Global Youth Action Network and TakingITGlobal

The Global Youth Action Network (GYAN) and TakingITGlobal (TIG) are working together to organize traveling seminars on youth througout the world, starting in Brazil.

GYAN is a global network of youth organizations from almost 200 countries. It facilitates youth participation in the UN system and incubates global partnerships among youth organizations such as the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Chat the Planet and Global Youth Service Day. For more information about GYAN, go to www.youthlink.org

TIG is an international organization led by youth and enabled by technology. It connects youth to find inspiration, access information, and get involved. TIG's chief program is www.takingitglobal.org, the Internet's largest community of young people committed to making a difference.

Trip Coordinators

Andrea Des Marais, born in 1981, is the Community Engagement Coordinator for the South American Regional Office of GYAN. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, she has been involved with youth activism since the age of 14 - participating in LGBT rights lobbying in the California senate, leading diversity-appreciation workshops at her high school, and organizing a weeklong environmental conference at her university. She studied international economics and development at University of California, with a focus on poverty and trade. Since graduation, helping activists organize has become her passion, first through her work with the People’s Health Movement, and now with GYAN. With a love for traveling that has taken her to 16 countries, Andrea now lives with her partner in São Paulo, Brazil, and speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

Jonah Wittkamper, born in 1974, is the South American Regional Director of GYAN. He grew up in New York City and became involved with youth activism at age 15 when he participated in the international youth leadership program of Camp Rising Sun. In 1998, he began to facilitate youth participation in international conferences and has since created many youth projects in partnership with institutions like Accenture, IEARN, the Artemisia Foundation, the L A Jonas Foundation, Pioneers of Change, and the UN system. He speaks 3 languages, has participated in 100+ international gatherings as a speaker or facilitator, and has visited more than 40 countries. In 2000, he co-founded GYAN in New York. Today, he runs the South American regional office in Sao Paulo, Brazil and is married to Lis Hirano Wittkamper of the Kellogg Foundation, whose experience and relationships have informed this project.