“The High-level meeting and Launch of Youth to Combatting NTDs was for me an opportunity to get to directly interact with highly influential people in the NTDs field such as Dr. Mwele Malecela, the Director of NTD control department at WHO Geneva and the Director of Uniting to Combat NTDs, Mrs. Thoko Pooley. This proved to me that policymakers and leaders are finally giving the Youth a place at their table and are considering innovative ideas coming from young people. This was just the beginning; the aim is to engage even heads-of-state to pledge their commitment to combat NTDs during the next decade which aligns with SDG 3.3. It is also a good way of giving the youth ownership of the NTD burden affecting them. The youth is almost 65% of the African population and they are the ones who suffer most from NTDs. 

In addition to the Youth Combating NTDs movement, the End the Neglect Campaign was launched, spearheaded by the Uniting to Combat NTDs and Future Africa Forum. I couldn’t endorse this initiative more – to first raise the awareness of our population. As young people, especially on the African continent where more than 500 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa suffer from NTDs, we should not accept that these conditions stay in the dark. We need to educate ourselves and our communities about them. I believe that achieving the control, elimination, and eradication of NTDs will be the right test to see if we achieved universal health coverage and equity in healthcare as they affect the most marginalized population.”