Leading for Inclusion: Duck and Keith
The following post was written by Duck and Keith, 2019 Global Youth Leadership Summit Participants from Hong Kong. Check out their experience at the Summit, and how they plan to#innovateforinclusion in their community!
It was an honor that Keith, Bee, and I were chosen by Special Olympics Hong Kong to join the Global Youth Leadership Summit 2019. We never thought we would have the opportunity to come to a global event. We were really excited to learn more about being inclusive and to meet new friends.
During the Summit, Keith and I improved our communication skills by presenting our ideas and sharing our stories. In our country, getting appreciation from others is not easy. At the Summit, we felt encouragement by receiving appraise with cheers and applause. We think that appreciating others in a Unified movement is the most important part of creating an inclusive world.
Inclusion was the theme of the Summit. For us, inclusion means there are no differences between people with and without Intellectual disabilities. We all know creating an inclusive society is not magic and can’t happen overnight. However, there are people like us and other Youth Leaders who want to make changes to the world and drive the Unified Generation. It’s amazing that all the Youth Leaders at the Summit had the same goal of leading the Unified Generation. We felt the passion for creating an inclusive society from all the Youth Leaders. It was a wonderful experience where people from different countries gathered together to share their stories and ideas. We were very delighted to meet our home team that consisted of other teams from US Kansas, Montenegro, and Syria.
At the Summit, we felt the kindness, joy, leadership, and enthusiasm of others. It expanded our horizon. We learned to treasure what we have and support each other as a team. We will never forget our precious memories and friendships, as these are our motivations to keep creating an inclusive society. Furthermore, we learned about the power of inclusion and what we have to do as Youth Leaders to continue to grow the Unified Movement.
Once again, thank you Special Olympics and thank you Abu Dhabi!
The 2019 Global Youth Leadership Summit was supported through partnerships with The Lane Family, Kantar, the Lions Clubs International Foundation, The Samuel Family Foundation, and the Office of Special Education Programs at the United States Department of Education. Learn more about the other participants of the Global Youth Leadership Summit atsogyls2019ad.org/participants.
