A dialogue with Abraham Keita - Children´s Peace Prize laureate 2015

Last Friday, 11^th December, my friend Praise and I attended an event in Leiden, the Netherlands.   The event was organized by Defense for Children and we got to meet Abraham Keita who won the Children’s Peace Prize in November 2015.  Abraham Keita is an amazing youngster from Liberia who has done countless things to help his and others’ communities.  He is also an inspiring person who believes that children have the right to do what they believe is best for them.  When he was 9 years old he heard a story of a random girl who was raped, tortured, and killed.  The story made him realize that this time it happened to a girl whom he did not know at all but it could soon happen to his friends, cousins, and sisters if this issue was not stopped.  This whole incident inspired him to start a campaign against this problem and there were 500 children who joined him.  As a child he was always very passionate and he believes that everyone (especially children) can make a difference in the world.

[caption id="attachment_203" align="alignnone" width="300"] Defense for Children[/caption]

 

I had some really inspiring moments talking to some young university students who were social entrepreneurs with extreme passion to help others and to work towards their dreams.  Most of them are quite young but they all work really hard hoping to change and make the world a better place. They are people who see problems in their society as something that needs to be solved and they take initiative to show the world what they want to happen.  This really inspires me to live my life fully and to serve others with what I have. It also shows me that if these people can make a difference in life, so can I.

I realized that somehow some of us don’t think our YSE class is useful but I come to really appreciate what it has taught me and how important it is to everyone and the society we live in.  I am really grateful to have this opportunity to remind myself of what I have taken for granted.

Ahai Vang (Laos)