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Weekly activity update
National Youth Development Trust
September 06, 2011

Tsholotsho: District Peace Workshop

36 young people attended a District Peace workshop at Nembe in Tsholotsho on Friday September 2, 2011. Unlike in most areas, the peace building workshop had more females than males attending. Topics discussed were, conflict transformation, negotiation skills, human rights monitoring and documentation, leadership and community mobilization and participation. Although the participants were conversant with peace disturbing issues in their area, very few of them showed an understanding of those issues from a broader national perspective. They said that during elections young people were being sponsored by politicians to go around harassing villagers but after elections these youths were left alone to deal with the people they hurt in those communities. They also indicated that it was pointless to report some human rights abuses because the perpetrators also have control of the police force so the police are unlikely to assist. Other issues that emerged included that the youths felt their right to identity was being violated as they were failing to get identity documents for different reasons. Although most of them initially thought they were not leaders, this changed after leadership was demystified during the workshop. Tsholotsho is one of the areas in Matabeleland that has a history of state sponsored violence and a high human rights violations record.

Matopo: Peace Dialogue Meeting

NYDT held a peace dialogue meeting on Saturday September 3, 2011 at Silozwane Secondary school in Matopo. The meeting saw over a hundred youths converging to discuss peace-building under the theme: Youths Building Lasting Peace in Zimbabwe. During the meeting, the discussant gave the youths various definitions of peace and insight into how they can best contribute to building lasting peace. The young people indicated that not having enough activities to keep them occupied was making the susceptible to engaging in violent activities. They emphasized the need for well-wishers to help them with the capital to initiate projects such as poultry, woodwork, horticulture and welding that would capacitate them economically and contribute to the development of their community. The youths also called on NYDT to continue providing them with platforms to participate in nation building processes. They appealed to the organisation to establish a Matopo Youth council. They also highlighted the impact that sporting activities have had in bringing together youths in Matopo.

Bulawayo: Policy Dialogue Meeting

NYDT managed to engage youths in Makokoba through a sporting activity on Saturday September 3, 2011. The young people met at Tshaka youth centre to play soccer and netball. After the games the youths had a discussion on the significance of youth participation in national processes. Presenters at the meeting emphasized the need for the young people to register to vote. It was noted that most of the youths at the meeting had already registered to vote after being urged to do so at an NYDT focus group meeting held in their ward last month. They were urged to encourage other youths in the ward. The discussant emphasized on the fact that young people constitute the majority of the Zimbabwean population therefore if they do not participate in national issues then decisions will be made on their behalf by a few old people who take keen interests in these issues. He added that young people could only get the legitimacy to call their leaders to account if they participate in elections.

Focus group meetings: Wards 12, 23, 24 and 25 saw young people meeting to discuss avenues for youth participation in national processes. These meetings had a major focus on mobilizing the youths to register as voters and were specifically targeting first time voters. Youths at these meeting said that one of the reasons why most young people were not compelled to vote was that they live within the family structure where everything is provided for them hence they have never felt the need to make a change. They also highlighted that their political views are usually determined by their parents so if the parents are not active participants then the youths also tend not to participate. They also said the youths are usually forced to support their parents' political ideas. Politically motivated violence that has marred Zimbabwean elections in the past years was also highlighted as a factor that makes youths want to distance themselves from elections. However the importance of participating in elections was highlighted and youths pledged to register to vote.

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