Visiting World Youth Alliance in Nairobi

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the African regional office of the World Youth Alliance (WYA) located in downtown Nairobi. Several of our friars in New York are good friends with the staff and interns at the WYA headquarters in Manhattan, and I had the chance to stop in there just before leaving the US for Africa; they gave me the contact information for their counterparts in Kenya. I contacted Irene Nyambura Mwangi, the new regional director for Africa, shortly after arriving in Nairobi.

(l-r) Irene Nyambura Mwangi (new WYA regional director for Africa),
Esther Kanyi Kairu (past regional director), and me flanked by two interns.

WYA was founded by Anne Halpine, a Canadian, in 1999 to provide an alternative voice for the world's youth to speak to the UN, individual countries and other national and international bodies. In addition to Nairobi and New York, WYA has offices in Mexico City, Manila and Brussells. It was established to counter the distorted representation of the needs and aspirations of the world's young people promoted by wealthy and high power population control advocacy groups. Such organizations claim that what youth really need and want is emancipation from parental authority, unrestrained sexual activity and unrestricted access to abortion and contraception. In contrast, WYA affirms the intrinsic dignity and inalienable value of every human life, and the importance of marriage and the family. It asserts that what young people really need and want are the basic conditions that will allow their lives to flourish: decent housing, clean water, adequate nutrition, quality education, dignified employment, sufficient health care, safety, security and freedom from violence.

WYA plays a vitally necessary role in allowing young people who love life to speak on the international platform where issues of development, population and the role of women are debated, and in giving the same young people the formation they need to address these matters intelligently and articulately. I am very glad they are present in Africa, and hope to be able to recruit some new members for them in Sudan.