Under-18 zone: Profiles
Getting involved changed Vadim's life
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Vadim Alexandru Pungulescu, 17, from Save
the Children Romania, outside UNICEF House
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Four years ago, Vadim-Alexandru Pungulescu, 17, counted himself
among Romania's disillusioned youth. He saw the world as hopeless.
But a stint as a volunteer for a magazine changed all that.
The magazine, Children's Thoughts and Voices, was the first publication
of its kind in Romania to offer the right of free speech to children.
It is published by Salvati Copiii (Save the Children Romania).
Vadim became increasingly involved in the editorial team, eventually
becoming the editor-in-chief. "For the first time I saw that
children could be treated with respect, as human beings who had
hopes and ideas," he explains. "I changed. Before I was
self-centred but now I put others first."
Youth initiatives are now Vadim's top priority. In addition to
his work on the magazine, he is also the technical advisor to Romania's
National Centre for Volunteers, gives classes on children's rights
at high schools in Bucharest and hopes to help build a children's
Parliament in his country.
He is in New York this week to attend the third Preparatory Committee
meeting of the UN General Assembly's Special Session
on Children.
"Ten years ago children were given token treatment but this
week in New York, they got to talk directly to Heads of State and
Representatives of Government," says Vadim, adding: "I
still think children are not the priority they should be. In 10
years time, I won't be a child anymore, but I hope that the world
will be a better place in which adults will take decisions with
children instead of for them."
View a short video: Vadim
at the Prepcom.
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