Meet our WHO CEHAPE Youth Network Coordinator, David Rivett

My name is David Rivett. It was at the beginning of 2009 that the WHO Europe Environment and Health programme asked me to work with the WHO CEHAPE Youth Network in their preparations for the participation of Network members at the 5th Ministerial Conference for Environment and Health. I was very pleased to say yes because it brought me full circle in the series of Environment and Health Ministerial Conferences.

I was responsible for the same task at the 4th Ministerial Conference which was held in Budapest in 2004 and where the CEHAPE was launched. At that time I worked in the WHO Young People’s Health programme and had been involved in young people’s participation in several initiatives such as the WHO health promoting schools programme and the 2001 Stockholm Ministerial Conference on Alcohol and Young People.

Young people’s participation has been a theme throughout my career which began when I was a teacher in the UK and continued when I became a youth worker and then responsible for drug prevention and health promotion programmes for young people in a region of South East London. Later my role expanded to include responsibility for national programmes.

Young people’s participation in the CEHAPE is now firmly established and the CEHAPE Youth Network’s participation at the Parma Conference is another opportunity to strengthen the Network’s national and international role in the Action Plan.

I am enjoying working with the Network members, who are planning to not only participate fully in the Conference programme but also to prepare a work plan for their future activities following up on the Conference outcomes.

Alina Bezhenar, my history of involvement in the CEHAPE

I think that CEHAPE is part of my biography now. Since I was 16 years old I have been involved. The development of CEHAPE has been a long and interesting process. Every day I am becoming more and more inspired by it.
In June 2004 I was a Youth Delegate at the 4th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in Budapest. Since that time I could not imagine my life without my input into youth participation. CEHAPEplays an important part in my activities.
In 2007 I was selected to be an International CEHAPE Youth Delegate. Since that time I have participated in High Level Preparations for the 5th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in Parma, 10-12th of March 2010.
Now I am coordinating the preparations for the CEHAPE Youth Network’s participation at the Parma Conference.

Kyle Worgan, my history of involvement in the CEHAPE

Hello! My name is Kyle Worgan. I have been involved in the CEHAPE/ Health Environment and Youth Process since Luxemburg 2007. I was elected as an International Youth Representative at the IMR meeting in Vienna 2007 and am very committed to achieve positive changes and outcomes in European Environment and Health. Environment, Transport and Health has always been the topic that I am most passionate about. Prior to the CEHAPE process I was part of my schools Pupil Council, then I also became part of my Local Authority. I found this work particularly rewarding as I could meet with individuals and help them with their problems. I was then elected to the National Youth parliament and helped lead talks in the Environment and Transport Committee, lobbying the government, which achieved a Ј30 million investment to lower the cost of public transport for young people in Scotland. I have worked closely with the UK government in creating the CEHAPE strategy for the UK which is now a green paper. I have also been representing the network and its views at many European meetings like the EEHC and the CEHAPE task force. For the Future I strongly believe in the network becoming a more independent, semi-autonomous, organisation continuing to have an input in high level meetings working with governments and organisations to ultimately attain a better life for the children and people of Europe.

Jovana Dodos, my history of involvement in the CEHAPE

My name is Jovana Dodos and I am a member of Government committee for establishing Children Environment and Health Action Plan in Republic of Serbia since May 2008. I was Serbian Youth Delegate on United Nations Youth Assembly „Global Road Safety” in Geneva in 2007. where I became a youth ambassador in UN. After that I have shown great results in implementation of Youth Declaration for Road Safety in my country and I was invited to join CEHAPE team. Since then I am in charged with duties of Secretary for Regional Priority Goal 2 on accidents, injuries and improvement of physical activity of children. I also work as an assistant for road safety campaign. In summer 2008 my job was to organize a Youth preparatory meeting for the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in Serbia and I got an excellent opportunity to join CEHAPE International Youth Network. I became CEHAPE International Youth Representative and from that period I took a part in different kinds of conferences and youth meeting related with Environment and Health issue on European level. I am highly motivated to continue with my present work and I hope I will have much more opportunities to collaborate with WHO in future. Nowadays Environmental issues are one of the most important things to consider, and I want to play an active role in finding appropriate solutions for them.

Ildiko Almasi, my history of involvement in the CEHAPE

My name is Ildikó Almási but everyone calls me simply Alma since nursery. I got in contact with the CEHAPE process and youth participation in 2004 during the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Health and Environment. The Hungarian Ministry of Health wrote a tender searching for 10 young people with interest in environment and health to coordinate the work of the first youth parlaiment, and I applied for the position. Fortunately they chose me as a memeber of this youth group. In the frame of the conference they introduced the Budapest Declaration and the CEHAPE to us which are very important documents from the view of youth participation. Since then I’ve been involved in the process as a national youth delegate, buti n 2007 in the Luxemburgh meeting I applied to be elected as international youth representative. This meant hard work in a small group to create and ellaborate on the Youth Friendly CEHAPE which was launched in 2007 during the Intergovernmental Midterm Review. The elections of our network took place there as well, where we (Alina, Rena, Kyle and me) were appointed. Since then I’ve been representing the network on an international level participating in the meetings of the European Environment and Health Comittee and the CEHAPE task force. I’m very dedicated to this work and in my future i can imagine working in collaboration with WHO further on projects like CEHAPE.