“Sylvia was forced into marriage at the age of 15 – but this difficult time inspired her to start advocating for girls’ education”

The Global Youth Ambassadors are a network of 500 committed young advocates who support our campaigns all around the world.

This year, we have been working with film-maker Steve Nguyen and his Studio APA to shine a light on some of the incredible young people within this network. 

Through a comic book-style series – called “Presenting” – we have been able to highlight the stories of individual Global Youth Ambassadors who have shown their dedication to creating change and championing education.

The first issue featured Wanja Maina from Kenya and described how she was inspired to campaign for the rights of disabled young women by her personal experiences growing up.

In Issue 2 we met Omang Agarwal from India, who has been a driving force in Theirworld’s #SafeSchools campaign throughout 2016. 

Omang reflected on the influence of his father as a role model and told us how he gained a passion for education from a young age.

Now in Issue 3 we hear from Sylvia Kakyo from Uganda. Sylvia joined the Global Youth Ambassador network this year and has already had several successes as part of Theirworld’s campaigns. 

From recording a video message to world leaders reminding them of their promises to get refugee children in school, to securing a meeting with the Ugandan Commissioner for Children and Youth to encourage him to support our #5for5 campaign, Sylvia has shown the power young people have to drive change.

Her own education experience was far from easy – Sylvia was forced into marriage at the age of 15. 

Sharing her story with us through “Presenting”, she explains that this difficult time in her life inspired her to start advocating for education, especially girls’ education, and to try to make a positive change in her community. 

She’s now the director of a grassroots NGO called Kakyo Girls Initiative in Kampala.