“My name is Lía Solange Díaz Quevedo. I am 18 years old, I am currently in my second year of International Relations at USIL. I come from a lower middle class working family, I have two siblings and parents whose humble origins gave me greater sensitivity in the social section. During my school years, I gradually discovered major social problems in the country, accentuated by the serious inequality and access to opportunities. In high school, I was part of a social activity at the “121 Virgen de Fátima” elementary school related to healthy eating in order to combat anemia, a disease that is deeply rooted in Peru. In that year, I also participated in a Model United Nations (IUMUN) in the health commission.
During the pandemic, the unequal access to technologies of the population was evidenced and the suffering of mental illnesses increased. In view of this, in the School Parliament, I developed the “Sana-Mente” project, which encouraged a forum on social networks where adolescents could freely talk about how they were dealing with the pandemic and their mental health.
At the university stage, studying International Relations at USIL, the courses of the degree helped me to identify the main challenges of the country in the social field, coinciding with the great political polarization caused by the presidential elections. Likewise, I participated in a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) between USIL and the University of Bucaramanga where a presentation was to be made about the risks of democracy in Latin America. Thanks to this, I became aware that these social problems not only had a national scale, but also a continental one. Currently, I am volunteering for the Ministry of Education focused on pedagogical recovery, and developing a social enterprise together with my sister for an Impact Startup Competition.”