Insightful voices from youth affected by conflicts

We want to reach out and help other children, in our communities, children from other parts of the conflict, or children in other countries. We want you to support our groups, organizations, networks and parliaments in our work and our efforts to  contribute to change. We want more opportunities to take part in making decisions that affect us. We ask that you empower us and our organizations – our youth councils, networks, groups and organizations,  children’s parliaments and other youth-driven groups – to be able to participate in a way that counts in all decisions that affect us. We do not want to be called in when you have already made the decisions. We  want to work hand in hand with you.
“What we want” – Coral Statement

NGO/UN have been working in our areas, supporting us. They are all leaving too soon, and this is making everything worse.
Young woman, 18, Sri Lanka

We are often used to make war, but almost never included in making peace.
– Coral Statement

We want to be part of peace and reconciliation in our communities. We have ideas to push peace forward. We want to sit with you and discuss how to reconcile our communities,  rebuild and develop our countries.
– Coral Statement

Those of us who make it to refugee camps and other settlements often find ourselves treated without any  respect. We sometimes lose hope and wonder why the world fails to  understand or accept us.
– Coral Statement

Many of us are giving up our time and energy without expecting compensation. All we want is real change so that what we have been through does not happen to the generations to come.
– Coral Statement

Those of us who try to live in a new culture feel unwelcome. People in the host communities sometimes say we  are not fit to play with their children. Even the teachers in the  schools sometimes refuse to teach us or to treat us the same as the  local kids. Some of us even feel like going back to our communities to join the fighting forces, just to feel like we belong somewhere.
– Coral Statement

In some of our countries, sexual violence is so widespread it has become normalized. People accept it as part of everyday life, something they can’t do anything about. What kind of a world are we living in if we accept rape as normal?
– Coral Statement

Joining violence is sometimes the only way to survive and protect our families. We need another way.
– Coral Statement

Those of us who are old enough want to get jobs, but these wars deprive us of opportunities to get the training we need to get them. When organizations come into our communities, they assume they know what skills we want. So many of us end up learning the same thing and find that our new trade is not useful in our community. Why don’t you ask us what we need?
– Coral Statement

We feel and understand what’s happening, so we want to do something to change it.
– Age and sex not specified, Indonesia

Joining violence is sometimes the only way to survive and protect our families. We need another way.
“We just want to be children” – Coral Statement