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U.S.
Ambassador engages Zim youth online
US Embassy
August 31, 2011
On August 31,
Ambassador Charles A. Ray took the U.S. Embassy's Youth Dialogue
initiative into the wide, enthusiastic world of Zimbabwe's
Facebook fans in the Embassy's first AmbChat. For one hour
over a pizza lunch, Ambassador Ray "chatted" on the
Embassy's Facebook Wall about 'Zim Youth Making a Difference.'
The Embassy's Public Affairs Section set up two threads of
discussion on their FB Wall - one for youth and one for '26
years of age and up.' The discussion generated over 250 comments,
while over 200 new fans joined the already 2,500+ fans following
the page each day.
FB users from
as far away as Bindura, Kwekwe and Mutare joined Harare and Bulawayo
fans in telling Ambassador Ray about the many positive and ambitious
activities they are doing to build their communities. Malony Marekwa
in Plumtree wrote, "i m aged 19 nd ws a volunteer peer educator
4 restless dvpnt in plumtree, the youth over ther a havin problems
in acces gd medical facilities due 2 lack of fundin 4 e local clinics."
Penelope Malunga, a student at Harare Institute of Technology, works
with SAYWHAT
(Students And Youth Working on reproductive Health Action Team).
Penelope wrote, "SAYWHAT envisions a gender just nation with
youths who are empowered and know their sexual reproductive health
rights."
Ambassador Ray
stated he appreciated learning first-hand what youth are doing today
and giving encouragement and advice on how they can make a difference
at both the grassroots and national level. He advised the young
people take up the policy discussion at the national level while
contributing to their communities through local, self-organized
projects. Ray also recommended that youth turn to local corporations
for support by reminding them that young people are important "valued
customers" in their community.
Nanchie PrimroseManyalo
responded, "I could not agree more, ambassador ray, sometimes
change starts with an individual, small steps like being environmentally
conscious, picking up litter, helping one child on a street by sharing
one's lunch with him/he, being a role model...etc. One of my philosophies
is that we should be the change we want to see, one act of kindness
makes a difference and the best way to find yourself is to lose
yourself in service of others!"
The Embassy
intends to hold regular AmbChats on Facebook in the coming year
to meet the growing demand for direct, online interaction from technology-savvy
Zimbabweans
Zimbabwe is a country with great potential for rapid internet and
social media expansion. internetworldstats.com reported in June
2011 that nearly 1.5 million Zimbabweans (11.8% of the population)
are internet users. According to the Zimbabwe Advertising Research
Foundation (ZARF), 24 % of urban adults have access to the Internet
and 83% of them use it at least once a week. Zimbabwe's largest
cell phone service provider, Econet, launched Zimbabwe's first
3G wireless broadband cell phone service in 2010, allowing the 86%
of Zimbabweans with cell phones to access the internet and social
media that way. Currently over 30% of Econet's subscribers
(1.8 million people) are now using this service.
It is unclear
how many Facebook users are in Zimbabwe; although Facebook is by
far the most popular social media site in the country, according
to the quarterly Zimbabwe advertising industry. There are several
Zimbabwean Facebook pages with more than 10,000 fans; Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's official page has over 64,000 fans but
is not active. Most good journalists and media leaders use Facebook
as a means of sharing and verifying fast breaking information. News
of "kingmaker" General Solomon Mujuru's death
in a fire August 15 broke on Facebook.
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