MORE than 100 young people marched to Stormont to call for a Northern Ireland Youth assembly.
The Stormont 108 campaign, organised by Wimps and Public Achievement, began its first steps towards success as they lobbied two junior ministers.
The idea for the protest came from two young people, Ellen Diver,18, and 14-year-old Christopher Madden when they were studying citizenship in school.
Christopher explained: "The idea behind the name is that there are 108 Assembly members in Stormont so we thought it would be a good idea to get a young person to represent each of those politicians and to ask for our own parliament.
Northern Ireland Children and Young Person’s Commissioner Patricia Lewsley was present at the event and gave the young people an inspiring speech before walking with them to the steps.
The group met politicians Gerry Kelly and Ian Paisley Jr to discuss the idea of a youth assembly and why it is so important to hear young people's views.
Mr Kelly agreed with Ellen and Christopher explaining that politicians want to listen to young people’s views which are very important.
But Mr Paisley believes that much is already being done to help young people have a say in how their government is being run.
However, Ellen said Northern Ireland deserves a youth assembly claiming that many places around the UK are already on top of things while Northern Ireland is being left in the shade.
About this article
This story was written by Nikii Clinton, 16, filmed by Ruth Magennis, 19, from Headliners in Belfast
