Today we are sharing an interesting journey of a former Youth Forum 2023 participant, Inês Costa Louro, from Portugal. She’s been working for many years to improve health literacy and support her peers in providing trainings to others through peer education throughout her country. Ines shares her recent updates since the Youth Forum, and how it has impacted her to excel further.
Inês is a 23-year-old, final-year medical student with an interest in international relations and foreign affairs. For the last few years, she has been focused on health education regarding mental health, reproductive and sexual health, substance use prevention; and above all, being a health advocate as a member of multiple student associations.
She started her journey as a volunteer, going to schools in Lisbon and her hometown and using peer-to-peer education to increase health literacy throughout Portugal. As she gained experience, Inês expanded her action radius throughout the mainland and islands of Portugal, helping to reach more isolated communities that have difficulties in accessing healthcare. Today, she currently leads the Portuguese Medical Students' International Committee (ANEM) and participates in various meetings to discuss health issues with medical students from around the world.
Participating in the Youth Forum 2023 inspired Inês to bring the topic of “Youth Leadership in Global Health” to the table at the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA). “Being in the Youth Forum, and our Youth Statement, really inspired me to write about this topic as soon as I got back,” she said. Youth empowerment rests on involving young people in problem-solving and actively listening to their voices in decision-making processes. Youth-centred initiatives should not only be implemented “for” youth, but also “with” youth to allow for co-creation. Several weeks after the Youth Forum 2023, Inês attended the European Regional Meeting of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations,where she presented her Call for Action towards empowering youth leadership as the regional priority for Europe. And, as a testament to the high interest and importance of youth empowerment, it was approved.
“I just felt inspired and motivated because of everything, since, in addition to substance use, we discussed youth empowerment and how we can be advocate for several topics that promote health.” She explained that, as medical students, youth leadership, especially in regard to global health, needs to keep being a priority. “Our focus in the Youth Statement on ‘Youth being the present, not just the future,’ was also one of the key impactful remarks of my proposal.”
Her journey on substance use prevention continues to advocate for increasing health literacy in substance use prevention throughout Portugal and beyond. Since becoming the team coordinator and organiser of projects, she is now preparing teams for field work, training them on peer-to-peer education and health topics for dissemination. “I hope I can keep my involvement in these kinds of projects throughout my life and future career!”
Thank you Inês for sharing your valuable experience with us. We look forward to hearing more from you and wish you all the best for your future projects to come.