Claudia is a lawyer who also holds an Honours Diploma in Humanities. She has a Master of Laws, with an emphasis on international law and reproductive health, from the University of Toronto, Canada. Claudia has been an active advocate for youth and women's sexual and reproductive rights for over ten years, both at the local and international level. She has worked as a legal intern at the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), in Washington DC, as well as at the Center for Reproductive Rights and as a human rights researcher in Chile. Since 2008, she has worked at the World AIDS Campaign. Her experience in the Youth Coalition, from 1999 to 2009 has continuously inspired her to work on human rights issues following the principle of involvement and leadership by those most affected.

Imene Ben Ameur, 24, is a medical intern in Tunisia, Faculty of Medicine of Tunis. She has been involved in the HIV/AIDS related issues during the 5 past years. Nationally, through her medical students’ Association (Associa-Med) being the National Officer on Reproductive Health including AIDS for 2 years and internationally in IFMSA (International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations) for which she is currently the Director on Reproductive Health including AIDS (SCORA director).

Imene was also one of the founding members of Y-PEER (Youth Peer Education Network) in her country working closely with UNFPA in youth and reproductive health issues during the past 3 years. Currently she is one of the national focal points of Y-PEER having an extensive experience in peer education as a trainer of trainers as well as a theatre based peer education trainer.  She was also one of the founding members of the Youth advisory panel attached to UNFPA which advocates for young people’s Sexual and reproductive rights.

Imene was also the youngest member of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) which is the national network coordinating the global fund project for the fight against HIV/AIDS in Tunisia. She participated in several conferences and trainings either in the field of peer education or youth sexual and reproductive rights in different countries and was a trainer in many opportunities. Her main fields of work include HIV/AIDS prevention, youth sexual and reproductive health and rights but also support of the PLWHIV/AIDS and gender issues. Imene joined Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights in 2008.

Currently, she is continuing her medical studies intending to specialize on HIV/AIDS area and in the meantime working on peer education trainings either with her NGO or with the ministry of health.

Having the unique opportunity to make great friends from all over the world, whilst working on issues you are passionate about is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The YC was my opportunity. The skills and space that YC gives its members to grow and take the lead and initiative in projects and direct what areas of work we’ll prioritise is great. In other organisations that I am part of people often say “we are doing/facing x,y and z – you probably won’t have experience of that”, but then I think back to what I have worked on in YC and I can say, yes I have: organisational development, governance, strategic planning, management, designing and delivering trainings, leadership etc. These skills and experiences will help me in everything that I come to be involved in, I am sure of that. 

I am currently a Barrister practising in human rights law in London. I will never stop working on YC issues and I hope one day to focus my work as a lawyer on sexual and reproductive health and rights issues. I maintain a strong national involvement in human rights, sexual health and reproductive issues. I was appointed as a lay member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (the UK’s regulator for assisted reproductive technologies) where I sit on the Ethics and Law Advisory Group. I am a member of the Executive Committee of the Human Rights Lawyers Association and vice-chair of Brook London – an organisation that provides free sexual health services to young people across the city. I have an LL.M in Human Rights Law and a BA in History and have interned at the United Nations Foundation and the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Svenn Miki Grant has dedicated the last 11 years to working on issues of sexual and reproductive rights, with a special focus on condom promotion and achieving access to comprehensive sexuality education, as well as activism and advocacy to ensure that these rights are realized by young people internationally.

Currently serving as the Director of Outreach Services at the YMCA of TT, Svenn is responsible for projects related to HIV education, prevention and advocacy, and gender and non-violence programming targeting men and boys.  Additionally, in this role, he has developed a working partnership with UNFPA through which he facilitated an international peer educator training on gender and advocacy in St Lucia, presented a paper to Gender Bureaus in Grenada, and served as a panelist for the satellite session Comprehensive Condom Programming: So Much Potential, So Little Progress in Mexico City 2008 at the International AIDS Conference.  Through his position at the YMCA, Svenn has also established a strong partnership with the University of the West Indies’ Centre for Gender and Development Studies, sitting on a Project Advisory Committee for the faculty’s Breaking the Silence research project on child abuse. Additionally, Svenn is a member of the UNIFEM facilitated Working Group on Masculinities, Gender Equality and Social Policy.

In addition to his work with the YMCA, Svenn co-produces and presents the radio show Reality Check on Power 102FM. Prior to this, he co-produced and presented a season of the TV special New Voices on a local Trinidadian station.  As part of the show, he also played a fictional character called “Condom Man”, promoting condoms during the Carnival festivities on the islands.

Previously, Svenn was an active member of Advocates for Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (AYSRHR) and the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (YC).  In 2003, he gained significant media attention for taking the lead on AYSRHR’s attempt to lobby the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to provide comprehensive sex education at the secondary school level.  Soon after, he joined the YC where he served as member from July 2004 to August 2008. Svenn chaired the Task Force for the Caribbean Advocacy Workshop (CAW) in 2006 and served as a trainer for the CAW in Trinidad and Tobago.  He also led trainings at the International Youth Forum in Buenos Aires in 2005 and the National Abortion Advocacy Workshop in Trinidad and Tobago in 2007. In 2004, Svenn represented the YC at the Global Roundtable ICPD at 10 in London, facilitating a workshop on youth activism for sexual and reproductive rights.

Svenn Grant is a committed activist for social justice, dedicated to working towards making the rights of all people a reality.

I was a member of the Youth Coalition between 2006 and 2008. My work within the organization focused mostly on LGBTQ and feminist issues. I was member and co-chair of the LGBTQ TF and in 2007 I was involved on the part of the Youth Coalition in organizing the conference “Multigenerational Feminist Dialogue” that took place at Rutgers University, NJ.

Besides the work with the Youth Coalition, since 2004 I have been a volunteer, active member, and in 2007 elected as member of the Board of Directors of Accept Romania– human rights organization working on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues. Since 2005 I am also a member of the Romanian feminist group Ladyfest Collective/FIA Romania - women’s rights initiative group that organizes different cultural, artistic and activist events among which Ladyfest Romania and the first "Take Back the Night" march in Bucharest.

Even though my academic background – design – doesn’t second my interest for human rights issues, through involvement into volunteering activities I acquired not only skills and experience in working with people at this level but also a lot of important values within a multicultural environment, a wider view on global human rights issues and a better understanding of what it means to be political and how can one influence and contribute to social change. This are tools that I believe imprinted me with responsibility to be an active citizen of the world and with commitment to turning myself into “the change that [I] want to see in the world”.

Being a member of the Youth Coalition played an important role in learning all that but most importantly it played an important role in developing confidence to advocate for things that I believe in and in providing me the opportunity to meet admirable activists that changed my entire perspectives in life.

Shannon is currently a Program Officer at the Open Society Institute, where she works to strengthen the involvement of civil society in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s governance and program implementation. She is a member of the delegation representing Private Foundations on the Global Fund's Board of Directors and serves on the Partnership Forum Steering Committee. At OSI, she is currently leading an initiative to increase the flow of Global Fund resources to meet women’s and girls’ HIV prevention, treatment, care and support needs, including increased access to sexual and reproductive health services and information. Before joining OSI, she was Program Officer for Global Advocacy at Family Care International where she advocated for policies that protect women’s and young people’s sexual and reproductive rights at the international and regional levels. Prior to that, she worked as an International Program Assistant at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She holds a BA, summa cum laude, in human rights and international development from Hunter College, the City University of New York and is studying for a Masters in Public Administration in Health Policy and Management (International) at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service.  Being a member of the YC changed her life by giving her the skills, experience and confidence to be an advocate and leader.

Maiden “Med” Manzanal is an ex Ycer from the Philippines, a social development professional in the area of women’s rights and development, sexuality and reproductive health and rights, and project management and research, and international advocacy.

 As a Youth Coalition member, Maiden has participated in a number of advocacy works for sexual and reproductive health and rights and young women’s rights at the United Nations headquarters in New York. She participated at the major conferences and meetings for ICPD+10 and Beijing+10 regional reviews, the MDG Summit of the Millennium Declaration and HIV/AIDS UNGASS Declaration of Commitment. With the Youth Coalition, she implemented external regional trainings for young people at the Asia Pacific Advocacy Training for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Young People (Bangkok 2003), and the Preparatory Training of Youth Advocates for Beijing+10 (New York, 2004)

 Maiden served as the YC's Board Secretary for two consecutive terms from 2003-2005.

At present, she is based in the Philippines as Program Manager for the regional network of 91 fair trade organizations from all over Asia that capacitates its members to access mainstream markets for its fair trade products. She travels regularly to Asian countries as part of her networking and training functions.

I joined the YC right from the start, as a volunteer of the Dutch Council on Youth and Population (now CHOICE) at the ICPD+5 Youth Forum in The Hague, 1999. Some of us met there and in the years to come, and we all agreed that SRHR is too important to let adults decide over without including us, and we stayed in touch.  

For many years, the Youth Coalition was my life. I worked for YC day and night, literally. It influenced everything I did, including doing my Masters thesis on perceptions of sexuality of teenagers in a slum in Costa Rica. It was extremely challenging to overcome lack of funds, lack of understanding of how to set up an organization, cultural and language differences, lack of internet access, diverse expectations. But the energy I got when together, when influencing UN agencies, NGOs and donor countries, when meeting other progressive youth, always won.  

Since YC (and partially during YC) I have worked for the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) as Campaign Coordinator, been involved in the People’s Health Movement, and worked on participatory youth research at a Dutch research NGO (Stichting Alexander). I am currently living in Bangkok with my husband and daughter, Tara, and working as Youth Specialist at UNFPA Asia and Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok. I continue to advocate for ASRH and youth participation, and have supported the establishment and functioning of a national Youth Advisory Panel for UNFPA while working in Pakistan during the past 2 years.  

If there is anyone that can change the world, it must be the Youth Coalition.

Since I aged out the YC I have focused my work mostly to develop local work.  The organization I collaborate with had opened a major program to work with indigenous populations in México and we have opened a Center to promote Sustainable Development that we called TOTALMANIK what in nahuatl means "our land" in a small town in the Sierra of Puebla called Cuetzalan.

I'm still involved in SRHR field, I'm not doing advocacy directly but I'm developing and implementing trainings for young people and women about human rights, gender equity, SRR and citizenship what in many ways ends in promoting advocacy activities, targeting the Municipal Government and the Puebla State Government. I.e, this year we are supporting the launching of a Young Indigenous people network of promoters of SRR issues that has as one of their objectives to become interlocutors with the government to advance indigenous youth SRR.

Besides the training activities (on line and in person) in developing I am involved in knowledge generation work, I coordinate the Gender Violence and Social Marginalization Observatory for the Northern Sierra of Puebla, which is a place where we compile and produce qualitative and quantitative data, we are an interface between civil society and government and we provide support to people attending their requests and redirecting them (to NGOs, public institutions, specialists…)  when necessary.

In 2006 I was invited to be part of IPAS Board of Directors and I have been very honored collaborating what means a lot for me because within the themes related to SRR, legal and accessible access to abortion services is the one I am more committed with.

How YC affected me and my life?  Well YC was not part of my life for 7 years, it was "my full life", I got there experience and knowledge, professional contacts, friends, HISTORY.  Without doubt it will be one of the most loved and rich experiences of my life. Professionally it gave me experiences that helped and still helps me to develop the work I do and to be able to interact with so many people from civil society, governments, agencies, etc., also opened me a wide range of opportunities that are very useful now and in the future.

Beside this, YC gave me the experience of growing unforgettable relations of sisterhood, love, and union with people that have been important in my life and that most of them are still close to me and we share friendship and care even the geographical distance.  YC is like a ray of the sun that will always be with me.

After retiring from the Youth Coalition in November of 2005, I was invited by International Planned Parenthood Federation – Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF-WHR) to create an advocacy strategy for the organization and to collaborate with them as Advocacy Officer. For that reason, I moved from Mexico City to New York to commit to this new challenge.

The transition into working at IPPF was an extraordinary way to move from the youth activism to the adult movement, and it has given me the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills I gained through my work with the Youth Coalition and as a young activist to one of the largest sexual and reproductive health organizations in the world. Recently I was promoted to IPPF WHR Deputy-Director of Public Affairs, where I am responsible for the development, coordination and implementation of IPPF WHR Public Affairs strategy, including their Advocacy and communications strategies.

Being part of the Youth Coalition has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. From the YC I learned the following: the importance of taking the time needed to set strong foundations; that cultural differences can be challenging, but are above all, an asset; that you can do very serious work and have the time of your life at the same time; and most importantly, I have learned that we really can change the world if we commit to it.

Before the YC was officially established, I was active as “YC volunteer” during the 8th Canadian Conference on International Health in Ottawa in October 2001, where I presented my Masters research on peer-influence and reproductive health among young people in Dakar, Senegal. I then became active for the YC as member and SC-member until end 2005. My resignation from the YC was one of the most difficult decisions in my life, as I could not dedicate enough time anymore to YC-issues and be the active member whom I wanted to be.

Currently, I am living in Lusaka, Zambia, with my husband and I am working as Project Coordinator with the WorldFish Center, on a regional project on Fisheries and HIV/AIDS. The focus of this work is on mobility, access to HIV/AIDS related services and nutrition security of fisher folk and female fish traders in different countries in Sub Sahara Africa. Each project country has a component on national policy influence to ensure that the highly vulnerable people involved in fishing and fish trade are targeted in the national responses to HIV/AIDS.

The tough but rewarding working attitude in the YC has shaped me and thought me what it means to work day and night for the good cause. This passion for important issues such as young people’s rights has remained with me and I recognize it with a few people in my current working life. However, I will never come across a group as diverse and unique, yet unified as the YC. I especially appreciated the way in which the YC as a group welcomed and respected differences in culture, opinion, sexual orientation and choice, and how we made a strength out of this diversity. While I learned a lot throughout my time with the YC, I was also able to guide new members into the YC, which strengthened my mentoring skills. Through the YC, I have met so many inspiring young people and made some friends for life!

My journey in the world of reproductive and sexual health has been a bit topsy turvey. I started out doing international advocacy with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, later on became involved with the Youth Coalition and now work almost entirely at a national grass roots level with young people.

Aging out of the Youth Coalition coincided with me finishing my PhD on youth participation and moving from Scotland back to England. I now try to put the bits and bobs I have learnt on the way into practice in my work in the east of England. I am involved in various different types of sexual health work – my two jobs are running an intensive group work project with young men under 18 who become trainers on sexual health and rights and secondly, coordinating a programme that makes sexually transmitted infection screening services available to young people. I am vice chair of a charity supporting young LBG people (www.2byouth.co.uk). In all these roles I am still heavily involved in advocacy as although sometimes I feel we are getting somewhere, young people’s sexual rights still continues to face age old barriers.

I follow the work of the Youth Coalition with fondness from the sidelines and through my avid following of the ISRRC emails! Being part of the Youth Coalition taught me a huge amount, not just in terms of the subject area but how an international network of youth volunteers can sustain itself and produce results. I miss the network a lot but continue to hope people will look the old timer (me) up when they come through London.

Sonu experienced her first snow at around 3am one February night in a car that skidded ever so often on the highway between The Hague and Rotterdam. She was making the print run for the first edition of the ICPD+5 youth newspaper. First, our headlights caught the odd snowflake, and then the dark sky began dumping some serious powder right onto our windscreen. It was magical, and so was Sonu’s journey with the YC. The YC and Sonu: In a sentence, her memories are of the Watchdog, all-night negotiations and lobbying at the UN, the nine-month committee, cold but hugely productive meetings in Ottawa and Montreal, the Network for Asia-Pacific Youth and some kick-ass lobbying. Today, four years after she aged out of the YC, Sonu is switching from her old career – journalism – to a new one that is on the frontier of social impact and finance. In 2005-‘06, she left her last position in journalism as the City Editor for The Indian Express in Mumbai, to study a dual degree in the US. A Master in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, and a Master in Business Administration at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She has one more year of education to go. She is passionate about SRR and women’s rights advocacy, and her key area of interest is domestic violence, albeit as an academic endeavor. YC has had a profound impact in shaping her worldview, the course of her life, and the way she approaches issues related to social impact. It has given her invaluable skills of leadership, negotiations and crisis-management. It has also given her a set of invaluable friends and experiences – like her first snow –that she will cherish forever.

Erin McGinn holds an MA from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (Ottawa, Canada). After graduate school, she spent a year working in Singapore and Indonesia. In October 1998 she started working for ACPD and participated in the ICPD+5 Youth Forum in the Hague and the ICPD+5 meetings in New York. The Youth Coalition emerged from this process and when it was permanently established in the summer of 1999, Erin and Maria Antoineta Alcalde (Mexico) were elected as the first co-chairs of the Steering Committee. In 2002, Erin moved to North Carolina (USA) to work with Family Health International (FHI). Erin stayed involved in the YC until she “aged out” in October 2002.

Currently, Erin is the Associate Director of Research Utilization and leads a team called Research to Practice. Her team’s role is to bridge researchers and practitioners in an effort to promote evidence-based policies and programs in reproductive health. Her team works with ministries of health and service delivery NGOs to adopt and adapt best practices, and ensures that the needs of the field are reflected in FHI’s research agenda. Erin provides technical assistance on research utilization, advocacy, gender, and long acting and permanent methods (LAPMs). She also helps coordinate a working group on IUDs under USAID’s Maximizing Access and Quality (MAQ) Initiative (see www.iudtoolkit.org). In over six years at FHI, Ms. McGinn has worked on activities in and traveled to Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mali, and India.

To this day, the YC is one of her most valuable experiences. Her involvement in the YC fostered her skills in leadership, consensus-building, and organizational development. Erin is very proud the YC is still going strong 10 years later.