Youth development is at heart of Vision 2030

Youth is an asset and not a trouble. This faith in the youngsters was echoed and - enforced too – at the three-day ‘Empower 2009’ conference yesterday.

Sheikha Aisha bint Falah al-Thani, the NGO’s board member, who was the guest of honour, said developing the people into a prosperous and just society is in line with Qatar’s National Vision of 2030.

“During our trips to places like Pakistan and Nepal we found out solutions by young people that were innovative and out of the box,” Sheikha Aisha said.

On Thursday, the first day of the event initiated by Reach Out To Asia’s (Rota) Qatar programme team (Rotaq), a student debate was held in partnership with Qatar Foundation-affiliate Qatar Debate.

‘Empower 2009’ marked the launch of Rota’s new youth development programme in Qatar and is geared towards inspiring leadership and civic responsibility among Qatar’s youth, through service (experience) learning.

The programme defines youth as between 14 and 24 years of age. “Many of the successful new companies being founded, such as YouTube are by young people,” Sheikha Aisha said, while reaffirming her support to the young generation.

Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) secretary general Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Ruwwad movement of West Bank party chief Hisham Jabi and National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC), US founder and CEO Jim Kielsmeier were among the speakers.

“There are 1.5bn people in the world under the age of 24. Most of them are in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean. We at QOC attach great importance to these individuals through our youth camps,” Sheikh Saoud said.

Outlining the goals of the Global Sports Fund, he said the fund, an initiative of QOC since 2005, offers training to youth leaders, coaches and parents for around a week in leadership.

He said teenager-related issues such as peer pressure, substance abuse, childish crimes, absence of adult supervision, had to be tackled with great care. Urging youngsters to adopt healthy living, he said they should stay away from habit forming addictions like sheesha.

“I was in Paris recently, where a friend took me to a sheesha café. It seems we have exported this bad habit to Europe too.” Addressing the students, Jabi asked them to be positive stakeholders in the country since it was not just the job of the government.

“When you save others, you connect the dots; you learn about leadership, about yourself,” Jabi said. NYLC’s Kielsmeier, also a professor at the University of Minnesota, used pearl-diving metaphor to express his thoughts.

“There is war and unjust and historic hatred in the world. You just have to dive deep and seek the pearls of wisdom and truth inside those ugly oyster shells,” he said.

He pointed out that unlike previous generations, the youth of today feels socially disengaged and turns to a culture of rebellion and defiance.

“This is not a good time to be between the ages of 11 and 24. We need to change that,” he added. Today, the participants will take part in series of off -site learning projects.