Filipina Makes History With Seat in One of the World’s Largest Youth Movements

Czieloh Villajin elected to the World YMCA Executive Committee for the 2026 to 2030 term at the 21st World Council in Toronto

TORONTO/MANILA  — World YMCA has elected Filipina youth leader Czieloh Villajin to its Executive Committee for the 2026 to 2030 term. The committee holds strategic, financial, and governance oversight for a movement present in more than 100 countries and guides the implementation of Vision 2030, World YMCA’s strategy for community wellbeing, meaningful work, a sustainable planet, and a just world.

She was chosen by official voting delegates at the 21st YMCA World Council, held in Toronto, Canada from July 19 to 25, 2026 under the theme “Transform,” which drew around 1,300 participants from national movements worldwide. She was the only youth candidate from Asia and the Pacific and is one of two elected members from the region, on a committee spanning seven global regions.

“This is not a seat for one country or one region,” Czieloh Villajin said. “Every decision this committee makes eventually lands in a local YMCA somewhere, and I intend to keep asking what it will actually mean there.”

“Governance is where good intentions either become real or quietly disappear. I want what this movement promises young people to survive that test, in every region.”

Czieloh Villajin
Executive Member of World YMCA

Czieloh Villajin comes to the committee from the gender equity and youth participation side of the movement. She chairs the Youth Leadership and Development, Gender Equity, and Public Relations Committees of the YMCA of Manila, sits on the technical working group developing the YMCA Philippines Strategic Plan 2027 to 2030, and represents the Philippines on the Gender Equity Committee of the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs, where she helped draft the alliance’s sexual harassment policy. She is a graduate of the World YMCA Change Agents Programme, Cohort 5.

Outside the movement, Czieloh Villajin is Policy and Advocacy Lead at ALPAS Group, where she directs strategy and stakeholder engagement across a multinational client portfolio, and Programme Communications Manager for Energy Transition at Forum for the Future. Campaigns she helped lead, including ANGKLA and ALPAS Talakayan, have received Philippine Quill Awards.

“Governance is where good intentions either become real or quietly disappear,” she said. “I want what this movement promises young people to survive that test, in every region.”

YMCA Philippines sent six official delegates to the World Council. Orlando Carreon, OIC National General Secretary, and Ianne Christine Aquino, OIC National Program Secretary, led the delegation, joined by Czieloh Villajin and Hanniel Saus of the YMCA of Manila, Melody Quintanilla and Magda Gana of the YMCA Makati, and Ain Art Atos of the YMCA Albay. Saus, Quintanilla, and Atos are graduates of the Change Agents Programme, Cohort 6, which put four Change Agents in a delegation of six. 

“Four of our six delegates came through the Change Agents Programme, and one of them is now on the Executive Committee,” said Orlando F. Carreon, OIC National General Secretary of YMCA Philippines. “That is not luck. That is what happens when a national movement puts young people in real positions early and keeps them there.”

About YMCA of Manila

Founded in 1907, The YMCA of Manila is a non-government, non-profit, ecumenical association dedicated to the welfare of young people, supported by voluntary contributions and its own programs. Guided by Christian values, it promotes the physical, mental, social, and spiritual welfare of youth on an equal basis, and holds as central to its mission giving young people every opportunity to participate and take on leadership within the association.

About YMCA of the Philippines

The YMCA of the Philippines is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization dedicated to empowering young people and strengthening communities through programs that nurture leadership, character, and holistic development. Guided by the YMCA’s vision of a world where every person lives in harmony with self, society, and creation, the YMCA of the Philippines inspires individuals to become responsible citizens and servant leaders who contribute to building a just, sustainable, equitable, and inclusive society.