July 13, 2009: Summing up the results of J8 Summit-2009
On July 13, 2009, the Russian Junior-8 team returned to Moscow from Rome, where the 4th J8 Summit was held on July 4-12 running parallel to the G8 meeting. The international youth summit is traditionally organized by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), while the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation is in charge of selecting and training members of the Russian youth team. At the J8 Summit this year, Russia was represented by 4 young people - Roman Chukov, Anzhelika Isaeva, Yulia Khulaeva and Kseniya Kozhina – the best high-school students from the Southern Federal District and winners of the national contest “World Through the Eyes of Young People”, which consisted of several qualifying rounds held in February-March 2009. Bertrand Bainvel, UNICEF Representative in the Russian Federation, and mass media representatives met the young people at the airport upon their return to Moscow. The young diplomats spoke enthusiastically about their work at the J8 Summit. This year, the J8 participants focused during their discussions on such topics as “Climate change”, “Child rights in times of financial crisis and development of corporate social responsibility”, “Poverty and development in Africa” and “Education”, a topic which is so close to young people’s hearts. Based on the results of their group discussions, all the J8 teams jointly developed and adopted their policy recommendations that came in the form of the Final Declaration. Its main provisions were voiced during a face-to-face meeting of representatives of the J8 national teams with the G8 world leaders. 17-year-old Anzhelika Isaeva, a high-school graduate from the City of Sochi, represented the Russian youth at that meeting. “The heads of states did not treat us as children, on the contrary, they took our proposals quite seriously”, Anzhelika said, sharing her impressions of the meeting. About Junior 8 Each year, when Russia is not hosting the high-level gathering of world leaders, high-school students from one of the Russian Federal Districts participate in the national contest. Members of the Russian national team are drawn from the contest winners who have to go through intensive training. The next Junior8 Summit is to be held in Canada in 2010. For additional information please refer to Anna Kochineva, phone + 7 495 937-4812, cell. +7 916-238-0154
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