Youth Voice

The Trinity Challenge recognises there is a pivotal role for the perspective and energy of youth leaders and youth-led organisations in driving meaningful change.

The Trinity Challenge Youth Engagement and Advocacy

The Trinity Challenge is proud to support the next generation of health leaders through its Global Youth Summit and Youth Competition programme. This initiative empowers youth-led organisations and young leaders to take action in their communities. Our current focus is on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and our young leaders are promoting awareness, initiating behaviour change, and advocating for the effective use of antibiotics across human and animal health. We are building a global network of change makers, international organisations and global health activists.

Youth Summit and Competition 2025

Oursecond Youth Summit on AMR took place on 14 January 2025, exploring the question:

“How can we ensure effective use of antibiotics in the food chain?”

Young leaders and youth-led organisations joined us to co-design a campaign, focusing on:

  • Promoting biosecurity and vaccination best practices: Using prevention methods like vaccination, nutrition, and good animal care to reduce antibiotic dependence.

Interactive workshops, keynote speeches from Dame Sally Davies and Professor Marc Mendelson, and campaign design sessions formed the core of the event, delivered in partnership with Black Sands and youth facilitators.

The Youth Competition 2025 invited youth-led teams to apply for up to £7,500 in seed funding to launch an AMR awareness campaign focused on animal health and the food chain. Applications are now closed. In May, we announced, 7 inspiring winners from Africa and South Asia. Winning teams will be supported to deliver their campaigns and will receive post award support from the Trinity Challenge and other key partners.

You can find out more about each team by watching their 1 minute pitch videos.

 

Winning teams:

All this is thanks to our expert judges: 

Youth Summit and Competition 2024

Our first Youth Summit and Competition launched in 2024, with the aim of addressing the antibiotic emergency through local awareness and behaviour change campaigns focused on WASH and schools, as decided by summit attendees. We received 97 applications from 46 countries, and selected winners based on feasibility, impact, and innovation.

Winning Campaigns:

  • India: Society for Socio-Economic and Ecological Development – Bridging Traditions with tribal schoolchildren
  • Ecuador & Guatemala: Handwashing Heroes and JE-RAM Rural Communities by University of Cuenca & JE Latin America
  • Nepal: WASH Away AMR – Public Health Research Society
  • Uganda: WASH Champions – Makerere University AMR Club
  • Kazakhstan: WASH Heroes: Kids in Action – Infectious Disease Doctors’ Society
  • Nigeria: WASH off AMR – One Health and Development Initiative

Each team received seed funding and mentoring to deliver their campaigns in 2024/25. You can find out more about the teams by watching their 1 minute pitch videos here.

We would like to thank our panel of global judges and campaign experts who supported the selection process.

  • Siya Verma, Research Assistant at Deliberative Democracy Lab Stanford University
  • Taek Yong Kim, Research Assistant at Deliberative Democracy Lab Stanford University
  • Augusto Baron, Specialist in Public Health, The Quadripartite Working Group on Youth Engagement for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
  • Daniel Waruingi, Capacity Development and Youth Engagement Manager, ReACT Africa
  • Randa Ahmed Bazzi, Veterinarian and Specialist in Public Health, The Quadripartite Working Group on Youth Engagement for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
  • Karina Khatic, Veterinary Student and Trustee Member of the International Veterinary Students’ Association (IVSA), The Quadripartite Working Group on Youth Engagement for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
  • Liz Callegari, Director, Black Sands
  • Rachel Bloodworth, Director, Black Sands
  • Hafeez Hamza, AMR Youth Liaison Officer, Ducit Blue
  • Rhian Foley, Senior Advocacy Adviser, Wateraid
  • Marc Mendelson, Director and AMR expert, The Trinity Challenge.

Resources & Contact

The Trinity Challenge continues to support youth-led initiatives through advocacy resources, partner toolkits and recorded sessions.

Statements/manifestos:

AMR Toolkits:

Watch summit session recordings and lots more on ourYouTube channel.

Contact: Jennie Smith – [email protected]