Supported by UNICEF, 5M young warriors to renew hope amidst India's second COVID-19 wave

With the support of UNICEF, young people, YuWaah and over 100 Coalition Partners across the Government, Civil Society, UN Agencies, and Private Sector, have activated the #YoungWarrior Movement. This aims to catalyse a pan-India movement to engage five million young warriors to take a lead in India’s battle against COVID-19. 

The #YoungWarrior movement, led by young people, will see them mobilise, connect, learn, lead, influence, and take action to accelerate the response and return to normalcy.

Dr Yasmin Ali Haque, UNICEF Representative in India and Co-Chair of YuWaah, said, “A devastating second wave of COVID-19 is sweeping across India, and young people have taken on an urgent call to action in the fight against it. YuWaah, as a multi- stakeholder coalition, is ideally positioned to meaningfully partner with these young people to combat COVID-19 with the knowledge they need to keep their families and neighbourhoods safe,” she said, announcing the activation.

YuWaah was formed by UNICEF, together with public and private sector partners, UN Agencies, civil society organisations, foundations and young people as the Generation Unlimited (GenU) partnership in India in 2019.

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Meanwhile, UNICEF’s global Special Representative of Young People, Ravi Venkatesan said, “UNICEF has assembled a powerful ecosystem of partners from civil society, government and private sector who are coming together in an extraordinary way to support the #YoungWarrior movement. We hope to convincingly demonstrate that young people want to lead and are capable of great leadership.”

The coalition of partners will support the young warriors with tools and resources and an extensive campaign and outreach through youth groups, field partners, social media, and other mass media like TV, community radios, etc.

“The #YoungWarrior movement is timely to receive support from young people on COVID-19 response, given the start of 18-plus vaccination. We believe young people can lead the way in ensuring the safety of their communities, get vaccinated, and encourage communities to sustain COVID Appropriate Behaviours,” Joint Secretary Padmaja Singh, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said, pledging support to the movement.

The Young Warriors will not only secure their families but will also reach out and motivate other young people and families in their neighbourhoods.

Debarati Ganguly, a member of the YuWaah Young People’s Action Team (YPAT) said, “We are leading this national movement and we will motivate our peers to join us and share the correct information on COVID Appropriate Behaviours, access accurate information on health and essential services, and encourage eligible family members and neighbours for vaccine registration”.

The engagement model is built as a series of learning resources, tasks, quizzes, etc, and will be available both on an IVR-based platform and a technology-based chat-bot platform called U-Report (developed by UNICEF) – this multi-modal approach will enable youths from across the spectrum to participate in this campaign.

The #YoungWarrior movement also aims to facilitate safe spaces for other young people to talk about their challenges, including peer networks, counselling, and mentoring services with the help of experts.