Today is International Youth Day, which kicks off a whole week of UN activities pertaining to youth. To mark this particular day, the Secretary-General has invited Raquelina Langa of Mozambique to be his Special Guest for the day.
On 21 May 2013, the Secretary-General visited the Matheus Samsão Muthemba School in Polana Caniço, Maputo, Mozambique. During the Secretary-General’s tour, which served to highlight the key role of education as the path towards development, as well as to promote gender equality and his UNiTE campaign to end violence against women and girls, students presented the school’s Charter of Commitment to end violence against women and girls. The Charter was the result of an activity carried out at the school in the context of the UNiTE campaign with the support of UN Women in Mozambique, community leaders, and civil society organizations.
During the questions and answers session that followed the presentation, a 10th grade student, Raquelina Fernando Langa, asked the Secretary-General if she as a girl could become Secretary-General and, if so, what she needed to do to achieve this goal. The Secretary-General was so impressed by Raquelina that he decided to invite her to come to New York as his Special Guest.
Today, on International Youth Day, Raquelina will be visiting the United Nations secretariat. She will also be offered a tour of the UN building, as well as attend an event jointly organised by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth on youth and mental health, which is the theme for this year’s International Youth Day.