NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
David Sotelo of Hutchinson was selected for a worldwide opportunity through his work with the United Way of Reno County. He attended the 2023 One Young World Summit representing United Way in Northern Ireland Oct. 2-5.
"There is, I think, more than 180 countries present representing all parts of the globe," Sotelo said. "There's plenty of people from the U.S. I was one of the five United Way delegates that was there. Climate crisis, mental health and food insecurity were some of the big topics that we were discussing over five days."
Having a truly global perspective on issues shows that regardless of governmental system, people want to be able to live in peace and eat and sleep and recreate and live, no matter where they are from.
"Our struggles are not a competition," Sotelo said. "That a kid is going hungry in some classroom in one of our schools in Reno County and that a kid is going hungry somewhere in central Africa, their struggle is no different, and not more important than the other, because at the core of it is this human person that is hungry."
Sotelo sees it as important to fit the solution to the place where the problem is. One example is the greater variability in weather conditions that the world is seeing in recent years.
"How does that impact people in our community?," asked Sotelo. "What does that look like for Reno County? Folks that can't afford to pay their electric bill. How are they going to survive 105, 106 degree summers for the next 10 to 20 years? Something that I think folks in the rooms that I was in were talking about that I think folks in Reno County might understand a little bit better is this really big focus, I welcome that focus and I welcome discussions about this focus, on electric cars as a solution. What we were saying in those rooms is, what about other solutions? Why is that the thing that governments and the market are spending a lot of time and focus on, electric vehicles? What about other alternatives that we can use to address the climate crisis?"
Another issue the summit attempted to touch on was the need for mental health support and that it is just as important as physical health support.
"One of the things that we have to understand is that there's nothing wrong with this," Sotelo said. "There are things that we can work on. Just having grace with ourselves, giving ourselves some grace, but just being there for each other in our mental health struggles."
Sotelo is now a One Young World Ambassador. Since 2010, One Young World Ambassador projects have impacted the lives of over 41.56 million people.
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