i. Employment creation
There are about 500,000 youth who graduate from various tertiary institutions ready to enter the job market every year. However, due to the slow economic growth, corruption, nepotism and demand for experience by potential employers, 75% remain unemployed. There is need for YOUTH ORGANISATIONS to develop policies that will address unemployment problems and create an environment where the youth can exploit their potential through value adding initiatives.ii. Empowerment and Participation
One of the greatest challenges in Youth Empowerment and participation is how to ensure that young people are passionate about causing transformation in Kenya. Youth Empowerment and Participation is the quintessential force for causing such transformation. Young people need a youth branded platform from where they can speak powerfully, take appropriate action, and inspire belief that will have a catalytic impact all over the country through youth-led development initiatives. Youth empowerment and participation is a dynamic cycle. Overall, it is anticipated that the outcome of Youth Empowerment and participation is strong contribution to National prosperity, economic competition and reduced unemployment. When empowered, young people can contribute greatly towards good governance and democracy with a passionate desire to be catalyst for National Development. Having Youth Organisations can be a catalyst for youth empowerment and participation.
iii. Health
The uneven
distribution of health facilities in the country continues to widen
disparities in affordability and access to medical care. Statistics
indicate that only 42% of the population has access to medical
facilities within four kilometers and 75% within eight kilometres.
Medical personnel are also too few to sufficiently address the health
needs of the population, let alone those of the youth. Currently there
is one doctor for every 33,000 people in the rural areas and 1,700 in
the urban areas and it is estimated that only 12% of the health
facilities are youth friendly.Health has become a major issue among the youth. Apart from the traditional health problems like malaria, tuberculosis and the more conservative sexually transmitted diseases, the exponential spread of HIV/AIDS and drug abuse have become issues of major concern. Mental health is increasingly becoming a common problem among the youth. Depression, anxiety, eating disorders, psychosis and substance abuse are also becoming leading mental problems among the youth.
Furthermore, reproductive health is one of the issues with the greatest impact on the youth. Some related problems and side effects include teenage pregnancies and abortion. Other common health problems are malaria and acute respiratory infections, which account for about one half of outpatient cases. Other diseases the youth grapple with include skin infections, intestinal worms and diarrhoea.
Current health facilities are also not youth-friendly. As such, there is a need for facilities that offer preventive and curative health services for the youth. Information on health should be made available to the youth too.
iv. Education and training
The 8-4-4
system of education was geared to imparting appropriate skills to
enhance self-employment. However, due to the high costs, poverty and
lack of facilities, there have been high school drop-out rates. Most of
the youth either drop out of school or graduate without necessary skills
for self-employment. Many girls drop out of school due to pregnancy.The country’s training institutions are also either inadequate or lack the essential facilities and technology to prepare students for the challenging market demands. Recently, sub-standard training institutions have come up to take advantage of shortage of training opportunities to exploit desperate youth. In most cases, there is no linkage between the training institutions and either the formal or informal (jua kali) sector. The youth trained in these institutions cannot, therefore, be immediately absorbed into the job market. Besides this, society’s attitude towards the Jua kali sector discourages many youth from venturing into it, as they do not want to be regarded as failures in life.
v. Crime and Drugs
The early mid
1980’s saw a rapid growth in crime, drug and substance abuse among the
youth in Kenya. Alcohol, cigarettes, khat (miraa), and cannabis sativa
have remained the most popular abused substances. There is a fast
emerging trend of injecting drug use especially narcotic. Moreover,
abuse of drugs is highly associated with the risks of contracting
HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases especially among the
youth.Violent criminal attacks, including rape, mugging, armed car-jacking and home invasions are increasingly being associated with the youth these days. Over 50% of all the convicted criminals are young people aged between 16 and 25 years. Despite that above trends, there are no studies done to confirm any relationship between the increased drug and substance abuse among the youth and the increasing rate of the crimes. Our Society must therefore collaborate with other stakeholders to research and come up with policies that would assist youth in this country overcome the challenge.
vi. Leisure, recreation, and community service
Leisure,
recreation and community service are important for the psychological
and physical development of the youth. It contributes to their personal
development by promoting good health, personal discipline, leadership
and team building skills. It also provides opportunity for appreciation,
participation and creative experience in leisure, music, art, dance,
drama crafts, novelty events service and cultural activities. This helps
engaging the youth to make good use of their leisure time, express
their beliefs and values as well as promote and preserve local art and
culture for the benefit of the future youth.However, current investment in leisure and recreation has not reflected its importance. The sector suffers from inadequate funds and facilities while the talented youth lack motivation and are often exploited by organizations. Due to these constraints, it has not been possible to tap fully the talents of many youth.
vii. Youth and Environment
Degradation
of the environment, through pollution, poor waste management and
deforestation, is a major challenge for Kenya. With the ensuing
destruction of water catchments, depletion of fish and other marine
stock, pollution of rivers and destruction of plants and animals, the
youth cannot be assured of quality life in the future. The need to
conserve the environment has become increasingly important and many
youth organizations are engaged in activities to protect the environment
such as tree planting, clean-up campaigns, bio-diversity conservation,
wildlife preservation campaigns and agro-forestry.
viii. Information and Communication Technology
Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) may arguably be the most powerful
tool for social and economic change. Rapid and continuing growth and
development in ICT is transforming the ways in which youth live and
work. Using internet for example, youth can get access to both domestic
and international education and job opportunities on line. They can also
share interests with peers and with the YEDF, can even advertise their
products and get market information on any business of their choice.Due to lack of access to information and communication technology (ICT) especially in rural areas, youth cannot exploit their career, business and education opportunities. There is need for Youth in our society to take advantage of benefits associated with ICT to foster youth development.
ix. Youth with Special Needs
The
categories of youths with special needs have been identified as the:
Unemployed youth; Out of school youth; Female youth; Youth infected and
affected by HIV/Aids; Street youth; physically, and mentally challenged
youth; and Youth in difficult circumstances. The Foundation will adopt
an affirmative action of 15 percent in its programmes in favour of youth
with special needs.
x. Access to Financial Resources
Traditional
financial institutions have avoided lending to youth due to their
relative inability to comply with the high transaction costs, difficulty
in assessing and managing their risk profile, and lack of the required
financial documentation as well as collateral.The Ministry of State for Youth Affairs in partnership with various private Financial Intermediaries is administering the Youth Enterprise Development Fund to the youth. This fund has been specifically tailored to enhance the youth to develop with focus on self employment via entrepreneurship initiatives.
Youth can access these funds either as individuals or as groups and the collateral to secure the monies borrowed have been made affordable in the sense that they can be in form of group guarantee, guarantee by parents, relatives or and even community leaders... With these eased regulations, we are in a society that hopes that youth in the country will be able to work towards the realization of their life goals that were hindered by the tough regulations that have in the past barred them from accessing credit facilities.
In closing, let us recognize that we have a serious challenge on our hands: to ensure that today’s children (tomorrow’s adults) would experience a better world than we are living in today. We should all work towards this objective and not wait for a crisis to occur and then react, let us be prepared.
B-boy Harry Foundation, Compass Nella Fitness Centre, Ongata Rongai.
Email: bboyharry@live.com - Phone: +254 700 472 451.
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