By Joseph Mtebe

Young people play a critical role in efforts to resolve social problems affecting local communities, including human rights abuses and the HIV/Aids scourge, a youth conference recently held in Mwanza concluded.

Speakers at the conference organised by Plan International at the Nyanza Hall have said the government alone and a few private players cannot address the problems facing the majority of people in the country.

And Plan International is attempting to help the youth play a more critical role in tackling social problems. The global body has for years been assisting youth groups in Mwanza to reach out to their communities, to help address some of the social ills affecting communities in the region.

“We have been visiting schools for a long time now, inspiring the youth to form clubs and educate their peers and the community at large on a wide range of issues, including child abuse, HIV/Aids and human rights,“ says Ms Neema Bwaira, the Coordinator of Children Rights with Plan International (Mwanza).

The youth groups also seek to help in educating the society on the prevention and combating of corruption. Plan International provides training to the youth groups before dispatching them out to disseminate their knowledge to members of the community through open seminars, public debates, and conferences.

Saadi Simba, a 20-year-old Form 6 student at Pamba Secondary School and chairman of one of the youth groups, the Vijana Super Group, is upbeat about the involvement of young people in efforts to address societal challenges.
Significant progress “We have witnessed significant progress in terms of behaviour change among some of the youth we have so far reached,“ he said at the conference.

“One of our active members is one such case ­ he was once a drug abuser, but all that has changed and is working with the group to change the lifestyles of others.“

Plan is one of the oldest and largest international development agencies in the world working with governments in 66 to implement programmes at grassroots level in health, education, water and sanitation, income generation and building relationships across cultures.

Its work in Tanzania covers five key areas, all of which are rooted in the rights of the child, namely community health, promotion and enabling children to learn, water and environmental health, sustainable livelihoods, giving children a voice.

The organisations believes that children can meaningfully participate in and contribute to issues affecting their own development, that of their communities and the nation at large, if they are provided with the space and safe environment to contribute.

“It is well-meaning intervention, and a more effective strategy of reaching out to the community, that is why we have decided to fund the youth to be involved through clubs in their schools,“ Ms Ms Bwaira notes.

Glory Mshiu, 16, a Form 3 student at Nyamagana Secondary School and leader of the Pamoja Youth Club, says the club is working on addressaddress ing widespread problems of childchild hood pregnancies and domestic viovio lence. “We educate our colleagues in and out of school about the importance of abstaining from sex, we have already done that in places like Sengerema, we are hoping for a change,“ she says.

The clubs also provide encouragement and support to victims of varivari ous forms of abuse, adds Msazi Ally, 18, a secretary with Rafiki Youth club at Nyamagana Secondary School.

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