“I can tell you that it is very difficult to live in a community where many people reject you or avoid you because of your health problems. But if you find someone with the same condition, together you can change the future and the environment for other young people and children. It would be nice for them to have an easier time in the community and to be seen in a different light. Illness does not mean that you are ineffective and useless. Together we can try to develop the talents of young people, with creativity. So that the rest of the world understands that they are special and unique.

These thoughts, described in the motivation of one of the participants in the #IAmMyAdvocate ideas competition, have several points in common with those of 63 other young people who want to make their community a better place for the chronically ill. Many described how those around them do not recognise their condition or even look down on them. The vast majority of people do not have accurate information about these conditions and are unaware of what people living with them are capable of.

Young people are already at work! The 20 teams are working to identify very specific problems in the community and come up with creative ideas to solve them. We have participants from all over the country: from the counties of Argeș, Bistrița-Năsăud, Constanța, Harghita, Cluj, Covasna, Mureș, Sălaj, Satu Mare, Sibiu, Tulcea and Vaslui. The 8 facilitators will guide them to identify and define a problem as concretely as possible, then look for creative ideas, develop one and test it. The young people will learn and try out the Design Thinking method.

We are curious to see what they come up with!