“I will use these valuable skills for the rest of my life”

Nino is a member of our Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG), who’s been involved with our new project looking at gender construction in schools in the UK and Ghana, and its impact on gender-based violence. In this blog, he tells us all about what motivated him to get involved, and how much he’s enjoyed the experience.

I have been working with the Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG) since 2021, so for about eight months now. YPAG has taught me so many transferable life skills in such a short time. I will use these valuable skills for the rest of my life.

When I first saw the opportunity to work with young people in Ghana back at the start of May, I jumped at the opportunity because it made me think of when I lived in Uganda for six months when I was younger. I experienced how life was different and how young people were treated there, compared with the UK.

Another reason why I chose this project was because I didn’t know about gender ideals and gender-based violence, and I wanted to find out more. Thanks to this project and the other advisors from both the UK and Cape Coast, I now have a much more defined and in-depth knowledge of this subject, which has only been discussed in the world for a short while.

In both the online and in-person sessions, I enjoyed spending every moment having interesting conversations and making new friendships. I didn’t mind the online sessions but inevitably, it got tedious after two hours. However, of course, online sessions had their perks, for example, no travel needed. But I enjoyed the face-to-face sessions much more because of the contact I had with my peers, and of course the free food, even if I had to get the train early on a Saturday morning.

I feel like the other advisors and I helped the researchers by telling them about past-experiences with this topic and how it may link to similar situations in Ghana. In complete honesty, I liked every single aspect of this project because it was exploring a very interesting topic with people of a different background and culture to the advisors in the UK. In the short time I have been working with YPAG, this has been my favourite project and I hope I can do a similar project again soon!

A big thank you to Lucy, Mike, Prince, Nadia, Ana and all the young advisors involved.