"When we come to Church we do not get that respect … We are then sidelined to minor things, we cannot do a lot, we are viewed as weak, [so] we cannot do so many things," she said.
"I [would] hope and appreciate if the Church can also see that strength in us, make us responsible, and we can save so many souls," she said.
For Karombo, it's not so much about the individual countries as it is about learning what challenges youth face on a global level and confronting them together.
"I believe we can discuss and come up with a way that is universal to help everyone out," she said.
"If I were living in Europe with all those challenges, how would I react to them? Maybe that way, in understanding each other, we will have a way forward in addressing the challenges," she said.
Tinyiko Joan Ndaba, a woman from South Africa who works to raise awareness about human trafficking, told CNA a major problem she wants to address is human trafficking, and she feels a responsibility to share the knowledge she had gained about the phenomenon with her peers.
Ndaba said she learned about trafficking through workshops with the Combating Trafficking in Persons branch of the U.S. Department of Defense and the Talitha Kum anti-trafficking organization.
After starting a group with Talitha Kum to help raise awareness in parishes, Ndaba said "we noticed that people do not know about this," so they made their campaign public, "because if people in our churches don't know, it means the public doesn't know about this."
Trafficking, she said, is "so sad, it is inhumane," and it "takes away from the communities; I imagine myself in that situation, and thinking how much I would have lost if I was a victim of slavery, so it's better to prevent it before it happens to anyone else."
Ndaba said she knows of at least one instance when a young woman in the process of being trafficked was able to realize what was happening and get out of the situation thanks to a workshop they led at her school.
"One group cannot do anything, but we need to community to carry this out, because this is a social issue," she said, voicing her hope that young people at the pre-synodal meeting "can really contribute toward the growth of our different communities that we come from."
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Nneji also voiced hope that the youth in attendance would be able to address their challenges and find a clear way forward.
"We want to be part of decision-making, [and] the Church has given us an opportunity in the pre-synod, so this conference … is a wonderful opportunity to see ourselves and know where we are; know our strengths and our weaknesses, manage them together and see how we can help the Church and society."
Elise Harris was senior Rome correspondent for CNA from 2012 to 2018.