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Weekly activity update 2
National Youth Development Trust
June 28, 2011

On Saturday 25 June, NYDT held four youth meetings in Bulawayo, Mat-North and Mat-South. The following is a brief activity update on what transpired during the meetings;

Ward structures capacitated on mobilising for elections

30 young people from Bulawayo's 29 wards where over the weekend capacitated with skills and knowledge on leadership, community mobilization, voter education, voter registration and advocacy. The main aim of the training was to ensure that young people are aware of their community responsibilities and are in a position to mobilize other young people to participate in the next elections. NYDT believes that the youth vote will be the game changer in the next elections. Also emphasized during this training was the need for young people to take responsibility for their future by taking an active part in all nation building processes like the constitution making process and other initiatives.

NYDT makes a breakthrough at Insiza Constituency

National Youth Development Trust made its breakthrough at Insiza Constituency on Saturday after hosting a successful youth meeting. The meeting was held at the Insiza Rural District Council chambers under the topic "The Constitution & Election roadmap, what are the opportunities for meaningful youth participation". Amongst other things, the youth meeting discussed the pending elections with youths expressing their fears in the fact that their failure to acquire national documents would limit their chances of registering and voting. Also discussed was the constitution making process which youths at the meeting felt had been very exclusive with poor information dissemination strategies and little opportunities for youths in the area to play a direct role in the process. Insiza youths however expressed hope at having a civic society organisation in their area to highlight what was happening at national level because they were being starved of information in the area. It was also pointed out that by attending the meeting, youths had managed to defy political apathy. The youths in the constituency also appreciated that they also need to participate in national processes especially the electoral and the constitution making processes. To counteract this problem the youths called for the sharing of information amongst themselves and the need to be inquisitive enough during the constitution making process and other nation building initiatives.

Ntabazinduna Youth Meeting

In Ntabazinduna, NYDT held a youth meeting to discuss the topic "The Constitution & Election roadmap, what are the opportunities for meaningful youth participation?" which was moderated by Mr Gerald Mathiba a civic society activist. The gathering analysed the various stages the constitution making process has undergone so far, the extent of youth participation, as well as how young people could meaningful contribute in the remaining stages of the process. Young people were also encouraged to register for elections as well as ensure that they vote during the forthcoming referendum and general elections. Youths in this area highlighted the difficulties in acquiring national registration documents such as birth certificates and IDs as being part of the reasons why they do not participate in electoral processes. Inaccessible voter registration centres were also cited as another reason for low youth participation in elections. Some of the youths claimed that in previous voter registration exercises they travelled as far as Bulawayo to get registered. The option of travelling to register in Bulawayo proved expensive for many and is not be sustainable. As a result, the participants called on NYDT to help them lobby for mobile birth, ID and voter registration centres to enable them to register and cast their vote in the impending elections. Amongst other issues discussed, young people expressed concern about the re-activation of youth militia trainings in the area in a format similar to the youth brigade trainings of the early 2000s.

Madabe Youth Meeting

The National Youth Development Trust (NYDT) conducted a youth meeting at Madabe in Plumtree on the 25th of June 2011. Mr Khumbulani Maphosa, a human rights activist, led a discussion on "The role of young people in elections and the constitution making process". During the meeting it was discovered that none of the young people present had participated in the constitutional outreach meetings while most participants were not registered to votes. In his presentation, Maphosa stated that young people could still input into the constitution making process by being actively involved in the remaining stages of the process. He highlighted that youths can still make their input into the second draft by being active in the consultations by civil society and other groups after the release of the first draft. Secondly, they can use various platforms to ensure their views are represented at the second all stakeholders conference and lastly by voting at the coming constitutional referendum. Youths at the meeting, appealed to NYDT to avail more information materials on issues happening in Zimbabwe and those that affect young people so that they could be reliably informed on contemporary affairs. Youths also called on the organization to create platforms for them to interface with their local leadership/policy makers to discuss issues that affect young people.

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