The change stories shared by adolescents were translated using Deepl, with no additional editing beyond translation.
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Juanito Piquiña was a young man who liked to hang out with the wrong crowd, and despite his mother’s advice, he never listened to her. One day, he met Alejandra at school. She said she was part of a project called VMC that offered classes and community workshops on leadership and healthy cities. He decided to join because he had to complete a few hours of community service to graduate, and the course counted towards that. Plus, he really liked the snacks they gave out.
Little by little, he realised that this was what he truly enjoyed: being a leader and seeing how valuable he was to his community. So, he began to put his heart into the activities they were given and never missed a single class. What started as an obligation to graduate from school became a motivation to leave bad friendships behind and become a leader in his community in Potrero Grande. Today, he thanks God for putting these people from the VMC project in his path. Thanks to them and the motivation they gave him, Juanito Piquiña began attending some sessions of the Municipal Youth Council (CMJ), participated in an event in London, and continues to seek to be a leader and contribute to the well-being of his community.
