Building Skills to Speak Up!: Lea’s story
This World Youth Skills Day, in line with the theme of “Youth Skills for Peace and Development”, we tell you how Lea’s debating skills helped raise awareness of online safety for children.
A platform to develop skills for peace and development
Lea (anonymised name), a 17-year-old girl from Cambodia always liked to be of help to people, especially those in need. From a young age, it deeply affected her when she heard of abuse and bullying. What she also disliked was the use of violence.
Only in 2023, did she find a platform to work for the causes she closely connected with. As part of the Safety for Children and their Rights OnLine (SCROL) programme, she enrolled herself as a youth advocate with the Auscam Freedom Project, an implementing partner of Terre des Hommes Netherlands in Cambodia.
A keen learner, Lea soon started to actively involve herself in youth advocacy, mainly to address online child sexual abuse and exploitation in Cambodia. The Disrupting Harm Report 2022, reported that 1 in 10 children in Cambodia suffer online abuse and exploitation. The urgency to act on the issue was clear to Lea.
“I became a youth advocate because I wanted to share knowledge”, says Lea. “Mainly to other girls in Cambodia, especially tips to be safe online”
Lea learns to debate
As part of the Safe Online World for Girls awareness campaign under the SCROL programme, Lea and 7 of her fellow youth advocates were chosen to debate on the topic ‘Social media contributes to online child sexual exploitation’, and Lea decided to go against the motion. This debate was held in a public school to an audience of 400 children (girls and boys) between the ages of 13-17, primarily to spread awareness of the responsible use of social media.
“I was very new to debating. It was my close friend (from the campaign) who invited me to join the debate”, she says
As Lea was new to debating, she learnt the skills from her fellow youth advocates; what to and how to speak. Under SCROL in Cambodia, the youth advocates exchange knowledge, practices and ideas in peer support networks, with close support from the Auscam Freedom Project.
“We had many disagreements within our group in terms of the messaging of our positioning. But we learned to work together to do a good presentation”, she says.
Her first debate
On 7th October 2023, Lea and her team were all set to present their motion. Each had a speech prepared from their learnings and the shared learnings inspired by each other.
“When I knew I had to go on stage and debate, I was nervous. But, when I went on stage, spoke and shared my thoughts, it was one of the best memories of my life”, she says.
In her speech, Lea, with acquired eloquence and confidence stressed that social media was not the cause of online exploitation. According to her research and opinion, online exploitation existed before social media, so the platform should not be blamed. She gave importance to how children and youth should be safe online, focusing on building responsibility among children, youth and adults to take online safety into their own hands.
Her speech received a lot of applause.
“I shared tips such as not sharing private information, not talking to strangers online and knowing how and where to report cases. I even spoke of the role of parents; and how they should monitor their children’s online activity”, she says
After the debate, she believes that the audience now knows how to protect themselves online and how to report cases.
Taking her skills forward
“I want to start a debate club”, she says.
After her first debate, Lea is motivated to further share knowledge and create a space for young people, especially girls to learn from each other, speak and spread awareness on key issues such as online safety.
She dreams of enhancing her speaking skills to the extent that she will one day speak up in front of authorities to ensure the strengthening of law enforcement against online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
We are a strong cheerleader for Lea in her journey, and will continue to be the wind beneath her wings!