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Fairness Moyana in Hwange
YOUTHS in Hwange on Friday held an indaba with key stakeholders on devolution, natural resource governance and corporate social responsibility.

The indaba, which was organised by Hwange Youth Empowerment Initiative (HYEI), provided a platform for interaction between youths and key decision makers such as the ministries of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development as well as Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Hwange Local Board and NGOs.

This is part of the organisation’s programme aimed at creating synergies between the youths and other key stakeholders on devolution and exploitation of natural resources after studies revealed that there was low participation in community activities by young people due to lack of information.

HYEI district programmes manager Mr Tinashe Matika said lack of information on how youths could benefit from various development initiatives was largely to blame for their low participation.

“We are a youth organisation and this was our inaugural youth indaba. We realise that there is a huge gap in terms of access to information, which normally manifests in adverse behaviour whereby people believe or perpetuate stereotypes that Government officials can’t help you or provide you with information,” said Matika.

He said the organisation engaged the ministries of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation and Women Affairs, Hwange Local Board, Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe and Zimparks to assist in unpacking information on youths participation in development initiatives.

Mr Matika said most youths had no information on how they could benefit from their natural resources and as such were not involved in the exploitation of these resources.

“This is why there’s always a low turnout at budget consultation meetings and a low uptake of  Government or council initiated economic development programmes,” he said.

Mr Matika said many youths in the district were as a result resorting to sex, drug and alcohol abuse.

“We have a petition which we will soon submit to the local board and Ministry of Local Government and Public Works demanding recreational facilities for youths where they could, apart from occupying themselves, get useful information” he said.

Acting district youth officer in the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Ms Jenamiso Ncube said Government initiated programmes provided a lot of opportunities for youths but decried a low uptake.

“Government has lined up a number of economic programmes for the youths that include skills development and is also providing loans to enable youths to start income geneating projects.The youths’ level of participation is unfortunately very disappointing. It’s either there’s a lack of information or interest on the part of the youths. We have been carrying out awareness campaigns on these programmes using various media but the situation is yet to improve,” said Ms Ncube.