By Frederick Philander Windhoek The first coastal community newspaper is to appear next week in the Erongo Region, thanks to the determination and hard work of a number of enterprising out-of-school and unemployed youths from Swakopmund. “Most of these community journalist participants have been unemployed for more than five years and they jumped at the opportunity to get involved in informal practical journalism classes I have been doing with them for the past four months,” said tutor Eddy Narib. He and eighteen of his young students last week were on a familiarization tour to the capital to observe the workings of the mainstream media in Namibia. “The idea of the community newspaper was born at the end of the three-month journalism course, a similar one I did at Rehoboth. The students wanted to know what they were supposed to do with their newly-acquired writing skills. On the spur of the moment I suggested we start a community newspaper for which there is definitely a place in the Erongo Region. So “The Community Cazzette” was born of which the first edition is to appear next week,” said Eddy Nariba during their visit to the capital. The newspaper will be run by the students from the offices of the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture at Swakopmund. “During our visit to the capital we visited various mainstream newspaper offices, UN agencies and a few State-owned companies – a learning experience on its own. I think everyone returned to the coast in a very positive state of mind on how to tackle and report on the many social issues daily confronting the coastal communities,” said Narib who takes pride in the fact that some of his Rehoboth students have been employed by some of the mainstream media in the country. More news on the country’s youth is that a planned seminar on Tackling Poverty was on short notice postponed on Saturday. The seminar was to be staged by the Khomas Regional Youth Forum at the Onghuwo Yepongo. The paper will appear weekly, funding permitting, and will be published at the coast.