Teenager’s vision for future of youth (From Swindon Advertiser)

Teenager’s vision for future of youth

6:23pm Sunday 12th February 2012 in News By Barrie Hudson

Grishma Ramesh

BARRIE HUDSON meets Grishma Ramesh, 16, the town’s newest member of the Youth Parliament, which is a national platform for the views of young people. Grishma lives in Pinehurst. Her father, Rizal, is a chef, while mum Giyetri Sharma is a cleaner. The couple also have a son, 12-year-old Shaishab.

“I WANT to be a surgeon. I’m still looking into what kind of surgeon I want to be. I think I want to be a plastic surgeon.”

Grishma Ramesh speaks with calm assurance in a language she didn’t begin learning until shortly before her teens. It’s one of five at her command.

In conversation she comes across as one of nature’s can-do people, determined but never arrogant.

She insists, for example, on publicly thanking two of her teachers at Swindon Academy, Helen Green and Ian Howard, for their help during her bid to become an MYP, a role she can’t wait to tackle.

“It’s about freedom of speech,” she said. “Nobody can stop you from saying what you want to say. There are always people who will go against you, so you have got to stand up for what you believe.

“I have to make sure that I represent every single teenager across Swindon, and I have to take their views into account and take action instead of just saying I will do something.

“I have to change Swindon to be a better place for them to live in.”

Grishma is originally from Nepal. When she was eight or nine, and for reasons she is unsure of to this day, the family moved to Belgium, settling in Antwerp for three years.

Then came another move, to Reading this time, and after a year there the family came to Swindon. Grishma enrolled at Swindon Academy in Year Eight, aged 13, and has since been selected as an ambassador for the school and its students at a variety of official functions and trips.

She is fluent in Nepalese, Hindi, Flemish and English, and her growing knowledge of French has already earned her an early GCSE in the subject. The idea of standing as a candidate for the Youth Parliament came when previous MYP Carney Bonner visited the academy to talk to pupils about his role.

Grishma rejects the common notion that young people as a whole are not interested in politics, pointing out that they often discuss subjects in which politics has a hand, but without framing them in political terms.

“They like debating,” she said, “but they would not class it as politics.”

Her own priorities in her new role include encouraging more young people to take part in the political process, and reminding older ones of their responsibilities, too.

She is less than impressed by the image of young people sometimes presented by the media, and if she had power to order changes she would.

“I would give more chances for young people because young people right now are portrayed badly by the media.

“I would do something about that. I would get young people more involved in positive things – and when a teenager did a good thing I’d get the media to come and film it. When they do something bad it’s front page news but when they do something good it’s never front page.”

The MYP would like to see a shake-up in policies relating to young people and drugs and alcohol. “We need to bring out role models for teenagers and make them realise that there are more things to life than drugs.”

Other problems she wants to tackle include bullying, and she’d like to see all schools make its eradication a major priority.

And her advice to other young people?

“Nothing is impossible. When I started this campaign I knew it would be a challenge but that it was up to me. Anything is possible if you believe in yourself.”