Today is
International Youth Day recognized by the UN and even though this year's theme
is focused on youth immigrants and the challenges faced, Write Paragraphs
decided to go fundamental by shining the spotlight on youths from different
countries, paying attention to the challenges they face and finding the possible solutions. In
doing this, we decided to get youths to write in two paragraphs the challenges
faced and solutions. Here are some of the entries we got;
‘To
survive, a youth requires some basic necessities- food, water, clothing healthcare
and shelter. To interact meaningfully with the environment, he needs education
and other levels of socioeconomic inclusion such as employment. The inability
of a Nigerian youth to meet his needs and achieve self-actualization has a very
devastating influence; it reduces the social and psychological prestige of its
victims. The life of an average Nigerian
youth has been economically castrated, socially perverted and politically
frustrated. A look at the Nigerian scenario reveals that youths are faced with
bad educational system, unemployment, lack of skills and experience, mismatch
and numerous barriers to entrepreneurship, thereby compounding poverty.
Pragmatic
approaches that can be recommended to expatiate the challenges are: Excellent leadership
and good governance, controlled population that is, a social policy checking
population growth, entrepreneurship, The provision of basic infrastructures to
create an enabling environment, change in the dimension to policy formulation
on youths empowerment and implementation, Reinvigorating the educational
curriculum to include entrepreneurship education, and strengthening SMEs to catalyse
job creation and expansion of the existing ones. Based on identified gaps, best
practices and need for an integrated approach, the youths should be provided
with: employability/entrepreneurial training, vocational training, job
placement, business support and credit.’
NURUDEEN, Yusuf Temilola,
Nigeria.
‘The
urban spaces which were once the eye of civilized cultures has grown into
something else over the last few centuries. My city, Nairobi, is a young city
when compared to other world cities - just a hundred and a few years more in
age. But the city is the playground of all the problems affecting our society
today. There is a big line between where the rich live and where the poor live.
Our slums are the worst in the world. It is unimaginable that the government
collects taxes from these poor inhabitants but does nothing in return. There
are no access roads, no piped water, no drainage system, no quality primary and
secondary schools, no electricity, no quality and affordable housing, no
affordable clean food. The absence of these vital public services is a gross
violation of human rights. What are the purposes of human rights conventions if
no attempts are being made by the government or the UN to guarantee these
rights to the poor, disenfranchised, disadvantaged, majority urban dwellers?
The
UN-HABITAT and the Millennium Development Goals aspires to improve the lives of
at least 100 million slum dwellers by the year 2020. I don’t know whether the
residents our slums here in Kenya are part of the 100 million. As things stand
now, I think they are not. Noting that the number of people living in the slums
is going to double by 2030 in Kenya, despite UN Millennium Development Goals
reports that the share of slum residents on the developing world declined from
39% in 2000 to 33% in 2012, there is need for an urgent program to light up the
lives of millions living in these neglected settlements.’
Richard Oduor,
Nairobi, Kenya.
‘Every
generation needs good leadership, especially our youths of today. Our youths
are raising themselves. In some cases, they have little or no supervision, and
are generally not guided to interpret their circumstances and opportunities in
light of biblical principles, it’s no wonder that they grow up to be just as
involved in gambling, adultery, divorce, cohabitation, excessive drinking, and
other unbiblical behaviours.
There is
so much peer pressure for our youth of today in every city in America, and they
are very vulnerable to them all because of a lack of education and leadership.
We all know that in this present age, our youths can be persuaded so easily to
follow the wrong path, - there are so called friends who want to persuade you
to do things such as skip or drop out of school, join a gang, or to try drugs
and alcohol, to get involved in criminal activities or try to persuade you to
become promiscuous at a very young age. This type of behaviour can also lead to
rape, and bullying others, disrespecting authority figures, such as talking
back to parents, teachers, and police or other authority figures. There are
other pressures that plague our youth of today, such as depression, suicide,
fear, judging others, and low self-esteem.
Our
youths must stop looking up to worldly figures such as pro ballers, rock
artists, rap artist, and movie stars; they will never be there to help you. These
stars are projecting bad behaviours on our young people, only for their
monetary gain, and they don't care that our youth look up to them as role
models. We need positive role models and leaders, and we as adults, need to
show our youth that there are better ways to live their lives, productively.’
Sandra K. Evans,
Mobile, Al. USA.
‘A major
problem in our societies facing youths today is strained family relationships
due to a generation gap. The generation gap is whereby parents and teens have
different thinking about issues/priorities – from clothes/music
preference/values and career choices. Parent’s influence wane when youths value
peer opinion above their parents’ opinions. This leads many in my home country
to leave the house for months and return when they are spent.
Parents
should be supportive of their children; their major assignment is while their
children are still very much young. Once they impart the reasonable
understanding in them….what ever they do as adults should not be a problem. That
is my submission.’
Kevin Zhang Wei,
China.
‘T.IA…This
Is Africa. The international dream is as luring as it was when I knew planes
existed, and better-could be flown by men. Growing up we see the `fortunate`
finish high school, and pack their bags to colleges overseas have been made to
believe, as most of my peers, that they are the best in the world. This
obviously translates to, what we have here is below best. Public universities
release thousands of cowardly intellects each year. Massive multitudes are
poured into an already stagnant employment field. Organisations are too careful
to let go of their trusted few, to let in an unseasoned majority the results
being, graduates settling for less than they are qualified for. However, anyone
brandishing an overseas certificate is more than welcomed to the tiled offices.
We seem to be ok with the idea of graduating as half-baked. We pay hefty fees
to these schools, and are cheated out of it.
Being
part of this, I can only imagine one way out. The curriculum should be moulded
from top to bottom. The employers and entrepreneurs ought to be integrated in
curriculum planning. International bodies should be key participators too. This
way, the graduates are released into an eager market, lots of them with
confidence!’
Linah Nduta Macharia,
KENYA.
‘Our
starting point is that youth have difficulty in the labour market because of
identifiable – deficits as potential valuable talent for employers: lack of
work-relevant skills, lack of information and connections for acquiring
appropriate skills, lack of experience and credentials that could get them
started on an upward path, and limited opportunities for entry-level work that
is career oriented. A talent-focused perspective also offers a framework and a
rationale for business investment and action, to help create innovative,
effective, and sustainable solutions to the challenge of youth un- and
under-employment
Each
generation has a responsibility to take steps to prepare the next generation
for successful economic participation. Employers’ response to the youth
employment challenge should be shaped by their own responsible self-interest in
ensuring their firms’ long-term growth and innovation, and in securing their
access to talent for emerging and future economic needs. Businesses and
economic entities looking toward long-term success must give appropriate
attention to creating and securing future talent resources, and they have their
own responsibilities in this area alongside and in partnership with government,
educators, civil society, and young people themselves.’
Emily Moto,
Japan.
‘The
problem of the 21st century youth is diverse ; from internet misuse to poorly
or curiously developed pattern of communication(the ‘lol’ generation) with the
emergence of internet chat-groups, messenger, we chat, Facebook, ICQ, etc.
Beyond this, youths are also exposed to several traps, pitfalls and negative
influences in the cyber world, including sex and pornography, e-occultism,
online gambling, internet addiction. This makes many youths lack focus and get
too lazy to face the ‘unwebbed world’ or reality.
More
restrictions should be encouraged by schools and parents. Monitoring youth activity
can help us decipher their next probable line of action.’
Izzati Abdulrahman,
INTI UNIVERSITY,
Sarawak, Malaysia
COMPILED BY: Mary Ajayi (@Megadoxa)
YOUTHS SPEAK
INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY 2013
All Rights Reserved
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