Concord Times (Freetown)
Mariama Kandeh
7 May 2008
Freetown — President of the National Youths' Coalition (NYC) Tuesday told Concord Times that the current status of youths in Sierra Leone has worsened since the inauguration of the All Peoples Congress government.
Al Sankoh Conteh said so many projects that were in the best interest of young people have been stopped including the public works project.
"The youths' ministry is even not functional and there are no activities for youths in the ministry," he alleged.
He said the consultative conference that was supposed to be held this month has been postponed till further notice again due to lack of funding. He said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was to fund the consultative conference.
With regards government's efforts to change the plight of youths, Sankoh said the NYC is an advocacy group that believes in the democratic tenet and thus cannot use force in getting the government work in the interest of young people. "We just have to keep lobbying with the appropriate authorities," he said.
He pointed out that the country was poor and observed that the government lacks money to address youths' problems.
Sankoh expressed bitterness over the UNDP's awarding a US$ 1 million to the World Food Programme on a food for work programme in Sierra Leone. He said the UNDP has by-passed the committee set up including the Youths' ministry and Irish aid to look into projects meant for youths empowerment.
"The committee has Bockarie Ensah as a youth representative and I see no reason why the youths were not consulted," he said while he stressed that youths should be given the opportunity to contribute to issues affecting their livelihood.
Mohamed Sesay head of Garrison Streets Youths said indeed the situation of youths has not improved for the better since the APC came into power.
"Instead things are only going worse. The unemployment rate, commodities prices and so on," he said.
He said he really don't know why governments have been abandoning the plights of youths who brought them to power.
Meanwhile, deputy minister of youths and sports Dr Algassimu Jah said the All Peoples Congress government has realized that youths should no longer be marginalized.
"If our country is to develop, youths should not be ignored," he said adding that the unemployment rate in the country was appalling.
Dr Jah had called on GTZ, which has been funding the youths' employment promotion project, to look at the possibility of funding other areas such as capacity building in terms of training, equipment and transportation to enhance the work.
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