimistic and I hope people in the pacific can make changes.

Brianna Fuean: Q. What inspired you to do this?

Kelvin Anthony: A.  What inspires me is seeing young people in the pacific who are younger than me and who are driving change. Im actually inspired by the work done by Ms Brianna Fruean who has been an inspiration.