THERE is a poignant letter in today's edition from a youth asking the country's leadership to look forward rather than back, and instead of berating the youth, to try and empower them, especially against the background of large-scale unemployment in this country. He has a point. And we need to take note of what he is saying and try to find a way to address the problem.

IT is true to say that the majority of Namibia's youth are currently handicapped in that they are products of a still-inferior education system, which ultimately prohibits their gainful employment without some kind of tertiary training. It is also true that the communities in which they live, countrywide, do not cater for them in any significant way.

The letter writer says the leadership continues to berate the youth for being on the streets and hanging out in shebeens and bars and urges them instead to do something productive with their lives. Yet they do not provide the youth with the wherewithal to do so.

He points out that in Swakopmund's Mondesa township there is little for the youth. No recreational centres, no places for youth entertainment and sports, and I would add, no libraries. What then is a youth, particularly those who are unemployed, to do with themselves, other than, as the writer points out, turning to crime to find money to go straight back into the shebeens?

It is not only Mondesa. It is the case in so many parts of our country. Even in Windhoek the youth are hard-pressed for any kind of entertainment centres and sports facilities to enjoy their social lives with their peers in an atmosphere that doesn't involve alcohol. So the 'hanging round the mall' syndrome becomes another form of social activity, and these are places where drug-dealers and other shady characters hang out, waiting to lure the bored and deprived youngsters into habit-forming substance abuse, among others.

It is not purely up to Government, but also the private sector, to do something about the status quo because at the very least, it would provide some forms of more empowering activities for youth, whether these include things like a skating rink or bowling alley; youth centres where they could learn chess or hobby groups where they could make jewellery or learn the guitar or play music and thereby develop interests which could finally become even a career choice in a country where there are scant jobs available for the children of less affluent parents.

Communal sports facilities, which are not prohibitively expensive, would also provide them at least with options to current negative pursuits, and might, in the process, encourage sports skills in a country where they seem to be diminishing by the day.

Strikes me, among others, that this could be an important role for the otherwise not community-involved church groups an other non-governmental organisations to initiate. But not only. The private sector could also come into the picture and think creatively about ways and means to provide both entertainment and productive time for the youth.

We've got a host of 'organizations' ostensibly catering for younger people, but they all primarily seem to be in the realm of politics, and don't really think around what there is for youth to do in this country. 'National youth services' and others have an almost militaristic ring about them. The youth also needs to have fun, upgrade their skills, get access to a library near them, or simply play basketball!

Some of these could also develop into centres of excellence, outside the school curriculum, and who knows what talents could emerge from just a little more positive attention to the plight of our youngsters.

I would urge everyone to read the letter from the youth in Mondesa in this edition, and try to think of ways and means to get our youth more involved in a variety of creative and/or entertaining and educative projects that can take them away from the shebeens or the pursuit of a life of crime, simply because they have no other choices. Let us try to give them reason for positivity and creativity in their lives, and this in turn may provide them with direction, personal upliftment and fulfilment.

Source: http://allafrica.com