2010 International Youth Forum to be held in Eritrea, July 21 – 23, 2010

NUEYS Eritrea – Announces 2010 International Youth Forum

To be held July 21 – 23, 2010 in Asmara, Eritrea.

The National Union of Eritrean Youth & Students (NUEYS) recognizes that 2010 is the beginning of the International Year of the Youth!

Following the Eri-Youth Festival, NUEYS will be conducting an international youth forum with the goal of bringing together international representatives of youth and student organizations to discuss creating partnership through the themes of inclusive dialogue and exchange for mutual understanding, peacebuilding, sustainable development, active citizenship and public interest diplomacy.

Under the theme Mutual Understanding for Peace, Security and Sustainable Development, this forum is in continuation of a Regional Youth Forum conducted in July 2008. The regional youth forum saw the establishment of the Horn of Africa Youth Initiative (HAYI) Network. Interested youth organizers and individuals can upload and complete an application for the forum at http://nueyseritrea.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/nueys-iyfapp.pdf

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Youth AfriCamp: Building expressive advocacy capacity for youth participation

Themes: Youth and New Media; African Youth Charter and African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance

Open Society Institute, Youth Initiative seeks to empower youth to become active citizens who are willing and able to influence public life and promote open society ideals. The international initiative is an expansion of what began in 1995 as the Debate Program. While its work with debate continues, the initiative also provides small grants and technical assistance to build the capacity of youth-focused local organizations and encourage a broader range of youth-led projects that promote open society values. The Youth Initiative (YI) aims to build a community of networked, civically engaged young leaders who understand the underpinnings of a democratic society, and will therefore become its active guardians.- www.soros.org/youth

The Youth AfriCamp provides a forum that allows the participating youth to showcase their work in their respective regions.  In addition, the camp includes training segments that will allow youth to acquire skills in creative social messaging techniques that they can apply to their work. The YI sees added value in convening the AfriCamp to not only act as facilitator and sponsor, but most importantly, to raise the profile of the work young people are doing under challenging conditions.

The AfriCamp will bring young activists together so that they can learn from one another while we learn from them. It is integral for the YI to identify these local actors and collect this information to inform the OSI network. It will allow young activists to gain hands-on training in new media that could be translated to their advocacy efforts in their given fields. The participants will be recruited across the sub-Sahara Africa with ages ranging from 18-29 years.

Format

The AfriCamp will accommodate both Francophone and Anglophone participants.  The selection process will be competitive ensuring high caliber participants. The format includes a week long combination of presentations, training sessions and breakaway sessions for direct peer consultation for those working on similar issues or issues of interest. Training sessions will consist of outside facilitators procured by the YI as well as peer to peer trainings. The event will culminate with an afternoon long advocacy concert featuring local artists. The Youth Initiative has developed the following general themes for the Youth Camp: Youth and New Media, Youth and the Africa Youth Charter, Youth and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance

To register, fill in an application form online: http://www.idebate.org/africamp/ and for any inquiries please contact Ronald on email:  rrwankangi@osiea.org.

Application deadline 5^th March 2010.