We've heard from our four young people who are representing the United States at the Junior 8 Summit, shadowing the G8 summit in Japan. Here's their third blog posting, written by Manogna, who represented the United States when meeting with the G8 leaders.
Today was an interesting day. It was the day we were all waiting for! The nine representatives of the J8 delegation, including me, left an hour earlier than everyone else to get ready for the meeting with the leaders. During this meeting, we went over possible answers to various questions that could be asked and the basic schedule that we needed to follow.
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| © UNICEF/HQ08-0662/Ayano Sato |
| The 39 youth delegates to the J8 Summit gather at the Citizens’ Cultural Center in the city of Chitose on Hokkaido Island. |
As our extra hour was drawing to a close, we began talking about the action plan. By then, the rest of the J8 delegation had arrived, and we split into three groups—Poverty and Development, Global Health and Climate Change. We perfected our Action Plan and ended with a final agreement. So, with both the Chitose Declaration and Action Plan completed, we were set to go meet the leaders!
However, before we actually headed out on our way to where the leaders were, we had a press conference. During the Press Conference, the J8 delegation was represented by four individuals. They all did a very good job at answering the media’s questions, which lasted up until around 2:00 pm!!
At around 2:00 pm, the nine representatives got on the bus and headed out to see the G8 leaders. The ride was smooth and very scenic. It was about a two hour ride and we did not experience any difficulties. When we got to the twin lake—Lake Toya—we still had 2 ½ hours until we met with our leaders.
The meeting point was located in a hotel in the middle of the mountains; it was very pretty. The ride to the top of the mountain contained a lot of security. In order to get into the hotel itself we need to go through many security checks. However, we got our own personalized authority cards, so all we had to do was slide it by! ;)
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| © UNICEF/HQ08-0656/Government of Japan |
| J8 Summit youth delegates join world leaders at the G8 Summit in the town of Toyako on Hokkaido Island. They are: (left-right) Simona Blandino of Italy, Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi, Yan Naumkin of the Russian Federation, President of the Russian Federation Dimitri Medvedev, Nora Fritzi Marlen Zech of Germany, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, Jasper Thomas Warner of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown, Shiro Kuriwaki of Japan, Prime Minister of Japan Yasuo Fukuda, President of the United States of America George W. Bush, Manogna Manne of the United States of America, Khalil Ahaf Kassam of Canada, Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper, Camille Gaelle Isabelle Guillaume of France, President of France Nicolas Sarkozy, Je-Meila Ramona Maloney of Barbados, and President of the European Commission José Manuel Durão Barroso of Portugal. |
Once inside the hotel itself, we prepped for another hour. We went through our major points and in what order we were required to arrive. At the very beginning, we were a little disappointed because we were told that there was a misunderstanding between correspondents and that we might actually only get about 30 seconds to a minute to talk to our leaders. But when the event actually occurred, all of us ended up being pleased.
At 7:00 we headed out to the meeting location and waited for our leaders. They came down one by one, and after their quick press pictures we were able to speak to them. We talked briefly while we waited for the meeting to begin. We were all fortunate enough to meet all the leaders (President Bush, Prime Minister Harper, President Sarkozy, Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister Berlusconi, Prime Minister Fukuda, President Medvedev and Prime Minister Brown).
As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to President Bush. He was very charismatic and open, and since our conversation was performed on a less formal level, it was very easy to talk to him and tell him our ideas. Since we did not have much time to talk to the leaders—about 8-15 minutes—I was only able to stress a couple major points. These points included the importance of spreading education and young people advocacy. However, the important matter was that we were all able to make an effect on our leaders, and show them that young people can make a difference.
When we arrived back, we had a large welcome back committee waiting for us! Everyone was very proud and we got to share all our stories. The whole meeting with the leaders was recorded and we watched the replay with the rest of the J8 delegation. We then shared our stories once again with everyone and finally retired for the night, the excitement still all around us!
