Selene Biffi receives the World Aware Education Award

Created in 2004, YAC is a network of about 1200 young people from 120 countries all over the world who put their capacities and skills towards the education of other young people.
Her network also won the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Official Status. The project is based around the idea that by providing a meeting place for young people from around the world, they will be able to share their experiences and skills and put this shared knowledge towards an active promotion of social change within the countries they came from.

Vita: what are the main characteristics of the network?
Biffi: basically YAC is a network that provides online training services, created by young people for young people. The basic principle is to educate using online peer-to-peer methodology. YAC is the first organisation of its kind.

Vita: what kind of training service do you offer?
Biffi: our services have been, since March 2007, supported by an e-learning platform and this has helped us a lot. The training we offer is through online courses, totally free of charge, that last from one to three months, These focus on different themes, such as – Community development, business and other subjects – there will be specific courses on health, the environment, human rights or fair trade and much more.

Vita: who makes up the network?
Biffi: right now YAC has collected about 1200 young people and youth groups. 95% of these are young volunteers, and the remaining 5% are experts who collaborate with us absolutely free of charge.

Vita: What is your reach?
Biffi: YAC has brought together members from 120 different countries all over the world, about 95% of which are developing countries.

Vita: of all the acknowledgement that YAC has received, none has been Italian. It sounds as if there is no space for an initiative like this one in our country?
Biffi: the Italian situation is dramatic, I have experienced in first person the distrust that surrounds youth initiatives set up by young people. In Italy a culture that supports meeting and interchange is missing, and no one takes you seriously unless you are more than 50 years old. I have had the luck and the possibility to bring a lot of initiatives to life, but all of these in foreign countries not here in Italy.

More info:

• www.youthactionforchange.org