Ethiopian team peeks into youth devp plans

Lemma also said,“ Some of the major hurdles that we are running into as far as our youth development programmes are concerned is that we are not able to implement them at the grass root level in the rural areas and that is what we wish to learn here. In addition to that we wish to understand how the youth development programmes here help o enable the youth to deal with economical,political and social issues.”

“We also studied the measures taken by the government to tackle unemployment,problems of developing the rural areas,and also the youth who themselves volunteer in these programmes to help develop the youth programmes,” he added.

Hasan Tahir,Deputy Bureau Head Addis Ababa City Youth and Sports Bureau said,“The programme is actually a joint venture with UNICEF so that we could take the positives from this tour back to Ethiopia. Most importantly we wish t implement the various programmes related to HIV and Sex education that are undertaken by the NGO’s here,back in Ethiopia. The rate of HIV infected patients has already reduced in the last three years but we hope to implement these schemes wherein we can take better care of the patients and if possible even rehabilitate them.”

About the programmes already implemented in Ethiopia he said,“ We have programmes for ensuring that children have access to basic education,women get more representation in the legislatures and the government offices,ensuring the rehabilitation of CSW’s (Commercial Sex Workers),and also ensuring that women have a say in their economic empowerment.

Even then however a lot needs to be done for the betterment of our youth so that they can confidently march into the future without having any inhibitions whatsoever.”