Karen Lopez ,
Please provide us with your views on the state of peace in the country you will represent at the One Young World Summit
Guatemala is a country with high rates of violence, mainly between young people. Guatemala is also affected by high levels of poverty, malnutrition, lack of access to education and corruption. Globally, the economic impact of violence was $ 14.3 trillion PPP in 2016, equivalent to $ 1,953 per person per year (Global Peace Index 2016). Many of these problems are linked to the lack of opportunities for the population.
The principal potential lies in our young strength: the age structure of Guatemala shows that in 2016, 21.8% of the total population were young people under 25 years of age (CIA, 2016). A plethora of opportunities! A window of hope! For me, the key to promoting peace and stability as a prerequisite for the promotion of economic development is investment in young people. How? Creating an attractive scenario where we, young people, can open up creative avenues and contribute more to the improvement of services and scientific development as well as to the creation of job opportunities
How do you think your work and/or activism contribute to a sustainable peace?
Collaboration between various organizations and actors (NGOs, government agencies, universities, farmers' groups, and civil society) is one of the important pillars for the movement to combat malnutrition and hunger to which I am committed in Guatemala with my organisation BioFORT. Malnutrition is a national health problem that affects the well-being of the population, so "embarking together" on the fight against it is one of the greatest opportunities to find harmony and to be able to help those who suffer from this disease. The collaboration does not see race, age, sex, condition, but only seeks to unite different forces to build a prosperous future. The main thing that I have learned in my professional experience is that cooperation among us (people, organizations, government, civil society) on our own initiative is the basis for a more stable country and well-being of people and development. The committed fight against the malnutrition and hunger through the union of organizations in the scaling up of biofortified crops in Guatemala confirms that there is a high interest for the well-being of our country.