MONROVIA — A young Liberian Social Justice Advocate and Award-winning Entrepreneur, Ruth T. Farkollie, was on Thursday, January 13, 2022, selected as Liberia’sYouth Ambassador to the UN Youth Assembly.
The Youth Assembly is a program of AFS Intercultural Programs, a nonprofit organization based in the United States and officially affiliated with the UN Department of Global Communications, and has consultative status with UNESCO and ECOSOC.
The Youth Assembly is a conference that provides a unique platform for cross-sectoral dialogue and partnership between youth, civil society, private sector, academia, and international organizations. It seeks to empower youth from over 120 countries to become active agents of change for sustainable development.
Miss. Farkollie volunteered at the Youth Assembly in 2020 and it shaped her personality and interest in global youth development. Since then, she has joined various campaigns aimed at addressing quality education, human rights and sexual gender-based violence, youth unemployment, and environmental sustainability.
In 2020, she served as the Head of Finance and Logistics of the Affiliation of Children and Women Rights Advocates in Liberia. In her role, she led fundraising strategies and mobilized resources to support a national movement demanding the Government of Liberia to declare rape a national emergency, address issues of SGBV, and strengthen the justice system.
After three days of national protests, the Governmentof Liberia declared rape a national emergency and designed a framework to end rape in Liberia. They also increased access to justice in rural communities to mitigate SGBV.
During the heat of the COVID-19 crisis in Liberia, Ruth also led a campaign with other young Liberians called the Super Heroes Fund Drive and supported health workers with Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs). This action enhanced medical response in the fight against COVID in Liberia as they engaged citizens through a 1 million mask-up campaign to reduce the spread of the virus and support personal safety.
“In her role as a Youth Ambassador, Ruth quotes “I look forward to building upon my experiences and representing Liberian youth effectively by leading initiatives around the Sustainable Developments Goals(SDGs) that support social justice, reduced inequalities, promote inclusion, and enable empowerment. Beyond that, I will also support the registration and nomination of Liberian applicants to participate in the Youth Assembly,” she vowed.
Ruth’s assertion comes in recognition of the limited number of Liberian participants in global events due to limited information and lack of knowledge on application and registration procedures. Ruth represents a generation of young women leading exemplarily and breaking barriers for others to access opportunities; she aspires for a career in corporate law and social entrepreneurship.