National Youth Week kicks off

National Youth week kicked of yesterday in the capital with a host of activities planned for the five-day celebration of young people in the country. Hosted by the National Youth Council (NYC), the National Youth Week will see the first ever youth awards hosted as part of the week-long celebrations, with various judges from different industries selecting the winners from the long list of nominees that hail from all parts of the country.
The youth week has previously been hosted in Oshakati, Swakopmund, Keetmashoop, Rundu, Eenhana and Windhoek, between 2008 and 2013. This year the slogan for the week is ‘Celebrating cultural diversity as a foundation for noble leadership and human cohesion’.
The youth week has been described as the biggest event for young people in the country by members of the NYC and is being hosted in Windhoek, with the organisers saying that the event could not be taken to other parts of the country this year because of budgetary constraints.
The NYC however assured The Zone that the first-ever Youth Awards that will be hosted as part of the programme, has nominess from all 14 regions in the country, with the NYC focusing its efforts on gathering young people from all regions in an attempt to build capacity amongst young people, as well as using the young attendees to brainstorm on how to best host the youth week going forward.
Nominees from all over the country form part of this year’s running as winners in the 15 categories, which include awards for Best Youth in Arts and Culture, Best Regional Youth Forum, Youth Leadership Award as well as the Most Inspiring Young Person from a Marginalised Group.
There are around 400 young people that have been nominated for the awards, from which only one winner per category is going to be selected by one of the seven judges that have been chosen to select the winners. Some of the judges include Yvonne Dausab, Perivi Katjivivi, Sam Shivute and Dorcas Kapembe.
The youth awards are aimed at valuing young people for their contribution to their own development. The awards will recognise and celebrate young progressive leaders in Namibia who are driving change towards a more socially, economically and environmentally just society. The NYC said that the award categories are going to be decreased or increased according to what lessons will be learned from the first youth awards this year.
There are several initiatives other than the youth awards that are also going to be launched during the National Youth Week. One of those initiatives is the Random Acts of Kindness campaign as well as Flash Mobs. The aim of the random acts of kindness campaign is to inspire an epidemic of kindness in our society with the being to reach 10 000 people with the acts of random kindness.
Cards will be printed as part of the campaign and distributed amongst young people in the country. Those who commit acts of random kindness will then take pictures with their beneficiaries and upload those pictures to the NYC social pages, with the motto of the campaign being ‘Change the world one act of random kindness at a time’.
The national youth week will also see the hosting of a cultural parade. The parade will include regional delegates and the public in general dressed in different culture attire. The parade will be done prior to the official opening of the youth week on Wednesday 27 April with military bands, police, and all youth stakeholders invited to be part of the parade.
One of the other activities is going to be youth dialogues that will be hosted on youth development matters. The NYC is looking to encouraging cultural awareness through cultural documentary screenings as well as storytelling and dialogues. These are aimed at gathering young people on a central level and showing them a documentary relevant to the country and its cultures. The dialogues will be held in form of TED talks, which will be around the fire sessions and panel discussions on the theme of promoting the cultural diversity and encouraging cultural tolerance among Namibians.
This year’s awards theme is set around promoting human cohesion through giving the young people a sense of who they are and who other people – who they share space with – are. The random acts of kindness campaign will resemble the famous saying of Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu which the NYC said expresses a profound truth embedded deep within the core of traditional Namibian values; “a person is a person because of people”.
This year’s youth awards are said to be setting the annual event on a new path with the launch of two key initiatives that we will continue to implement as the council. These are namely the Annual Youth Awards and the Acts of Random Kindness initiative
National Youth Week which is an annual, week-long celebration of young people (aged 16–35) throughout Namibia, is a joint initiative of the line ministries, youth development entities and the private sector. Each year, events are planned and organised to celebrate and recognise the contribution of young people and it gives an opportunity to young people to express ideas and views, and act on issues that affect their lives.
The highlight of the week with is the first-ever youth awards will be the talk of the town as 400 young people compete to be the winner in the 15 categories which are promising awards. The tickets to the event can be bought in corporate tables (N$10 000 a table), general access tickets for N$120 or VIP tickets that are being sold for N$350.
According to an NYC spokesperson 200 of the 350 available tickets have already been sold for the event that is set to take place at the Windhoek Country Club on the 28 April, starting at 18:30. All the judges that will be selecting winners from all the nominees are going to view the submissions of all the nominees and would then go on to select the most fitting young person as the winner per category. The judges who are leaders in their various industries are not paid for being part of the youth awards, and are said to be doing the work out of their sheer love for the young people of the country.


KEITH VRIES