Opinion: Tsunami brings home how lucky we are

I first came across this term just over a decade ago, through external examination of an initial youth work training course that offered an optional module on this subject. The coursework for students required them to compile a portfolio on a relevant topic of their choice: the child labour used in making expensive footballs; Fairtrade coffees from South America; or the marketing of cigarettes by multinational companies to young people in the Third World. This was embryonic stuff at the time, with little additional reflection and analysis.

Global youth work as a subject has, of course, become rather more sophisticated since then, but the challenge of making meaningful connections for the young people with whom we work still remains. The media coverage of the tsunami breaks through that barrier, as very few people will not have the catastrophe etched deeply in their minds. That provides a firm platform for exploring and contrasting per capita standards of living, the levels of aid donations made both by governments and by groups and individuals, and the living conditions of young people in the affected areas in contrast to those at home.