Stage set for youth conference

KATHMANDU, Jan 11: Nepal Ko Yuwa (NKY), in partnership with the Association of Youth Organization in Nepal (AYON), a network of 74 youth organizations in Nepal, Non-Resident Nepalese Association (NRNA), Youth Initiative (YI), ACT Now!, YES Nepal, and Youth Pressure Campaign is organizing a youth conference on January 15 to engage 30 high school students, 15 youth representatives and 10 experts in a one-day collaborative, action-oriented discussion on civic engagement.[break]



The main goal of the conference is to promote scholarship, leadership, citizenship and engage youth in meaningful social and political entrepreneurship.



"The youth conference is targeted to high school and undergraduate students. They will be provided with training and they will prepare proposals on different projects", said Abhisek Shah, program officer, Youth Initiative.



"The theme of the conference is ´civic engagement´. The conference is divided into three sections - inspiration, insight and action," said Dr Pukar Malla, general secretary, NKY and the president of Harvard Graduate Council. 



According to the NKY, two parallel sessions will be held for the students in the morning. The first session will focus on Goreto Project and will involve 30 high school students. The Goreto project is funded by British Council´s Global Changemakers initiative, a model of youth empowerment, which has also been adopted in Indonesia.



The second session will involve 15 youth representatives and will focus on social and political entrepreneurship. The participants will undergo a three-hour training session. The two parallel training will feature team building exercises, discussions on project implementations, tips on building relationships, creating strategies for projects, and other topics for community organizing.



"The youth comprise 50 percent of the total population of Nepal. That´s why the youth have a major role in the country," opined Pukar Malla, adding, "Youth-led innovation is necessary and possible in Nepal."



"The second session will provide an opportunity to the youth to find innovative solutions to address economic, social and political problems of the country," he added.



The organizers have called for applications from interested Nepali youth to participate on the panel on social and political entrepreneurship. According to the organizers, high-school and undergraduate students between the ages of 16 and 35 are eligible to apply. The deadline for the submission of completed application is January 10, 2011, extendable for up to two days. The venue for the conference is FNCCI building. The conference will be broadcasted live.

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