Stirling university student Margareta Rončević joined The ONE Campaign earlier this year to take on an active role as a youth ambassador where she would be given the opportunity to join the global cause of tackling extreme poverty and sexism.
Earlier this month, Margareta, president of PolSoc, represented ONE as one of the UK’s 55 representatives at the European Parliament and the European Commission in Brussels.
The ambassadors lobbied at Parliament in an effort to encourage the European Union to award the international aid and development budget with the best possible deal ahead of the budget talks a few weeks later.
Margareta and the youth summit met directly with over 100 MEPs and lobbied the Parliament in an effort to encourage the European Union to award the increase the international aid and development budget.
The amount of hard work and determination is evident considering the work of the youth ambassadors resulted in a resounding success for the campaign as the European Parliament voted for the budget committee proposal to increase aid next year.
Extremely proud of this outcome, Margareta, an international politics student at Stirling, said: “It was a reward to find this out after all of the effort we all put into it, especially because we know that the money will make a huge difference.”
She added: “I am very passionate about helping people and believe that everyone deserves an equal opportunity and chance. You don’t have to change the entire world; but at least you can try to contribute to it.”
“I was even more inspired after our first training in London earlier this year when I met all of the other youth ambassadors who shared the same values and passions as I did.
“It helps a lot when you see that there are other people who cares just as much as you do about global issues and are trying to do something about them.”
But the journey for change does not end here and the ONE Youth Summit moves onto its next campaign: Poverty is Sexist.
This campaign stresses the importance of the EU’s continued partnership with Africa, especially in increasing education for young girls.
It aims to tackle sexism and gender inequalities among the poorer undeveloped nations.
Margareta stresses the importance of tackling this, stating women should not be denied rights to a necessity such as education because of issues such as forced marriage.
Margareta describes this campaign as extremely important and is a project which the youth ambassadors dedicate most of their time to.
And the upcoming African Union and European Union summit on 29 and 30 November is the perfect place for the Poverty is Sexist campaign to be spearheaded.
This campaign will see the youth ambassadors fight for the right of education for more than 130 million young girls and women who are out of school.
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