UN launches a way to capture unique and powerful stories of people around the world.

"From where I stand..." is a new series launched on UN Women that captures the unique and powerful stories of people around the world, through compelling first-person accounts of their daily sustainable development challenges and how they are bringing about change.

Lamija Gutić is a 16 years old teenager who wrote a piece on sustainable development. She does not like to talk so much about the future because the present is the most important as according to her, changing the present, we are also changing the future. She is already on her way to building technology solutions for a better world. An inspiration for many girls and women across the region, on the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child, she talks about what the Sustainable Development Goals mean for her.

There are 17 SDGs. Her favourite being number 4 (not that others aren't equally important). What is goal number 4, you may ask? Quality education for all. Obtaining a quality education is the foundation for improving people’s lives and sustainable development. Major progress has been made towards increasing access to education at all levels and increasing enrolment rates in schools, particularly for women and girls.

Basic literacy skills have improved tremendously, yet bolder efforts are needed to make even greater strides for achieving universal education goals. For example, the world has achieved equality in primary education between girls and boys, but few countries have achieved that target at all levels of education.

By the year 2030 Lamija will turn 29. 2030 is the deadline for achieving the goals. Some of the targets of UN in this goal are to ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes, to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education, and to ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university. All this to be done by the year 2030.

Lamija entered the coding world in 2016. She has attended several coding camps since then and learned how to create websites and applications. She also loves photography.

She believes that the right to literacy is a fundamental human right. She wants that every child in her country and the world has access and equal opportunities to education. All over the world, stereotypes are present everywhere, and it is necessary to empower young people to combat them. Gender equality is about equal opportunities because men aren’t smarter than women, and vice versa.

"One person cannot change the entire world alone, but we can influence the people around us, our friends, family, and peers. I believe that my peers and I will be the game-changers and we will make the world a better place by 2030,” she says.