Changemakers with Clare McKenna

Elizabeth Zion is the youngest of my Changemakers so far – at only 19 she's been using her voice for the last few years to talk about family reunification. She serves on the global youth advisory board for UNICEF and currently works on the LIFT Ireland catalyst team, whose focus is building leadership skills in young people. She studies politics, international relations and social justice at the University College Dublin.

We have heard more and more over recent years about people seeking asylum or being displaced due to unrest in their home country but we hear less about stories like Elizabeth's. As you'll hear, her mother fled Nigeria while still pregnant with Elizabeth and with her 4 siblings, all very young at the time, Her father was willing to come with them and support his family but even as of recording he has not been able to secure visa application approval and they have had to make do with a visit every few years and phone contact. As you can imagine this has had a massive emotional toll on the whole family but also on their ability to truly settle here and contribute fully to society at times, so even on an economic level, this doesn't make any sense. Elizabeth and her family have found themselves homeless and have been tested more than many but she is grateful for the struggle which has taught her about what is important in life and she is determined to speak up for people in situations like hers, who might not have found the strength she has.

We talk about the effect of a broken home on a child and of course we live in a time when the shape of a family has changed, people can grow up with one parent for a variety of reasons and flourish. This is a different situation, a family who want to be together but can't because of a set of circumstances, not of their making, which they cannot control. We talk about the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child which recognises childhood is a special, protected time, in which children must be allowed to grow, learn, play, develop and flourish with dignity. It goes on to cite the importance of parents and family in this protection and that children have a right to family life. Elizabeth is calling for these rights to be prioritised and taken into account with visa applications.

For more on Elizabeth Zion click here

View her Ted Talk here