IFLRY at the YDA National Convention 2009

Paola — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:17:00 GMT

From the 5th to the 9th of August the biannual national convention of the Young Democrats of America was held.

IFLRY President Paola Silva, Secretary General Bart Woord and Bureau Member Roger Albinyana attended the event and were present at the sessions.

During the convention a special international session was held, where were present delegates from Belgium, Netherlands, Catalunya, Canada, Germany and Colombia. At the session IFLRY's work was presented and also the activities done by YDA abroad

Agenda of the convention included election of the new president and other officials, therefore Crystal Strait was elected as new YDA President. The programme also included a speech from the IFLRY President, as well as LYMEC President Aloys Rigaut, to the delegates at the general session, which you can find below:

Good morning Young Democrats of America

Muy buenos días.

It is an honor and also a pleasure for me, to be here addressing for first time a national young democrat’s convention. I want to thank my friends David Hardt and Juan Ayala because they invited me to come and gave me the chance to be here with you, and they have been truly committed with YDA’s work abroad.

Some of you might be wondering what is all this IFLRY thing about?. I can start with an anecdote. Yesterday at the passport control procedure, police officer asked me what was the purpose of my visit. I explained I was coming to the YDA Convention and he told me: “ahh, then it means that you are liberal minded. Thank you guys, you did a great job at the last elections, and we are all very happy about that”. I said, thank you, I didn´t do so much, but I’m also very happy about the results.

This is what all this is about. IFLRY was founded in 1947 and it is the international umbrella of the liberal youth organizations. Our mission is to engage young people to promote liberal values across the globe. We have around 100 member organizations from around 80 different countries of the globe. And you guys as YDA belong to this worldwide network of liberal youngsters from the five continents.

Yesterday it was a great start for my dream that is becoming true right now. Two years ago, in 2007 when the official candidate for President of the Democratic Party wasn’t defined yet, we as IFLRY came to Dallas to give you our support and to welcome you as full members of the Federation. Also two years ago I was doing my own campaign to become the first Latin American president of the Federation and also the first non-european after 60 years of IFLRY’s history. At that time, I was sitting, looking and listening all people that came here to gave us their speeches. At that time, when election campaign for the White House was starting and expected results were not even close to what did happen, I was wondering myself if I would had the chance to share with you the sweet taste of the victory as the first Latin American and the first non-european president of IFLRY.

And here we are. My dream became true. I did it and you guys rocked.

I’m here to bring you a message from millions of young liberals and democrats of the world. We all, want to congratulate you, we want to express you our respect and admiration for your outstanding and great victory at the last presidential elections, but my message, is also to let you now, that you were not only able to change the present and future of your country, but to let you know that we are aware of the challenge and that you are not alone. You have millions of young liberal and democrats to support your work.

What happened at the last election campaign, is not only a proof that yes, you can, but it also proofs that embrace diversity is the new key issue that really can make changes. You were not only able to start a change in your own country. You are also changing situation in other countries. Countries like Lebanon, Germany, or mine, Colombia.

President Obama has created a new political environment in the world. Just to take Colombia as an example, it was easy to realize the impact of Obama’s administration. When we all knew the results of the elections, and the greatest performance of the Democrats, issues like human rights and protection and respect for minorities increased their interest for the current Colombian government, and it has had an important impact on the people of my country. But also in Latin America we felt very happy to have Obama’s administration as partner to make important changes in the region.

With the result of the elections, you, the Young Democrats of America brought us hope. Hope in the sense that we saw that yes, you can, and you empower us to believe that we can do it too. Hope, because we knew that not only your country but also the world was going to be back on track. Hope because we knew that it was possible to create a better future. Hope, because you changed traditions and created a new chapter in the history of your country and the history of the humanity. But even more important than those things mentioned, you brought us hope, because we got certainty about the fact that young people are the leaders and that they have a key role building not only a promising future, but a better present for people’s live. You, the Young Democrats of America, took back your present and your future and at the same time you did it for many people all over the globe.

This certainty has created a new soul, a new spirit among youngsters in the world, not only in Latin America, but also in Asia, Africa and Europe.

You can see trough the work we do as International Federation. And those of your members that have attended our events have felt also the treasurer of your experience. We are all confident that all our hopes are, step by step, becoming a reality.

That is why I want to invite you to make this treasurer bright even more, because your experience can change the present and future of many more countries and people of the world. I want to invite you, and your coming national board to keep working on the international scenario. To use the International Federation of Liberal Youth as a tool to increase the impact of your experience, to use IFLRY as a tool to get first hand information of millions of youngsters like you, that every day face big challenges fighting for freedom and democracy in their countries. To use IFLRY to create a joint effort with other youngster from around 80 countries not only to promote liberal and democratic values, but to go even further, to globalize freedom and to make real changes in the present and future of the world.

Because we in IFLRY have the deeply belief that YDA not only works, YDA rocks.

Thank you. Muchas gracias

IFLRY Bureau's blog : YDA, speech

IFLRY at the YDA National Convention 2009