The anxiety is almost unbearable. My heart feels like it's going to beat right out of my chest. I am standing in front of the UN waiting for Mrs. Nane Annan, the wife of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Suddenly, the voices around me grow louder. Four other NetAid Global Citizen Corps Leaders and I turn to see a large yellow school bus approaching.

This is no typical bus.  In the front seat is Mr. Kimani Ng'ang'a, an 85-year-old man from Kenya who is the world's oldest primary school student. He began his education when school fees in his village were abolished and he could finally afford to go to school. Behind him, the windows of the bus are covered with "buddies"—paper cutouts made by students that represent the more than 100 million children worldwide who cannot go to school.

It is September 13, 2005—the day before leaders will meet at the 2005 UN World Summit to discuss the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Together with Kimani and students from Peru and India, we have come to deliver a message about access to education to the UN.

Accompanied by his school principal, Kimani shares his story with the press and answers questions from dozens of reporters. Shortly after that, buddies in hand, we are shuffled over to another area. Suddenly I feel someone tapping me on the shoulder. I turn around and my jaw drops—I'm face to face with Mrs. Nane Annan. Before I know it, she's asking me to tell her about the cut-outs I'm carrying. 

I turn to see all of the cameras focused on me and I begin to speak.  I tell her that the buddies represent our friends worldwide who do not have the opportunity to go to school and show her some of the buddies we made. Then I tell Mrs. Annan how we plan to teach our schools and communities about the importance of access to education. As I speak, Mrs. Annan nods her head encouragingly and smiles. The she takes the buddy in her hand and tells me how important it is that we continue our work, and how much she believes that every child should go to school. 

It was the greatest response she could have given. 

Heather Stone is a high school senior from Cumberland, Maryland, where she is a Leader in the Netaid Global Citizen Corps.

Read about the journey of the buddies from on the BuddyBlog.

On Saturday, September 10, 2005, we attended the Millenium Development Goals Youth Summit on behalf of the NetAid Global Citizen Corps. It was only four days before the UN MDG+5 Summit, so everyone there felt a real sense of urgency about the immediate challenges ahead.

We were both really anxious to see what the event was all about. At the entrance, organizers asked us to register and put on our nametags. When we scanned the other names on the table and read the names of their schools—Yale, NYU, Harvard, CUNY—we realized we were the only high school students there. It was quite an honor.  

The summit started with a welcoming speech from Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) and Global Justice, the groups who had organized the youth summit. Gillian Sorenson, former Assistant Secretary General of the UN, gave the keynote address, reinforcing the importance of the goals.  "If we do not know what our goals are, how can we know if we've made progress?" she asked us all.  

The summit featured educational workshops and advocacy training with nonprofit leaders, journalists and leading U.S. and UN policymakers. One of the most informative sessions was Messaging 101—a workshop where Seth Green, leader of AID, taught us how to take our messages to the public. Beyond learning a lot, we were encouraged to come up with a concrete plan for making the MDGs a reality.

Working with other students and activists, we realized that the campaign to end poverty is as strong as the people who make it up—individuals from different backgrounds, each with  different skills. As young advocates, it was inspiring to feel like part of such a global effort. This all came together in the NGO (nongovernmental organization) fair, where we met with different organizations bringing different approaches to the same goals.

Our mission is to make our leaders keep their promises. But if there’s one lesson we could share from the youth summit it’s that—regardless of whether leaders deliver on the MDGs—there’s a growing generation of leaders who are committed to doing what it takes to end poverty.  

Mashall Hamidi and Yuri Takeuchi came from Queens, New York and Greenwich, Connecticut to attend the MDG+5 Youth Summit. Both are high school seniors in the NetAid Global Citizen Corps.