How Do We Form Our Opinions and What Are the Impacts?

As Buddies Without Borders Clubs entered their sixth year of operation around the world, we invited teens to review the global goals and consider how effectively these goals are translated into laws, locally and globally. One topic they are most enthusiastic about is Health and Wellness:

Nora Franka Vastag (Green Bay High School, New Zealand) - "Healthcare access across the world is a large problem, and as of late 2025, according to the World Bank and the World Health Organisation, around 4.6 billion people aren’t receiving essential services, which is around half of the world population. Alongside this, each year, large numbers of households are being pushed into poverty due to needing to pay for healthcare themselves. Currently, 800 million people spend at least 10 percent of their income on healthcare for themselves, a sick child, or other family members( The World Health Organisation). For almost 100 million people, these expenses are high enough to push them into extreme poverty, forcing them to survive on next to nothing."

Mina ERDİNÇ (Vali Muammer Guler Social Sciences High School, Turkiye) - "Health is one of the most important aspects of life. Without good health, money and success lose their value. Unfortunately, gender inequality still exists in healthcare, and men are often seen as the norm. For example, most CPR mannequins are produced using men's bodies, and their chests don't match those of women. This means many people don't know what to do or get it wrong when it comes to performing CPR on a woman. This may not seem like a big deal, but if you see someone unresponsive, not breathing, or simply gasping for air, CPR should be used. (American Red Cross) Even worse, mannequins designed for women's bodies are being commoditized. Similarly, in the pharmaceutical industry, many medications are tested exclusively on male subjects without proper testing to determine their suitability for women."

Anushka Pradeep Varrier (BINUS, Indonesia) - "Healthcare is important because it preserves life, reduces suffering, and upholds human dignity. While individual responsibility and personal choice are relevant, the complex and uncontrollable factors influencing health make collective healthcare systems ethically necessary and socially beneficial. This understanding shapes my perspective by reinforcing the idea that healthcare is not a privilege reserved for a few, but a fundamental component of a just, equitable, and compassionate society."

The ability to think critically is important to our joint future. How do our opinions shape laws and policies? How do we form our opinions and assumptions? How are these opinions impacting our laws and fellow human beings? We look forward to hearing the teens speak up in our next Buddies Without Borders Online Forum: Power for a Better Future.