A Vision Shared: Selene, 25, Italy

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What are the greatest challenges to women's and young people's health and rights?

In a sense, it can be stated that women and young girls normally face just about any major issue afflicting the world at large, ranging from education to health or human rights to sustainable livelihoods.

In this regard, information and empowerment are the keys to uplifting them from ignorance and poverty, in my opinion. As a matter of fact, resilient communities often rely on women for their well-being and peaceful coexistence, and therefore, a lack of opportunities for women to raise their voices and share their concerns results in a missed opportunity to make a community thrive and prosper.

How are you making the world safer and healthier for youth?

In 2005, I launched an organization called Youth Action for Change (YAC), a global, youth-led organization harnessing the power of information and communication technology (ICTs) to inspire and empower young people to become active change-makers in their own communities.

YAC has been the first organization ever to take the peer-to-peer methodology online so as to offer free online courses and other training activities taught by skilled young people. We have run over 14 courses and activities to date, including one on Gender Issues and ensuring that this becomes a transversal theme for other courses as well.

Because of our groundbreaking activities, we have been dubbed 'best practice' for youth empowerment, and have received several praises and awards from organizations such as the UN, the World Bank, Oxfam, Ashoka, Nokia, the Council of Europe, and many others.

To complement our online activities, we are creating on-the-ground projects, starting with a scholarship fund in Benares, India, that will allow 20 destitute children - most of whom are girls - to go to school.

Because of these initiatives and many others, I had the privilege to be selected by MADRE for the "Fighting for our Future: Tribute to Young Women Inspiring Change" honor.

What are you dreams for yourself and for the world's youth?

I would like to see a world where everybody has the same opportunities to create the best life possible for themselves, their families, and their communities.

I would like to see young people have the chance to build a safer, more just, and more equitable world for all.

Most of all, though, I would like to see a world where poverty, injustice, and disparities have become part of the past.

>>Read more submissions from young people worldwide