Churchill’s Town, The Gambia – The Global Youth
Innovation Network Gambia Chapter (GYIN Gambia) will hold its 2nd
Edition of the National Youth Summer Camp from July 23-August 1, 2017.
This year’s Entrepreneurship, Leadership,
Information and Technology (ELIT 2017) Summer Camp will allow young people to
become rural mentors in their own regions as well as other regions in the
country.
The 10-day event will hold under the theme –ELIT 2017: Expanding Youth
Development through Entrepreneurial Mentorship. It is aimed at establishing a rural mentorship
programme; sharing knowledge and experience on entrepreneurship, agribusiness
and youth development issues; seeking business opportunities and networking;
and to design a rural youth employment survey plan.
Activities will take the form of conferences, individual
and group presentations, quizzes, comedy, culture; field visits to agricultural
project sites (rice and poultry farms), markets; and case studies on youth mentorship
programmes.
Forty (45) youths from across all regions of the country
aged 18 to 35 are to participate in the event. Venue and call for application
will be announced shortly.
Subsequent
editions of the ELIT starting from 2017 are designed to build up on the
interest and potential recognition in the youth and further this dream into an
authoritative document which will serve as a developmental guide.
“This is because the absence of a domestic and all inclusive
baseline source on youth participation in national development is a leading
challenge to designing such a project in the name of young people,” says Mr. Ebrima Bah, Chairperson of ELIT
2017.
“Interestingly, the 2016 camp successfully compelled many of
its participants to either expand their scope of business ventures or began to
dip their legs into more meaningful associations with a view to inspire
themselves for community development.
“Out of thirty contestants, nine of the first batch of ELIT
were shortlisted in the first edition of the Rural Youth Award out of which
four won the awards in the categories of Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Young
Emerging Business of the Year, Young Information Technology of the Year, and
Young Business Innovation Business of the Year by a verdict of independent
panelists.”
Mr. Mamadou Edrisa Njie, GYIN Gambia Executive Director, says a gap of technology and user
competences between urban and rural youths, which often presents itself in
access differentials was identified prior to the camp. Aware of the potential
of technology in improving community development, the camp introduced the
teaching of the subject as core for participants.
“This time, it will be interesting to partner up the most
skillful computer users with those less exposed to the system with a view to
allow peer learning during the camp,” he says. “The ELIT 2017 will facilitate
the launch of the Youth Mentorship Programme to raise-up momentum of knowledge
sharing on entrepreneurship, leadership and informational technology.”
By way of
the mentorship programme, GYIN Gambia Rural Youth Awardees (Youth Champions)
will be presented as exemplary team by the GYIN Gambia Secretariat at ELIT
2017. Having them as Rural Youth Mentors would strengthen their potentials to
expand their enterprises and inspire their mentees on entrepreneurship and
business technology.
“One of the core
values of ELIT is to transform knowledge and skills into performance-oriented
ventures. Therefore, this strategy will not only address the crises of unemployment,
it will also bridge the gender gap in the labour market thus address several
other social ills such as irregular migration (back-way) and rural urban
drift.
“ELIT 2017 is
designed with special emphasises in the agricultural value chain- production,
processing, and marketing of crops by young people which is a scientific model
in the fight against poverty.”
The Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN) is an
international youth network supported by the Rome-based International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD). Its Gambian chapter specialises in rural
development by supporting rural youths to become self-reliant.
For press enquiries, contact:
Mr. Ebrima
Bah, Chairperson ELIT 2017 Tel: +220 7580434
Mr.
Mamadou Edrisa Njie, GYIN Gambia Executive Director
+220
3938929
Mr. Modou
S. Joof, GYIN Gambia Secretary General
+220
2122784
No comments:
Post a Comment