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Douglas Musiringofa - My Blog
Douglas Musiringofa - My Blog
Signs of the change l have been waiting to see!!!
Related to country: Zimbabwe

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Successful community building also involves developing local leaders, who are able to gain self-understanding, as well as facilitation and community-building skills (Mattesich & Monsey, 1997).

As residents and youth learn on leadership skills, their voices for the common good is enhanced. In the Hwange District, youth were trained in relevant skills, including leading and facilitating discussions, public speaking, problem solving, conflict resolution, local governance, lobbying and advocacy.
Young people in this area have learned to routinely assess their strengths, identify areas of challenge, improvement, to give and take constructive criticism from teammates. They have come up with more strategic ways of involving decision makers into their dialogues and open discussion forums. In particular, youth learned to recognize the difference between their personal wants and needs, and also those of the community. This was important because the community-building work necessitated that youth lead the community, which meant including diverse groups and voices of youth and adults, and helping them come to consensus in decisions. In other words, the young people have realized that it is not about individual wants that should be pushed for action but they combine ideas and come up with one concrete and reasonable idea to be pushed forward to decision makers at a community level.

Armed with the knowledge the youth have gained from the trainings, they are now able to speak in authority in public forums and meetings. The youth also shared their experiences with other community based youth groups in which the groups have began enquiring on this programme and wanting to be part of it. To my view, this has contributed to changing community adult attitudes from viewing youth as current or potential problems, addicts and drunkards to seeing youth as responsible, knowledgeable, and contributing individuals. Finally, my understanding is that youth are the leaders of today and not leaders of tomorrow anymore as tomorrow seems not to come again. Forward with YOUTH empowerment.

By: Sir Douglas Musiringofa

April 29, 2009 | 9:43 AM Comments  0 comments

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