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Sustainable Development Goals for Global Youth
198 Plays2 years ago
This episode is about the Sustainable Development Goals for Global Youth (SDG4GY Organisation), a youth-led initiative that aims to spread awareness and educate about the SDGs as well as create accessible projects for everyone. Maria Turanova, the founder of SDG4GY, shares insights about accessible projects and the importance of SDGs. We also discuss how can we take action, what are some recent updates and upcoming plans for SDG4GY.
This episode is sponsored by @cubicletoceo Podcast and masterclass. Check it out at http://zen.ai/genzceo
Follow ChangemakerZ https://go.changemakerz.org/follow
Episode's page https://podcast.changemakerz.org/mariaturanova
Maria Turanova social media handles https://lnkfi.re/mariaturanova
Access exclusive content on the ChangemakerZ app at https://app.changemakerz.org
Produced by Vasilis Skarleas
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Transcript
Introduction to Changemaker-Z and SDG4GY
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello everyone, I'm Kennedy. And I'm Vassilis. We run Changemaker-Z, a student-run initiative that aims to empower, educate, and connect Gen Zers interested in entrepreneurship. We interview teenagers with impactful projects and create resources to help you change the world. If they can't do it, so can you.
00:00:23
Speaker
On this podcast, we discuss the logistics of creating different types of projects with Jin Ziers who have already done it. We will leave our social media and website information in the description.
00:00:48
Speaker
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Gen Zers to Rise podcast. Today's episode is about the SDG4GY organization, a youth-led initiative that aims to spread awareness and educate about the SDGs as well as create accessible projects for everyone. With us in the studio is Maria Turinova, the founder of SDG4GY, which stands for Sustainable Development Goals for Global Youth. Maria is interested in international relations and concern for our planet.
00:01:18
Speaker
She has volunteered at organizations such as MUN Impact, Tourette's Syndrome, and Synergy International. What these organizations have in common is that they are all youth-led and aim to educate now a day in youth. The fact that there are a few organizations for youth under 18 to volunteer and force her to start the SDG4GY. Maria, welcome
Motivation Behind SDG4GY
00:01:38
Speaker
to the show. It's so nice to meet you. Thank you so much. It's a great honor for me to be here.
00:01:44
Speaker
So we already talked a little bit about why you started SDG4GY because there wasn't a lot of opportunities for youth volunteers. But what was your motivation? To be honest, it really all started because I was actually a little bit bored in one of my internships over summer. And I thought, okay, let me go online and see what there's out there for me to do.
00:02:09
Speaker
And there wasn't much. Either it was all in the US and I live very far from the US. Or it just wasn't available for people who are under 18. And then I started looking and then I started talking to a few friends.
00:02:25
Speaker
But then like, as I was working on the organization, I started to realize that a lot of youth nowadays don't care about pretty much anything that has to do, like that is not their interest. So they don't care what's going on about like global issues, what's happening with the environment, what is going on in different places. And it just honestly made me kind of upset to see that
00:02:52
Speaker
it is hard to even like talk to these kind of people because it's hard to make them understand why, for example, I go on the weekends to clean up the beach, why my parents and I are so interested in gardening, because they just don't understand and
00:03:11
Speaker
My motivation was to create this organization that has a platform that is really easy and clear for anyone, no matter if you're 14, 12, 10, 25. You can still understand it because it's clear. There's visual images for you to understand.
Leveraging Social Media for Global Education
00:03:32
Speaker
My motivation was really just to educate people and show them that this is what is happening with our world right now. And if we don't act, no one really knows what's going to happen then. So I think that's honestly my prime motivation. And I love that you're doing this through social media too, because I feel like you're saying people don't really care. And I agree. I feel like
00:03:59
Speaker
When we talk about these big issues, you kind of feel like you can't do anything about it. So you don't even really take the time to try to learn about it or, and like, I'm sorry, but Gen Z we're a little bit lazy. I feel like we're a little bit lazy because all of like we grew up in a world of technology and everything is so accessible to us. So if we don't find it in like 2.2 seconds, we're not going to like most of the time take the time to really seek it out sometimes. So I like that it's on social media, like we're already on there.
00:04:29
Speaker
I 100% agree. It's something that, yeah, as a teenager, when I was a bit younger, when I was around maybe 13, 14, I always thought like, Oh, I can't really do anything about it. Okay, I get a tote bag. But like, is that really going to change anything? Not really.
00:04:48
Speaker
But it's just I realized that if we get at least 10 people doing it, then we get those 10 people telling 10 of their friends that we're going to multiply. Those opinions are going to spread and then eventually there will be a certain change. It might be small, it might be big, but it will be a change after all.
00:05:08
Speaker
I would like to ask you something really important for our listeners. We have done an episode before about the SDGs with the De-incentive Trains, but many of the listeners are brand new, so would you like to explain to us what SDGs stands for and what exactly is that?
Understanding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
00:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, so SDGs are Sustainable Development Goals and they were made up by the United Nations or the UN and they are a collection of 17 goals all aiming for different things such as no hunger, zero poverty,
00:05:48
Speaker
gender equality, reduced inequality and it's just those goals that I guess to some people who haven't really learned much about them will sound a bit utopic because they stream for a better world
00:06:05
Speaker
But the main aim of these goals is to achieve at least a certain amount of balance for everyone in the world by 2030. And it doesn't only take care of the human population on this earth, on this planet, but it also takes care of the animals, the coral, the groups, the nature, the trees, everything.
00:06:35
Speaker
So I think, unfortunately, I'm scared to say this, but I don't feel like we will achieve some of these goals by 2030, seeing by how slow the progress is and how so many people are still ignorant.
00:06:50
Speaker
So I actually know the dancing twins. I've talked to them a lot. And I know that they actually made a petition that is actually signed by multiple UN officials to get the SDGs and to get that whole idea and the goals into educative syllabuses and curriculums.
00:07:16
Speaker
teens, kids, learned about them from an early age because it's something that should be in the curriculum. So I know that from my school, we actually did learn about SDGs in PSHE classes. I'm not sure if you guys know what it is, but like personal health. What kind of classes? PSHE. Oh, I've never heard of that. They're basically like personal health, social, economic, education classes.
00:07:46
Speaker
And basically just talks about like different life things. And we actually talk a lot about global citizenship and the SDGs. You know what the world needs right now? More male businesses said no one ever
00:08:11
Speaker
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00:09:46
Speaker
I love that. That's really amazing that they're trying to get that implemented in the schools. I think a problem is that the urgency of these problems are not getting stressed that much because I even forget sometimes it's urgent. This is not something that we can wait because it'll affect our lifetime. It already is some of these sustainable goals.
00:10:11
Speaker
You can't just sit back and wait. Things are changing and can't go back now. And I wanted to ask, what are some of the accessible projects that you have done at SDG4GY?
SDG4GY Projects and Local Impact
00:10:26
Speaker
Well, okay, so at our organization, we kind of split the project idea into two different things. We have ongoing projects that are basically just happening all the time. So it could be a beach cleanup, it could be
00:10:44
Speaker
go out to help some homeless shelters. It could be cook for people who are, well, homeless people. It could be grow like a tree in your garden. And those are our ongoing projects. That means it could be done anywhere in the world, anytime, with anyone, no matter how old you are, with your friends, with your family, by yourself, it doesn't matter. Those are our ongoing projects. And the second
00:11:14
Speaker
I would say the second part is the local projects that we have. And those are a bit more specific and are time-based. So for example, while I was at home with my parents, I had a project that I gathered donations from different teens in the area. And then I ended up donating them to a local foundation, which was called Father Ray Foundation. And they basically supply
00:11:44
Speaker
and take care of kids with special needs and any homeless kid, undocumented, and they give them a home, education, healthcare, food, and of course friends. And I donated different school supplies, books, clothes, and that was the ongoing project that we had over in Thailand for a couple of weeks.
00:12:10
Speaker
And our most recent project, I think just finished a few days ago, was one over in Kazakhstan. We have two members of our organization are actually from Kazakhstan, so they were the ones who were in charge of it. And I think they also gathered donations and donated them to a local thrift store and a local mosque.
00:12:34
Speaker
I love that. It's good. You have different projects around the world, but you also focus on local too. It gets me thinking, what are some different projects I can maybe start around my school? Because I live in North Philadelphia, which is poverty-stricken. It's kind of a low-income area of the neighborhood, so I could definitely think of ways I can make a change.
00:12:59
Speaker
Yeah, like, I know that with my school, I'm hoping on making different projects, for example, like fundraising. And then with all the funds that we've raised, I would go into a shop and buy like sanitary products and menstrual products for like homeless girls and teenagers and women who are in need of those things. But because I live in such an expensive country, they're just not accessible to everyone.
00:13:27
Speaker
So that's a project that I'm really hoping to do with my school. And I mean, if there's anyone who has a project idea and would like it to be spread on social media and that like, if they would like to collaborate with our organization and say like, oh, look, we can do this on behalf of you. I would love it anywhere in the world. But I think another aim of our organization is to
00:13:56
Speaker
kind of give those ideas to people. Like, oh, here's something that you can do in your town or here's something that you can do to help. Like, I'm sure we just released a post about climate change and about the intense heat waves that a lot of countries have been having recently. And there's just like really small things that people just don't really think of because they're so small.
00:14:21
Speaker
So like there's enough, like putting a little bowl of water outside for the wildlife, for the wildlife to get some water. And yeah, I just really hope that we can get a lot of projects started with different schools, different unis, colleges around the world. I think it will be awesome.
00:14:40
Speaker
That's amazing. I'm glad you brought that up because we are going to ask our next customers how people get involved. So you heard her. If you want to check out her site on Instagram, we'll have that link down below, but go get some ideas. You just mentioned that you can do stuff through SDG4. I don't know why that's so hard for me to say. SDG4gy. Okay. Um, but yeah, so you can even start a change at your own school.
00:15:06
Speaker
Yeah, right now we are looking for different partnerships and collaborators. Yeah, so if there's any questions like feel free to email us. I'm sure I'll just send you the email guys. You can email us with any questions you have and I will forward it to our global advocates team who will be in charge of all those partnerships. We're hoping to get partnerships with different schools and colleges
00:15:32
Speaker
And also there's also other ways that people can get involved with our organizations, not only for those projects, but we're constantly looking for new people to join our team. Our applications are always open. They're very easy. They're super quick. We have the social media team, which create our Instagram posts and just other like marketing content.
00:15:57
Speaker
We've also got the global advocates team. They just spread the word, get outreach, get partnerships. And we also got the research and writing team. So that is just articles that are written by university high school students and they get published. And usually those articles are about different goals and their progress in different countries. So that'll be out soon as well. Yeah. And you don't, I didn't, I didn't catch where you're from, but you don't have to be where
00:16:27
Speaker
Maria is you can be remote, right? Yeah, anywhere. It's really we have a team in almost I think every single continent. We have people from Mexico, the United States, Switzerland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Vietnam, it's really international. And for example, in the organization, I only know the co-founder and a few other people who came from my side and who are my friends and who decided to join.
00:16:57
Speaker
But the rest was just they just saw our Instagram page and decided to join so yeah It's really it's pretty much remote and that's what I think makes it so accessible and easy is that you can do it from anywhere and
00:17:11
Speaker
Yeah. I was just, okay, so I was like, cause my school recently had a club there and there was something called period. So guys, follow period movement on Instagram if you're interested in this stuff, because they are also like a global foundation trying to work with, to get free period products. And I honestly, I'd like to have a whole episode on that. Like period products should be free.
00:17:39
Speaker
But yeah, so, because it's an essential need. So I want to ask, do you think that your background with the MUN has led you to be more motivated and take action?
Inspiration from Model United Nations
00:17:52
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. More than 100% it has. At first, when I first moved to the school, I took MUN as a credit because I knew it would look good for universities and I never really thought I would go far with it.
00:18:08
Speaker
But then after my first conference, I think it was in Singapore, I got really interested and I got really actually invested in those global affairs. So I started working a bit more on it and actually my MURAN director helped me out.
00:18:24
Speaker
look for things and that's when I was introduced to MUN Impact and MUN Impact is a really big organization that really blew up during COVID because they were giving free mentoring sessions about MUN and their main focus is actually the sustainable development goals and I think that working in that organization I worked as a mentor for those kids and then a lead mentor and then I was
00:18:53
Speaker
co-deputy secretary general of the European region and our job was just basically managing people who would get outreach in Europe and it has really inspired me to take steps a bit further with MUN and that's when I wrote I think a 40-page MUN guide
00:19:16
Speaker
and I realized that MUNMI school should be more student-led and that's when I contacted my MUN director and made a decision to make the club more student-led with having me running it instead of the MUN director and making it a bit more fun and yeah, making it a bit more fun and relax not having it as a proper class.
00:19:45
Speaker
And then I decided to take a step even further this summer and decided to make my organization because I was always interested in doing something but again as I said I couldn't really find anything to do in my age so I decided to make something that would be accessible to everyone.
00:20:08
Speaker
Amazing, amazing. So you created that, there wasn't a door, you created it for yourself, which I love. That's also, so I think that's, you know, kind of reminds me of like Lin Manuel Miranda, you know, there wasn't a space here and so he created the space, so.
00:20:24
Speaker
I want to ask you kind of, and like for our final kind of question, where do you see, where do you want or where do you see SDG, 4G, Y in the future?
Vision for SDG4GY's Future Growth
00:20:36
Speaker
And was there like, you know, anything else you want to share with us today?
00:20:40
Speaker
Yeah, well, for the future, I just really hope to see this organization go far, go big, just get so many more people participating and just find those like youth that want to do something but just don't know how and kind of like push them into that world of taking action and
00:21:00
Speaker
becoming activists, standing up for what you think. And I just, I think that in the future, SDG for Dubai will definitely have tons of projects going on at the same time in so many different parts of the world. I know that for university, I'm hoping on continuing with this project idea and taking action, taking steps forward with education. That's something that I'm really interested in is quality education.
00:21:30
Speaker
and I'm really hoping on traveling the world and, you know, donating things, helping out, trying to do my best to make an impact in this world. And something else that I want to say, but it's probably a little advice for young people, especially the teens who would like to take actions that are really scared of what other people would think, and my advice is just don't listen to them.
Advice for Young Activists
00:21:55
Speaker
Don't listen to what other people say. There will always be people who will doubt you, question you, or even envy you, but you can't really do anything about that. If you keep listening to them and just, you know, taking in all their negative advice, then you won't go anywhere. You won't make an impact. You won't be anything. But if you just decide one day that you stop listening to them and you'll move on, you'll make something really fun.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah, and there's always, there'll be tons of people that will be supporting you. It's just like, you'll be prepared for such like a wonderful experience and such an amazing adventure. So I just did not listen.
00:22:37
Speaker
Thank you so much for sharing your inside truth thoughts. That's really, really important. And I think that all the listeners are very welcome for you to share your thoughts. I think that this is the end of the episode. Thank you very much, Maria, for being with us today and sharing your thoughts around your blood organizations and the impact of the SDT or GY. Thank you very much.
00:23:03
Speaker
So don't forget to install the Daint Maker Z app, the social change output density that features exclusive content from our friends at red.com, several other resources and our podcast episodes. But until next time, do not forget to change the world. Bye!
00:23:31
Speaker
Thank you guys for listening. We hope you enjoyed the conversation. We had such a great time. Make sure to leave us a review. If you want more Changemakers content, you can follow us on Instagram at JinsearsToRise and on Facebook at ChangemakersEAT.