14-year old Luisa Kiesse Lundoloqui Cuanza wrote this blog after attending the RIATT-ESA sponsored Children and Youth Conference at the 2017 Psychosocial Forum.
My favorite hobby is writing books about the problems that worry me most in Angola and the whole world. I also write short stories for children.
I have four completed stories and am now working on a series of stories. The first story speaks of deliberate self-injury. Cutting is the most common method of self-injury and is often done repeatedly, mostly by adolescent girls.
The second speaks of the life of a teenager who was sexually abused by several young people. The third is about how difficult it was to recognize women's rights and the last is titled "What I think about the world."
Each story is based on facts. There are so many pertinent subjects such as early marriage, juvenile delinquency, prostitution, human trafficking, high rates of illiteracy, early pregnancy, child abandonment, corruption and many more. I select a theme from these issues and create characters to convey specific messages to the readers. In writing each book, I focus on creating an emotional connection and moving my readers to action.
Every writer has a purpose, mine is to contribute to a solution of these problems that affect the entire world. I believe that for progress to be made, we all need work together.
The most valuable thing I learned during the Children and Youth Forum was from Jake. He taught us that we should take advantage of the good and the bad that happens in our lives. Because although we each have different realities, we are all the same. Jake is a great example of a fighter, because although many people had preconceived ideas about his illness, this only motivated him to reach out and help others going through the same thing.
With all that Jack taught us and what I learnt about social media, I have decided to create a blog and youtube channel where I can share my stories and talk about these issues. Through these social media networks I will be able to bring more attention to these issues and have more people knowing about my work. I am not looking to have fans, what I would really like to accomplish is to rally as many people as possible to take action.
In my country there are not many groups that support children living with HIV and other diseases that require special care. So I also plan to raise funds, and together with my friends help children living with HIV. I want to take action for change because "The world we want depends on the world we build." My purpose is to contribute to the promotion of the well-being of all.