Windhoek
To bring together youth organisations to work towards addressing issues affecting the youth in Namibia, as stipulated in the Harambee Prosperity Plan (HPP), a number of youth, in partnership with the National Youth Council, have formed a new organisation, the Harambee Youth Alliance (HYA).
Speaking at the consultative meeting recently, HYA secretary Olavi Hangula said the HYA would support the campaign of poverty eradication as outlined in the main HPP pillars. HYA aims to focus on the implementation of the youth agenda through the HPP. The initiative, when fully established, would be a subset of the HPP.
The HYA will consist of three units: employment and policy, health and youth welfare, as well as skills and training outreach.
The founding structure discussed under the above-mentioned pillars is related to the issues directly affecting the youth. It is the promise of the youth of the Namibia to join hands to meet His Excellency [President Hage Geingob] halfway in combating and eradicating poverty, using the four pillars of the HPP, said Hangula.
He added that the youth should ask what they can do to assist the government, rather than asking what the government can do for them.
“As youth, being the highest population in Namibia, it is only reasonable that we make the quantity [into] quality by joining hands as one from different political parties, races, religious groups and backgrounds. With the HYA we will ignore our differences and only recognise our [common] goals, and that is a poverty-free Namibia,” Hangula said.
An eight-member interim committee was formed at the consultative meeting. All young people who would like to join the HYA can contact the National Youth Council individual or through their organisations.