By Hannia Yohali Zenteno Cruz
Youth Advisory Group-GOYN CDMX

My name is Hannia Yohali and I have been part of the GAJ for 3 months. My interest in defending decent work for young people began due to the terrible experiences I experienced while searching for my first job opportunity.

In 2022, while browsing LinkedIn, I found a course to train activists and decided to sign up. Within the sessions I was able to notice the reality of young people in the workplace; I heard terrifying figures, stories of discrimination and I was able to share in my voice everything I had experienced up to that moment in the workplace. The person who provided this course was the Alliance for Young People with Decent Work (AJTD), a multi-sector network made up of companies and civil associations that seek the insertion of youth into decent jobs. I was interested in their proposal and dedicated myself to learning more about their practices. I found a decalogue that they suggested to organizations about good actions with young people who wanted to apply for their vacancies. After that, my interest increased and I thought about how to communicate everything I learned with my community.

In the process, they invited me to present my learnings obtained in the course and there I was able to share my concerns with more actors, I finally felt that a problem that worried me was shared by more people.

I met Daniela Dorantes, a person who infected me with her enthusiasm and has been key in encouraging me to participate in all the activities that I have carried out to this day.

I followed the work of the AJTD closely and one day they contacted me for a focus group with more young people: the mission was to brainstorm ideas to build a campaign on decent work, they had in mind that music was key to what we wanted to develop . After chatting, eating pizza and freshening up, it occurred to us together to create an event with an afternoon-type dynamic so that everyone could get home on time. The idea was to invite emerging artists, offer workshops and create different scenarios so that people Attendees could take photos and share our hashtags on their social networks.

After that first meeting, another one was scheduled: the agency already had the official campaign flyer, the idea of the event was accepted and they asked us about the materials and dynamics to create a dialogue with the attendees around decent work. It was a very fun session for me, because with small recorders they recovered our opinions on everything they presented to us.  

They created an official beat for the event, which until then already had a name: I sing it to you fest, decent work never sounded so good.

I open a small parenthesis to say that at the same time as the creation of this event in the AJTD we presented 4 comprehensive public policy proposals to the teams of the candidates and the candidate for the presidency of the republic, it was exciting because they were presented by young people of throughout the country, I was able to learn first-hand about the concerns and challenges they face from their localities and although they are similar to those around me, it became a very generous exchange of all latitudes. I close parentheses.

We were a few days away from the event and on Friday, May 10, they invited me along with Angélica Jasso (secretariat of the AJCD) to the program Vamos Tranqui on Radio Chilango with Gina Jaramillo. I previously supported my university's radio program for my social service. , but I had not experienced recording in such a sophisticated radio booth. The team was very warm and it was a great opportunity to spread the word about the event.

The long-awaited day arrived: May 11. I woke up with great euphoria and a little fear, I feared that not many young people would attend, but with all the energy I began my trip from Ecatepec to the Selina hotel, headquarters of the event.

I arrived and everything looked like a dream, green and purple glasses with the name of the event, a basket of taquitos with their respective fresh waters of horchata and Jamaica, 3 tables prepared to receive the workshop participants, a space outside with a blind bamboo ready to be filled with the stickers that were about to be designed, a mixer ready to be played by the artists who would accompany us that afternoon and a mirror with different legends about the work, I mean, ready for the iconic photos of the day.

It was 2:00 pm, people were arriving, my excitement was increasing because I welcomed many familiar faces and they all received a t-shirt commemorating the event. They introduced me to the workshop leader, I was going to be in charge of the dialogue in the collective mural. Some young volunteers were prepared with cards that would function as guides to ask different questions about work.

With background music and a youthful atmosphere the workshops started, at the same time a podcast of what was happening at the event was being recorded, more people arrived and I wanted to talk to each one, I approached and was able to start a conversation with young people from the periphery , they told me about their experiences and how they had found out about the event, as time progressed the connection strengthened and the dialogue was more fluid.

The time that many people were waiting for has arrived, the intervention of 3 talented rappers who share the defense of human rights equally: Zeiba Cuicani, Julie Lobsta and Luna Roots, with Ruido Beats in the background lighting up the atmosphere more and more. I was fortunate to present them and thank them for the attendance, which exceeded our expectations, in addition to mentioning the proposals we presented on May 2 and inviting more young people to join our activities.

The moment of the improvisations is indescribable, I recommend you watch the videos on the Alliance networks so that you can visualize how the moment was lived, I was enjoying every word, every intervention, all the rhymes called for decent work.

We closed the day with Fhecko, until that moment I was able to see the collective mural and what great works were carried out in that place, the voices in unison demand jobs that dignify us, that understand our needs, we seek to stop child labor, more opportunities for the and Young people, that they employ us without demanding so many years of experience, we ask for trust in us, to be listened to and listened to, equal opportunities and to be seen from a centrist, non-adult place.

I thank each person for making this event possible: the volunteers, the community that attended, the media that disseminated and gave us a voice, the artists for their time and livening up coexistence, those in charge of feeding us, the and the workshop participants for sharing their endeavors and their work, the Alliance that was behind us the entire time and helped us with the entire organization, the agency for materializing this project, the headquarters for hosting us and my friends and family for supporting me.