NICCY Youth Panel ENYA Citizen Reporters

To keep you up-to-date Lalana Songra, Aodán Curley and Richard Tweed will be your citizen reporters for the two days. From Monday morning visit this page regularly and click refresh for the latest live from ENYA at NICCY.

Tuesday 26th July

• 9.00 - Delegates completed an evaluation of their two days in Belfast and recieved certificates for participating
• 6.00 - Delegates meeting Belfast Lord Mayor
  
  
  
  Delegates from Cyprus meeting Belfast Lord Mayor
  
  
  ENYA delegates from Catalonia meeting Belfast Lord Mayor
  
  
  ENYA delegates from Finland meeting Belfast Lord Mayor
  
  
  ENYA delegates from Croatia meeting Belfast Lord Mayor
  
  
  ENYA delegates from Greece meeting Belfast Lord Mayor
  
  
  ENYA delegates from Malta meeting Belfast Lord Mayor
  
  
  ENYA delegates from Poland meeting Belfast Lord Mayor
• 4.30 - Discussing ideas on taking ENYA forward
  
• 3.45 - The health committee decided to focus on the two key issues of mental health and addiction.  They believed that these two topics and their solutions were intrinsically linked. They proposed that governments should promote positive advertising to encourage a shift in people’s attitudes. The group created “DR ENYA “, as a good example of who to talk to when faced with health problems, and listed the essential characteristics that he should have. These included respecting people’s privacy, treating them according to their age, and being non judgemental.    
            
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 3.30 - The internet committee proposed a number of actions to promote internet safety. These included campaigns led by young people through the media, revising the legislation which governs the internet, introducing internet safety into the curriculum and ensuring that these actions were implemented at both a national and European level. Members also spoke about the important roles teachers and parents can play. They also answered questions on other areas of internet safety, such as protecting children from being exposed to inappropriate material.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 3.15 - The education committee believed that that there were no pressing problems affecting education across Europe, but came up with a number of proposals to make individual improvements in countries. They believed children should be taught about different cultures, and religions.  They had a strong belief that children should participate at every level, and that their opinions should be treated in the same way as that of a head teacher. A specific proposal was to introduce a “Children’s Rights Day” on 20th November which would be celebrated in schools across Europe, to highlight the issue of children’s rights.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 3.00 - The young people who were committee discussing violence wanted campaigns involving the internet, group discussion, press releases and materials. The European Network Of Commissioners should release statements, press releases and lobby relevant organisations, they said. The members particularly focussed on the issues of bullying and domestic violence, and answered questions on how different areas tackled bullying in a different way.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 2.45 - All the committees just delivered presentations explaining on the issues they had discussed and their recommendations for the European Network Of Commissioners conference in Warsaw in September.
• 2.30 - the groups prepare to deliver their presentations after all the hard work yesterday
• 8.45 - Conference delegates preparing to see some cultural highlights with a visit to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum: more updates on the work later
  
  
  
  Delegates enjoying that good weather at Cultra
• 8.30 - The conference has been featured on BBC 1's Northern Ireland Breakfast Time TV news bulletins and in today's Belfast Telegraph

Monday 25th July

• 4.15 - The internet committee decided that young people, parents and teachers need to be aware of the issues faced when online. Proposals to achieve this awareness included use of leaflets, discussions in school from a younger age and greater media coverage.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 4.00 - The education committee talked about participation in schools for example school councils and teacher evaluations by pupils. They also talked about making facilities in schools more accessible and wanted pupils to be more involved with the training of teachers. The delegates felt that parents and young people needed to know more about their rights, both in the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights or the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child.
  
  
  
• 3.45 - The health committee has so far discussed issues such as mental health. They felt that more support and a greater understanding were needed and that education programs were essential for the young people, their parents, their teachers and the media. They also discussed which actions could be carried out. Some of their suggestions included young people working within their local areas and their ombudsmen working at a national level.
  
  
  
  
  Some of the materials from the health group
  
• 3.30 - Patricia Lewsley, NI commissioner for children and young people and president of ENOC is currently being interviewed for BBC Breakfast News. Barry McCrory, a member of the NICCY youth panel, was also interviewed. The videos will be uploaded shortly. The BBC interview will appear on Tuesday 26^th July during the BBC 1 Breakfast Bulletins which are every half hour from 6:28am
  
  The Commissioner being interviewed by BBC film crew
  
  
  
  The tables were turned on the citizen reporters with the camera being pointed at them!
  
• 3.15 - Group discussions are continuing. The “violence” committee have proposed three actions to abolish corporal punishment; campaigning using the internet, promoting positive parenting and calls for a ban on corporal punishment. They are currently discussing strategies to combat bullying.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 3.00 - Photographer arrived on behalf of Belfast Telegraph. He took pictures to accompany the article the paper will be running on the ENYA seminar in tomorrow’s edition.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 2.45 - We managed to catch up with Dejan from Bosnia during his lunchbreak, who was involved in discussions about education. Topics of conversation included participation of children in decision making in schools, and prioritising proposals for the next ENOC conference in Warsaw.
• 1.00 - breaking for lunch
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 12.25 - Delegates are currently working on a presentation for tomorrow in their groups. These are based on the issues of Health, Education, Violence and the Internet.  In their presentations, they will display their group’s findings to the ENOC Network of Young Advisors representatives attending the conference.
• 11.35 - At noon, everyone attending ENYA will hold a minute’s silence for all those who died in Norway and for their friends and families. Our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.
• 11.15- All the groups are now discussing the key issues and seeking solutions.  The issues include health, violence, education and the internet.  The groups are trying to decide what young people can do, the ombudsmen can do and what ENOC can achieve. Overall everyone seems hopeful that solutions can be reached and they feel that children and young people should be more involved.
• 10.35 - Ahead of schedule the delegates just split into their group to begin their formal discussion of their issues; we will keep you informed of conclusions and results.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Members of the 'Health Group'
  
  
  
  Members of the 'Violence Group'
  
  
  
  Members of the 'Education Group'
  
  
  
  Members of the 'Internet Group'
  
  
• 10.15 - To help introduce the countries’ delegations all members were asked tp make a monument of their countries using their bodies – as you can imagine this led to lots of laughs!

  

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  
  
  

  The Cypriot commissioner asked everyone to think of some of the statues from her homeland.
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Delegates from Catalonia depicting the famous Sagrada Familia.
  
  
  
  Irish Commisisoner with delegates from Azerbaijan.
  
  Poland recreated two famous monuments from their homeland – the first a white eagle with a golden beak, the national emblem of Poland. The second statue involved a participant posing as a half woman, half fish – the national emblem of Warsaw.

  Serbia’s monument included the quote “I don’t know much about it..”. Nevertheless they made an impressive attempt to depict a famous bridge from their country, with one of their delegates contorting herself into a human bridge – not an easy feat.

  Young people from Greece created an animated tableau depicting “Parliamentarians vs the people of Greece” - an up-to-date amusing take on the current political situation in Greece.

  Croatia, having encountered problems with this task last year, came well prepared with their country’s football shirts, and proceeded to tell the story behind the chequered pattern, which involved chess boards, the ‘enemy’ and three well played chess games.

• 10.00 - The NICCY hosts at ENYA, Pamela and Niall, put on an ice breaker -great fun and everyone seemed to enjoy.  Now onto the real business!
  
  The Commissioner for Children and Young People of Northern Ireland and chair of ENOC, Patricia Lewsley, asked if we would all participate in a minute’s silence for all those who died at Norway. She then went on to talk about ENOC.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 9.20 - Everyone’s arrived nice and early. They were very talkative and curious about the conference. They have now headed upstairs to  receive a welcome from Patricia Lewsley, the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People.