Tyson Suzuki of O’ahu and Denise Della of Maui, accompanied by adviser Nicole Sutton of the Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i, are among four youths who will be representing the United States at the 2006 Global Youth Meeting in New
Tyson Suzuki of O’ahu and Denise Della of Maui, accompanied by adviser Nicole Sutton of the Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i, are among four youths who will be representing the United States at the 2006 Global Youth Meeting in New Delhi, India, Nov. 14-19.
Suzuki and Della have served as youth leaders under the guidance of Sutton as project director for REAL, the Hawai‘i Youth Movement Against the Tobacco Industry.
They were recruited for this opportunity because of their years of experience in tobacco control in Hawai‘i as well as mobilization of other young people around global tobacco activism, including a march and rally at the World Conference on Tobacco Control and Global Youth Advocacy Training in Washington, D.C., in July.
The other two U.S. youth representatives are from Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The first-ever Global Youth Meeting on Health is being organized by Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth and Student Health Action Network and is sponsored by the World Health Organization, the World Bank and many other internationally recognized health organizations.
Thirty-six nations are expected to participate with four youths and one adult representing each country.
At this meeting, Suzuki, Della and Sutton will be responsible for designing and delivering training about youth tobacco control initiatives and projects.
They will work on advocacy projects related to different health topics including diet and nutrition, reproductive health, physical activity promotion and avoidance of addictions as well as environmental protection and conflict resolution.
Activities will include debate sessions, discussions with policy-makers and drafting advocacy documents, which will be forwarded to relevant national government authorities.
At the conclusion of the meeting, youths will decide on one health theme and a plan of action that they will take home to implement at a national level during 2006-07.
To ensure ongoing networking and mentoring after the global meeting, an interactive e-forum and Web site will be set up specifically for this purpose.
Suzuki, Della and Sutton were invited to Lucknow, India prior to the GYM to collaborate with local youth and anti-tobacco advocates on a youth advocacy training and several tobacco control youth activism project.
This has been arranged through Essential Action Partnerships for Global Tobacco Control in Washington, D.C.
Support for their participation was provided by the Hawai‘i Community Foundation Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund and the University of Hawai‘i’s Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i.
REAL was started in 2000 with a group of about 15 youths from Hawai‘i and initially directed by former Cancer Research Center researcher Karen Glanz, Ph.D., and more recently by Cancer Center researcher David O’Riordan, Ph.D. Aside from its early funding from the American Legacy Foundation, majority support for REAL has been provided through the Hawai‘i Community Foundation by Tobacco Settlement dollars from the State Department of Health and Tobacco Prevention Trust Fund.
Today REAL is comprised of approximately 3,000 youths across the Hawaiian Islands. They are charged with planning, developing and implementing youth-relevant anti-tobacco activities in their own island communities, under the guidance of an adult leader.
Since its inception, tobacco rates among youths in Hawai‘i have significantly declined from approximately 24 percent to less than 13 percent, as reported by Youth Tobacco Survey data.
