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Time to make a difference - youth of Zimbabwe speak out
Achieve Your Goal Trust (AYGT)
November 12, 2007

Guided by the provisions of the African Youth Charter in which Zimbabwe is a signatory and has ratified the charter that was adopted by the seventh ordinary session of the assembly, held in Banjul, the Gambia on 2nd July 2006, Achieve Your Goal Trust, guided by the same charter calls upon the youths to be active participants rather than passive recipients.

Following the African Youth Charter, we also declare that every young person shall be entitled to the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms recognized and guaranteed in this charter irrespective of their race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, region, political or other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status .

Every young person shall have the right to participate in all spheres of society.

Give priority to policies and programmes including youth advocacy and peer to peer programmes for marginalized youth, such as out-of-school and out of work youth, to offer them the opportunity and motivate to re-integrate into mainstream society.

Provide access to information such that young people become aware of their rights and of opportunities to participate in decision making and civic life.

Guided by this Charter Achieve Your Goal Trust has as its main mandate to see to it that young people are given a platform to speak out. In our clarion call to achieve a just society where the young people are a given due respect , have their voice heard and respected .In our quest to see the Zimbabwe we want , AYGT will soon be embarking on a national rural outreach program that will see workshops unrolling from the militia infested Mutoko, Zaka, Jerera, Muzarabani, Tsholotso, Gutu, Karoi, Kariba, Zhombe, Plumtree, Magunje, Rusape, Zvishavane, Bindura, Mvurwi, Shamva, Chinhoyi, Uzumba, Maramba and Pfungwe under the banner " YOUTHS AGAINST VIOLENCE ".

The AYGT road show will see among other things the call for the young people to refrain from all forms of political violence and clearly locating their roles before, during and after elections. The point that AYGT will hammer throughout these workshops is the need for the youths to be ambassadors of social, economic and political transformation. Achieve Your Goal Trust will remain unweaving in its pursuit of a just society where young people are given a platform as enshrined in the African Youth charter - A youth perspective shall be integrated and mainstreamed into all planning and decision making as well as program development . The appointment of youth focal point in government structures shall enable this process.

Lastly the organization will call upon other youth organizations to come up with a national youth policy. The development of a national youth policy shall be informed by extensive consultation with young people and carter for their active participation in decision making at all levels of governance in all issues concerning youth and society as a whole.

The call for enactment of a national youth policy is an invitation to all youths of Zimbabwe to dialogue so that we can together define a national vision of the Zimbabwe we want, and agree on strategies on how to get there .This process will take a consultative journey that will see all 10 provinces taking an active role both in process and in content.

In concurrence with the "Towards a national vision for Zimbabwe" by the Catholic Conference, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, we quote . . .

"Political intolerance has unfortunately become a culture in Zimbabwe. The trading of insults, violence with impunity, lawlessness and hate speech has unfortunately been characteristic of inter - and intra- political parties. The Zimbabwe we want must cherish, embrace and celebrate a culture of tolerance of dissent, political plurality and willingness to accommodate political differences. Intolerance breeds hatred and hatred breeds violence. Violence, in turn, leads to destruction and social rapture".

aygt07@yahoo.com

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