On December 11, ahead of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Armenia, UNICEF appointed 15-year-old Malena (Arpine Martoyan), the winner of the 2021 contest, as a national ambassador.
On November 18-20, Malena joined UNICEF and the Office of the Human Rights Defender to launch the Human Rights Defender’s Public Council on Children’s Rights on World Children’s Day.
Together with the young members of the Council, he participated in a number of courses dedicated to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the study of children’s rights issues, mental health, persuasive communication and got acquainted with the issues that children and young people are dealing with in Armenia.
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Before that, Malena attended the closing ceremony of the UPSHIFT youth initiative in Gavar. an initiative through which UNICEF supports the development of young people’s life skills and encourages them to be active in their communities to become change makers. This was an opportunity for Malena to communicate with young people living in Gavar and get acquainted with the programs they designed and implemented.
“This year I am very inspired. I have already managed to meet young people who know so much about climate change, young people who, together with their daily lessons, were able to form a team, raise one of the community’s problems, write a project to solve that problem, improving community life,” said Malena. “Joint work with UNICEF will give me the opportunity to meet young people and children living in different corners of Armenia to learn more about their problems and concerns. As a UNICEF ambassador, I am committed to raising these concerns and issues and making the voices of children and young people louder.”
UNICEF has more than 60 years of successful experience working with ambassadors. Currently, UNICEF works with almost 400 ambassadors in 103 countries and regions around the world for the well-being of children. All over the world, ambassadors play an important role in shining a light on the challenges facing children and adolescents.
“Adolescence is a special time in a child’s life and, as we say at UNICEF, an important window of opportunity to help children develop the very important skills and abilities they need for the future. Therefore, we are working on a number of initiatives to empower young people, teach them 21st century skills, promote participation in community issues and make their voices heard on climate change, mental health and many other important issues. I am delighted to welcome Malena to the UNICEF team as our new ambassador. Together, we will do our best to make the voice of young people heard and taken into account when making decisions about them,” UNICEF representative in Armenia Christine Weigand summed up.
UNICEF Armenia
