We have extracted part of the speech delivered by Benita Ferrero Waldner on collecting her award in the People category at the Sixth Edition of the International Novia Salcedo Awards to Excellence in the Professional Integration of Young People.

We are well aware that the Novia Salcedo Foundation was established over thirty years ago, at a very delicate time of widespread crisis in the country, with the goal of providing young people the prospect of a hopeful future and, today, also in difficult circumstances, it continues to play such a pivotal role as then and I wholeheartedly support the Youth Employment Decade.

And finally, I would like to share with you a quotation by José Ingenieros, which says: “No one is born young, youth is acquired. And without an ideal, it cannot be acquired”.

It is clear that Ingenieros understood youth as a force, as a force for change, which frees people from inhibitions, regardless of their age. This force not only comprises the curiosity to explore new opportunities, but also the creativity of wanting to find new solutions to existing problems and challenges.

Therefore, I would like to dedicate this award to the Young People for their intense desire to evoke positive changes in today’s society!