Moma’s Youth Hub: Empowering young people to promote peace, local development – Ikweli

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Moma’s Youth Hub: Empowering young people to promote peace, local development – Ikweli

8:17 CAT | 06 Dec 2022

Photo: Ikweli

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) hosted a five-day training programme for 30 young people at the Moma Youth Hub, in Moma, Nampula province, within the scope of CDD’s Northern Mozambique Social Cohesion Program.

Young people were trained in five skills: Civic Engagement, Conflict Resolution and Negotiation, Leadership, 21st Century Skills and Entrepreneurship and Community Development Projects.

Momaiik.ik_ — *Moma Permanent Secretary Joao Zampula*

The official opening of the training was overseen by Permanent Secretary of Moma district, João Bento Zampula, and attended by representatives of the District Services for Education, Youth and Technology and the District Services for Economic Activities.

In his speech, Permanent Secretary Zampula emphasized the importance of training and empowering young people, encouraged associations as a mechanism for participation in local governance. In the context of the challenges posed by the violent extremism that has plagued the province of Cabo Delgado since October 2017, he warned that young people should distance themselves from movements that are not concerned with the well-being of youth. These are movements that take advantage of the weaknesses of young people, especially the lack of employment.

For Judity Romola, from the District Services for Economic Activities in Moma, Mozambique’s development must be based on the strength of young people. Young people receiving training must be able to pass on the acquired knowledge to others in their age group.

Assma attends Grade 11 at Moma Secondary School. For her, the training was very important because she learned a lot about the rights of young people. She was very impressed with the content, which she said illustrated many ways to make positive changes in her community.

Although Assma is a poet with a penchant for social intervention, she did not feel capable, prior to her training, of influencing positive change in her community. But after training, she changed her perspective. Assma identifies herself as an environmental activist and intends to fight harder for the preservation of the environment. As for the challenges for the participation of young people in decision-making processes, she notes that freedom of expression has been a limited right, above all because the “older” tend to neglect the voice of young people, which prevents them from giving their opinion on the local problems and presenting their proposed solutions.

Luísa Brás is 21 years old and has finished high school at Escola Secundária de Moma. About her training, she says she learned a lot, particularly about leadership. Luísa hopes to replicate this knowledge to other young people. “The idea that leadership skills can be acquired made me more and more motivated, as I thought that only people with innate leadership talents could lead change processes”.

The Social Cohesion Program is implemented with the support of Swiss Cooperation. This is an initiative led by civil society (CDD, IESE and Fundação MASC) to strengthen social cohesion in Northern Mozambique. The main target groups are young people and women, seen as “agents of change” both individually and collectively. Collective change agents also include public institutions that have an interest, capacity and ideas to contribute to economic, political and social inclusion, improve state responsiveness and service delivery.

The Moma training took place between the 7th and 11th of November.

CDD graduates 90 young people from the Youth Hubs of Moma and Angoche, in Nampula

Read more:https://t.co/0LIVmuGM3z pic.twitter.com/9lN1rzGY17

— CDD – Centro para Democracia e Desenvolvimento (@CDD_Moz) December 1, 2022