As COVID upended our plans, we quickly realized that we needed to plan a virtual Youth Exchange as it was critical to meet the crises head on. CAN’s first virtual Youth Exchange engendered an organizing process where the entire network of partner organizations participated in every aspect that made the exchange possible.
A virtual exchange made it possible to connect with more youth, reaching youth from Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia. It made it possible for sessions to include over 80 participants. Yet as virtual technologies created access across rural territories, it also closed offaccess to youth without internet access. We held phones up to the screen. We created videos to incorporate more voices. We arranged for safe transport and lodging to bring youth to municipal heads. We projected sessions on screens and sat at a distance with masks.
Solidarity is a critical force for change. It is about connecting across terrains of struggle to find ourselves in unity, working toward the shared dream of a just society. It is about sustained, ongoing commitment despite terrible obstacles and difficulties. Youth organizing in their communities mobilize and create alternatives. CAN’s annual Youth Exchange brings youth together to learn and share skills for building communities where self-determination is connected to the ability to feed ourselves from the land; where ecologically-sound, culturally-appropriate, and nourishing food is abundant; where a commitment to re-making the world crowds out all forms of oppression.
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