Julia is a 21-year-old from Jundiaí São Paulo, Brazil and is currently working in event management. Julia became involved with Special Olympics first at the local level, participating in Unified events in her region. She later became a Unified Partner, a role that is very important to her. Julia believes that being a part of the Unified Generation means overcoming all barriers such as difference in language, nationality, race, gender, or disability status to form a strong community of supportive individuals. Julia is proud to be inspiring positive attitudes surrounding the topic of inclusion through her work with Special Olympics.

Kaylany is a 19-year-old from Jundiaí São Paulo. She is a student at a Physical Education college in Jundiaí. Kaylany is a Special Olympics athlete, participating in swimming, triathlons and rhythmic gymnastics. Kaylany is also an athlete leader, and she serves on the Athlete Input Council. To Kaylany, being a part of the Unified Generation brings her great joy and pride both to learn from others from all over the world and to represent her country. She finds her work with Special Olympics to be incredibly uplifting and rewarding.
Kaylany and Julia’s hometown of Junndai is also home to many refugee families from Afghanistan. Kaylany and Julia are going to use their background in physical education and event planning to provide aid to these families, creating a safe place and a welcoming, inclusive environment for both the refugee families from Afghanistan and Special Olympics Youth Leaders Junndai!

Kaylany and Julia plan to combine their experience in physical education and event management to host many events throughout their project for refugee families from Afghanistan. These events will range from organized breakfasts and lunches with their community, to recreational experiences at parks, to hygiene item drives. These experiences will all be Unified to empower new Youth Leaders!
Kaylany and Julia enjoyed facilitating their project. They particularly enjoyed exchanging ideas and teaching them how to play sport the most and described the experience as unforgettable! They were inspired by their mentor Mariangela and the NGO Panahgah, who always made sure that they felt supported throughout the implementation of their project. Their project, The World Belongs to Everyone, achieved their goal by including people both with and without intellectual disabilities in sports and physical education activities!
Through their project, Kaylany and Julia were able to improve their communication and empathy skills by interacting with the refugee families from Afghanistan. Although, there were some cultural differences that the Youth Pair had to adjust to. Kaylany and Julia realized the cultural differences when it came to touch, they at first had difficulty recognizing at first when they should keep their distance. This was overcome by everybody learning to respect each others space.