From the 4th to the 7th of November, 2024, World Youth Alliance Europe hosted this year’s Emerging Leaders Conference in Brussels, Belgium. The topic of the event was Empowering by Educating: Training on Women’s Reproductive and Mental Health and Rights. It was part of the project called Women’s Health Goes Digital funded by the European Commission.
On the first day Ina Delić, WYA’s Regional Director of Operations, made an introduction to the Conference and its partners – University of Navarra, Teen Star Italy, SWRK Pontes, Incubator of Excellence and World Youth Alliance Southeast Europe – were presented. The next morning began with a speech by Ramón Barba Castro, the Regional Director of Advocacy, on the mission and ideas behind World Youth Alliance. He was followed by Tamara Bador, PhD, who gave a lecture on the influence of hormones on female bodies and put emphasis on understanding the menstrual cycle and its different phases. This was a chance to promote FEMM, where participants can learn about women’s health in more detail.
The topic of difficulties women face today regarding their reproductive rights was developed by Natalia Strzyżewska, founder of SWRK Pontes, who discussed the situation of women-migrants from Eastern Europe and how young people’s activism can support them. The next speaker, Pilar Vigil, BMed, MD, PhD, FACOG, broadened the medical knowledge of participants with her online presentation. It focused on the current scientific research regarding oral contraceptives (OCs) and their impact on health and hormones, including mental health, and their particular impact – and difficult side effects – among adolescents.
On the third day, the ELC moved to the European Parliament. First, participants entered into a panel discussion with Laetitia Pouliquen, Léopold Vanbellingen and Moutiaa Gouaida. The experts touched on challenges brought by the European law, such as sharing health-related information, substances of human origin, surrogacy, abortion, violence against women and work-life balance. Afterwards, the participants had a chance to meet representatives from all of their countries, including MEPs Margarita de la Pisa Carrión and Jorge Buxadé Villalba from Spain, Niels Geuking from Germany, Paolo Inselvini from Italy, Tomasz Buczek from Poland, Lukas Mandl from Austria and Karlo Ressler from Croatia, as well as French EPP Policy Advisor Jean Etienne Marie Patrick Amaudric Du Chaffaut. The day concluded with a tour of the European Parliament’s building.
The final stage of ELC was hosted by the Taipei Centre. The participants were welcomed by HE Roy Chun Lee who spoke about Taiwan and the importance of dialogue in democratic countries. A final lecture by Francisco Guell, BS, BPh, PhD entitled The Phenomenon of Medically Assisted Reproduction in Europe: From Science to Lobbying provided a meta-analysis regarding fertility treatments and disinformation across 8 European countries. After this plethora of insightful presentations, the ELC concluded.
The Conference attracted 50 young people from 7 European countries. The 10 speakers represented 6 countries and multiple fields of work, including academia, medicine, social sciences, NGOs, diplomacy and international organizations.