The Sunday News
Fairness Moyana in Hwange
YOUTHS in Hwange last week held an indaba with key stakeholders on devolution, natural resource governance, and corporate social responsibility as part of bridging the information gap and stimulating participation.
The indaba organised by Hwange Youth Empowerment Initiative (HYEI) created a platform for interaction between youths and key stakeholders such as Ministries of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development, and Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Hwange Local Board, NGOs and influential leaders on processes of enabling participation.
This comes as the organisation is rolling out activities meant to create synergies between the youth and officials after studies revealed that there was a low participation mostly fuelled by lack of information.
HYEI district programmes manager Mr Tinashe Matika said lack of access to information on how the youth can benefit from various initiatives was promoting negative attitudes.
“We are a youth organisation and this was our inaugural youth indaba. We realised that there is a huge gap in terms of access to information which normally manifest in adverse behaviour where people believe or perpetuate stereotypes that Government officials can’t help you or provide you with information. So we enlisted the ministries and these stakeholders as well as individual presenters to come and interface with the youth and unpack the nature of programming with each of the stakeholders and how it relates to the youth,” he said.
He said lack of participation of the youth exacerbated by the information gap was fuelling perceptions.
Mr Matika said the state of the youth in the district was appalling as many were resorting to sex, drug and alcohol abuse, a development he blamed on lack of recreational facilities in the district.
“We drew up a petition which we will be serving the local board and relevant ministries to address the lack of recreational facilities and amenities in the district. The youth are rather engaging in drinking and some go as far as even considering sex as a recreational activity which is a huge problem. So this petition is meant to compel authorities to intervene,” he said.
Meanwhile, HLB chairperson Councillor Nqobile Mabhena urged the youth to participate actively in the crafting of the budget and the implementation of devolution.
“When you do not participate in processes such as the crafting of budgets you miss out on development. It is important to know how your contributions affect the implementation of council activities. Now we have devolution which the youth must be seen to be part of as it speaks to their well-being.”
