Introduction
The paper discuses a viable empowerment project for youth in a slum set up in Kenya within the ages of 15-18 years who are idle and now causing security concerns. It provides an initiative that starts of as a garbage collection centre to clean the slum area that lacks clear sanitation laws but later set the targets into a movement that acts as a bank of professionals for hiring and a centre for training youth with empowerment skills. The challenges of poor youth policies and their attitudes are discussed, and strategies to deal with the challenges outlined. The paper uses the collaboration approach in youth affairs where the solutions to their problems are based on a holistic approach and not provision of knowledge alone.
The Background
The year 2010-2011 has been declared by United Nations as the International year of youth. Statistics in the world show that more than half of the world’s population is made up of the youth. In Africa in 2007, for example, 60% of the entire population was made up of young people between 12-14 years. The challenge facing the world is that, globally 130M youth cannot read and write with half of the world’s unemployment approximately being the youth. To adequately deal with these, there is a need to create more than 100M jobs to cope up with the high numbers of the youth seeking employment. Although United Nations in declaring 2010-2011 as the year of youth stresses on dialogue and mutual understanding through creating awareness and mobilizing youth to engage in development, there is still rising rural urban poverty and growing gaps between the rich and the poor affecting mainly the youth. The youth have been neglected in decision making and hence have not been in position to contribute to socio-economic developments. Unfortunately, most of the youth policies across the world have fragmented set of programs without laid down structures for addressing youth issues holistically. In United States, for example, youth policy presents a fragmented set of programs that lacks harmonization at national levels. Ironically, developments of communities are dependent on the hearts and minds of the youth people. It is critical to engage young people and adults in partnerships to create the conditions necessary for youth and community development.
Context
This paper is based on youth between the ages of 15-18 years living in Kibera slum in Kenya. Kibera is the Africa’s largest slum located 20 KM south of Nairobi, Kenya. It is roughly the same size as of New York City’s central park with an approximate population of over I million people. Unpublished research findings by RECOUP in the area reported large inhabitants being youth below the age of 19 years in search of formal employment. Although education has been used as an indicator of wealth hence an indicator of better living standards, the area still has majority of the people without any certification. However, a higher percentage of the occupants have completed both primary and secondary school and among the population that had no certificate, 46% had received a valuable level of schooling. Kibera slum being located within the suburbs of Nairobi has a highly sensitized lot of Kenyan youth with a positive mind for development.
The outspoken challenge facing youth in most of the developing nations has been lack of employment to absorb the large numbers of the unemployed youth loitering along the streets. This trend has increased crime rates, high school drop out rates and other health related factors in these cities (Pittman, 1992). The rising unemployment rate in Kibera slum requires interventions based on Brazilian educator Paulo Freire’s methods of reflective action (Freire, 1970). This requires youth to come up with working organizations void of political orientations that will enable them work closely with groups that are socially or economically marginalized to create a sense of hope in their future life. Kibera having majority of its youth literate, formulation of an organization basically for unemployed youth that will have a form of voice to raise their grievances is likely to succeed. The organization will be eligible for youth between the ages of 10-20 years with a conformation of active participation during the groups’ activities. It is supposed to serve a number of purposes. First, this will serve as a centre for unemployed youth with varying abilities and talents. The centre will act as an expert bank where employment especially only contracts basis are directed. They will have seminar forums for their members ranging from guiding and counseling for drug addicts, training for necessary skill acquisitions, and talent identification for talented youth who have never had a chance to show a case of what they have. The centre is mainly supposed to offer the empowerment purpose to the youth on available opportunities in the society and with education system faulted for instilling and providing education for formal employment this will couple as a centre to emancipate the minds of these youth to see education beyond employment but a preparation for a responsible living.
Knowledge has always been referred to as power, able to change not only the attitudes of the people but also there living standards. The best way of dealing with the nuisance youth will be creating a non profit making organization based on the principles of providing sufficient information meant to empower them to be part of the solution to their problems. Consequently, this will be a centre for dissemination of knowledge, based on the themes that are viable in Kibera slum. The work of the organization will be made known to the public through a variety of ways. There will be campaigning involving an active group of 15-20 youth who will be talked to, and provided with a master plan of the campaign. They will be trained on what they are expected to do, strategies and indicators of their success. The campaigns will target majorly the identified places where youth idle. The youth who register to be part of the group will also be taken through a training schedule before joining the already trained members thus forming the desired numbers. Since the organization is not financially endowed, it means its advocacy program needs to be supported. A strategy for the advocacy is to talk to relevant ministries for support and maintenance of the organization process. In Kenya, there are a number of ministries interested and entrusted with youth affairs. Among the ministries are the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Gender, and Ministry of Metropolitan. The three ministries collaborate and offer grants for youth organization depending on the level of their work. Kibera being among the largest slums in Africa, lobbying to attract international funding across the world is likely to succeed. Being at the heart of the Nairobi city with poor garbage collection system, the organization will use this to create the much needed lobbying by coming up with an efficient way of dealing with the garbage menace using the energy and numbers of the idle youth. Since garbage collections are paid for by the residence, the organization only requires a permit from the city council of Nairobi to be allowed to collect the garbage within the region. The money collected will be managed centrally, coming up with structures, and lining up proposals from the ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan for funding. Youth being members of this community will need to talk to their parents and community leadership on the need to support the initiatives of the youth. The community will automatically be fascinated with the turn of events since they are always at the receiving end whenever the youth turn violent. With this in mind, they might support the initiatives fully and advocate for external support. Participation of the identified groups will only be guaranteed through empowerment. This will be through a series of open air campaigns to reach to all the corners of the inhabited areas. Youth empowerment will be done through a series of campaigns, advocacy, participations in the activities, and training sessions to sustain and maintain their interests in the organization’s activities.
Challenges facing the youth initiative
There have been a number of documented common challenges facing youth in the world. In implementing this strategy, a number of challenges can be cited. Poor policies in most of developing nations are seen as a major obstacle affecting implementation of youth initiatives like the one outlined above. Like developed nations, youth interventions policies in this country are centered on the premise that the problem emanates from the youth. Youth studies across the world like the youth participation and community- wide supports for positive development throughout the 1980s, public policy and much of professional practice in youth work that approached youth as individuals needing interventions failed (Connell, 1992: Lyndee, 2005). Indeed, youth development theory views youth as a centre for initiating community developments, and defines youth development as:
… an ongoing process in which all young people are engaged and invested, and through which young people seek ways to meet their basic physical and social needs and to build the competencies and connections they perceive as necessary for survival and success (Pittman & Cahill, 1992).
Most of Kibera youth have been involved in many empowerment programs that only emphasized on knowledge dissemination. Although this is a welcome idea, its deficiency arises from the fact that they are never provided with specific skills necessary to actively participate in social development. Pittman and O’Brien (1989) suggest that for a successful empowerment process there are five essential areas that need to be addressed: academic education, health, work exposure and experiences, personal growth and development and social responsibility and social awareness. Youth with enough knowledge gained through participation in empowerment programs but lack of sustainable programs lives the youth frustrated hence poor results. This demands new types of youth-adult partnerships and changes in existing cultures, including management and decision-making process (Cahill, 1997; Pittman, 1991). A study by James, Thomas and Mitchell (n. d) on youth and community interventions showed that youth interventions that engage youth in community development are highly effective in preventing school drop outs, drug abuse, and teenage pregnancy. The current study will attempt to sustain the set program by arranging a number of training sessions for the youth with some set indicators to maintain their support. Lack of support from the community through administration and relevant bodies leaves most of the youth initiatives unsuccessful. Application of grants for funding is allowed but the unnecessary procedures that prolongs the funding process make the sustaining youth initiatives more difficult. Their programs are fragmented and split into so many ministries making application for grants challenging. The government as a policy should consider coming up with a single body or ministry to address the plight of the youth. The other challenge that this initiative is likely to face is the attitude from the youth. It has been established that youth in Kenya and a cross the world prefer well paying white collar jobs. Unfortunately, they are rare and this initiative will struggle for a start to provide the youth with there desires. Most of the available jobs within the city center that will provide a good pay for initiative and the much needed coverage to advertize the initiatives might not be interesting to these group of youth. The organization will set up strategies to tackle these attitudes among the youth by first involving professionals within the city who are always willing to participate and share similar sentiments of building capacity in the youth. They will centre their talks on a need to facilitate an organization that presents a unique start to attract the eyes of the investors for funding. Youth will later be provided with the benefits they are likely to rip when the organization activities pick up. Loans will only be approved for active members who have stood with the organization since inception. Youth professionals will easily be convinced to sustain the plight of their colleagues in the organization and given the close relationship among the residents and lack of clear laws of garbage collection the initiative will likely take off.
In conclusion, the paper has exposed the plight of Kibera youth as a case study of the many youth in developing nations faced with high unemployment rates. This leaves them idle hence engaging in drug abuse and crime rates contributing nothing or little to the development of their nations. The paper presents viable possible avenues of involving these idle and active youth through empowering them to see themselves as agents of development beyond the challenges they encounter.
References
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Connell, J. (1992). The Importance of Learning about and Building on the Policies, Programs and Effects of Voluntary Youth-Serving Organizations. Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum. New York.
James, P. Michelle, A., Thomas J. (N. D). Youth Development in Community Settings: Challenges to Our Field and Our Approach. Institute for Research and Reform in Education.
Lyndee, K. (2005). Youth as Change Agents in Distressed Immigrant Communities. USA: University of Southern California.
Pittman, K. (1991) Bridging the Gap: A Rationale for Enhancing the Role of Community Organizations Promoting Youth Development.
Pittman, K., & Cahill, M. (1992). Youth and Caring: The Role of Youth Programs in the Development of Caring. Commissioned paper for the Lilly Endowment. Center for Youth Development and Policy Research, Academy for Educational Development.
Pittman, K. & O’Brien, R. (1989). “Youth at Risk: Youth-Serving Organizations have Much of What Youth Need.” Youth Policy, 11 (9), 9-15.