MEMBER PROFILE: AMR ASHRAF

Mr. Amr Ashraf Mohammed Abd El-Ghani Amr was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1992.

Because many of his friends and family suffer from chronic diseases due to high levels of air pollution, he became a leader in climate change initiatives at a young age.

In 2007, Amr mobilized over 300 students in the city of Alexandria to plant trees in local schools and hospitals. At times, he experienced hardships with his school administration, which would not provide him with support or resources of any kind. He has been incredibly self-sufficient and relied on communication solely through Facebook and Taking It Global.

Amr's climate change initiative won him first place on the Climate Change Theme at the Arab Environmental Youth Convention later in 2007.

Amr is currently working on something even bigger. The Prevent Air Pollution (PAP) campaign is a grassroots movement stressing the importance of action against climate change in Alexandria and throughout the world. PAP aims to increase environmental awareness and community living standards by focusing on reforestation and encouraging people to use renewable-clean-fuels.

PAP manages an extremely active outreach program. Despite limited resources, it uses all means of available communication (including social media) to educate local communities. PAP prepares lectures, circulates fliers, and presents videos to educate youth about the adverse affects of climate change in Alexandria and elsewhere.

PAP also maintains its own Facebook group and is currently constructing a website at http://www.pap-eg.com/.

Nationally, Amr was awarded appreciation from the Youth For Environmental Sustainability and Better Understanding Forum and the Arab Environmental Youth Convention E-Course for his outstanding work with PAP.

Globally, Amr received official certificates from his scholarship at the United Nations Development Program and was recognized for his outstanding work in conducting activities in raising environmental awareness, volunteerism, and tolerance within the Mediterranean Region. He also received a diploma in Sustainable Development from the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University, Sweden and was recognized for his activism against climate change at the Young Masters Program on Sustainability.

LIVE BLOG: Youth activists sit-in, refuse to leave until negotiators listen to 11 million voices calling for a fair, ambitious, and binding deal at CO

IYC needs your help for COP15

Hi IYC Team!

The COP15 conference in Copenhagen is in 11 days and IYC needs your help!!! Some of you expressed interest in participating and taking facilitative roles for IYC participation at COP15. Please respond to this thread  on IYC google groups (http://groups.google.de/group/international-youth-council/) on the duties you are able to commit to: 

A. Need someone ASAP (within the next day): Need someone to facilitate IYC Partnership with tcktcktck.org and work with Jamie Ansorge, Director for Global Operations

B. Facilitate partnership with MDG achievers, Friendship Ambassadors Foundation & other NGO's 

C. Facilitate all youth connections at COP & manage IYC membership

D. We need someone to play an active participation role for IYC for the UNFCCC YOUTH BIG UNITY WORKING GROUP

E. ***** To those interested: Please join this group UNFCCC Youth Group:http://groups.google.de/group/unfccc_youth and let me know which working group (WG) you would like to participate in and moderate for IYC. If you are already involved with the WG, please let me know which one you are involved in. 

1. Conference of Youth (COY) December 5 - 6
2. Youth Produced Media WG: Primary means of communication to discuss and develop all aspects of Youth-Produced Media activities leading up to (and beyond) Copenhagen
3. Youth Communications WG: Discussion for youth involved in the UNFCCC process
4. Youth Actions WG: Means of communication to discuss and develop Outreach/Actions activities to take place at COP15 in Copenhagen! 
5. *** YOUTH BIG UNITY WORKING GROUP: Means of communication to discuss and develop proposals for external coordination leading up to and during Copenhagen! 
6. Youth Climate info: General climate info relevant to youth organizations and individuals around the world. Examples of messages: campaign announcements, events, research, requests for input/ideas, etc.

F. IYC writer for COP15: G-1 Billion is the youth press agency covering what comes out of COP15. We will have two IYC members joining G-1 Billion team to produce updates from COP15. We need someone to help and work with our IYC communications Director, Sean Flax, to review the material we are sending and make sure that it is 'international media worthy'

G. If you know anyone who would like to participate in this & join IYC please have them email your membership info to Asha Castleberry, Director for Strategic Partnerships, at asha.castleberry@yahoo.com 

 *****INFO ON YOUNGO UNFCCC Youth http://youthclimate.org/

Thank you for your time & help. My apologies for sending in request a little late. Please respond to email with subject line: IYC COP15 role if you have any questions, otherwise respond on your interest in the IYC google groups page that we just opened.  I commend you all for all the work you are doing in pursuit of a sustainable and just world for our generation and generations ahead of us. Global Youth leaders today, World leaders tomorrow. Let's rock this show!

With Love, 

Esperanza Garcia 

International Youth Council Projects 2008

Be the change you wish to see in this world--- WE are the change that we seek.

IYC PROJECTS 2008-- Wait till you see what we've done in 2009!

• GLACCIER - IYC is working on the GLACCIER Campaign (Global Legal Action for Climate Change for International Environmental Responsibility). The GLACCIER is a petition movement by the youth of the world to address the ongoing impact of climate change. We are building a great global case analysis working closely with top enviromental lawyers from around the world. Our goal is to mobilize the youth to change their lifestyles and petition the governments to bring about the necessary policy actions that will make this possible.

• CSD-17 - IYC members participated in the CSD-17: The Commission on Sustainment Development: Implementation Policy Session. We presented the GLACCIER Campaign, including the research of members across five UN member states who documented the effects of environmental degradation from climate change.

• GLOBAL SUMMIT - IYC became the co-founders of The Global Summit. The Global Summit is dedicated to empowering those most affected by critical issues in creating solutions. Youth are the primary stakeholder for a sustainable future. Our leadership in shaping The Global Summit’s guiding principles for each partner sector, general policies, and program strategy in our founding event was essential to the integrity of its purpose. Each voice of the youth represented by the IYC brought The Global Summit closer to the long-term fulfillment of its program mission.

• YOUTH PARLIAMENT OF THE GAMBIA - We acted in a consulting role with The National Youth Parliament of the Gambia while they planned a “youth empowerment” training program on democracy and effective leadership. We assisted a member in Uganda in writing a high-level grant proposal for an NGO Resource Center in his town.

• THREE DOT DASH - The IYC is a coalition partner with the “We are Family Foundation’s” Three Dot Dash Conference. Three Dot Dash is a global initiative designed to recognize and support the efforts of “Global Teen Leaders” around the world who are actively working on projects that promote a more peaceful society by addressing issues related to basic human needs: food, water, health, shelter, safety, education and the environment. The IYC has been actively recruiting mentors, global teen leaders, and volunteers for 2010 Three Dot Dash Conference.

• GLOBAL CONFERENCES - IYC members have been invited to participate at the 2009 World Bank Youth Conference, in Washington D.C., The 2009 Social Entrepreneur Conference in Canada, The 2008 MDG Global Summit in New Delhi, India, the World Youth Urban Forum in Shanghi, China, the G8 Student Partnership for Development Conference in the London, England and many other similar opportunities.

THE INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CLIMATE MOVEMENT FOR COP15

POSTED BY ESPERANZA GARCIA FROM ECOHOPE BLOG

THE INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CLIMATE MOVEMENT FOR COP15

A message to the Youth of the World:

We need to mobilize for ambitious goals

A. A Global Youth Climate Change Bill by the youth for the youth

Gathering Global Youth Ambassadors from each country to sign a Global Youth Climate Change Bill that is ambitious, fair, and binding. As young citizens, we are responsible in the development of global policies that provide ourselves a framework in moving on further in the green agenda.

B. Provide innovative solutions to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are met by 2015

Climate change presents significant threats to the achievement of the MDGs especially those related to eliminating poverty and hunger and promoting environmental sustainability. Our generation must mobilize to provide poverty eradication methods and sustainable development objectives that ensures the achievement of the MDGs.

C. The Global Youth Climate Change Center

The center will become a symposium where the youth can gain more hindsight on the effects of the degradation of Climate Change, and work with leading academics to find innovative and constructive solutions to Climate Change.

The world is facing unprecedented environmental and social challenges. We need to gather with new ways of thinking, new cultural values, and new ways of organizing society. We have the resources and technology available. We have the ability to present innovative solutions to solve the global challenges that we are facing. We need to bring our international efforts together not only in the mitigation of Climate Change but also provide resources for the adaptation of the impacts of Climate Change. Copenhagen is the most appropriate time to develop an international youth climate movement.

We are in this together,

Esperanza Garcia

Posted on BLOG ACTION DAY October 15, 2009

POSTED BY ESPERANZA GARCIA FROM ECOHOPE BLOG