- This new project from the teenage sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen (authors of the Bye-Bye Plastic Bags project in Bali) is called YOUTHTOPIA.
- Its main objective is to train a generation of young leaders who can make a real difference in the battle against climate change.
Melati and Isabel Wijsen aren’t new to the sphere of environmental regulation. Their project Bye-Bye Plastic turned out to be a huge success: single-use plastic was banned on Bali. However, shortly after Melati (who was 15 at that time) started to realize that there was more to be done.
Four years later, in her speech on the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in January 2020, Melati mentioned that urgent changes in education are necessary. In her opinion, the outdated educational systems can’t keep up with the changes in our fast-moving world, and the youth of today is capable of solving this problem. YOUTHTOPIA is there to help – it will conduct training, and, hopefully, will become the global headquarters for all young changemakers.
With the help of an online platform through which the workshops are held, Melati hopes to empower young people all over the world to find something that they could do today to help the planet.
Melati and Isabel are among young people like Greta Thunberg and Felix Finkbeiner, who are determined to make the Earth’s future better. YOUTHTOPIA is all about teaching such essential skills as leadership, public speaking, and dealing with government officials. They pass on the valuable knowledge they have acquired from their activity over the years.
The girls emphasize that we need to act today to “challenge the comfort of the status quo” worldwide.
