By: Josephine Nyeweah in Kenema district
A Community Based Organization Eastern Regions Youths Network ERYN–SL with support from UNDP through the National Youths Commission in collaboration with other partners has ended a day engagement of Youths in Kenema district on nonviolence and peace building in Sierra Leone and peaceful election for the 2023 general elections.
The engagement started with a procession of peace march from Capital Trading Center through the main streets of Kenema to the Kenema District Council Hall, Nyandeyama road which brought together various key stakeholders that addressed the youths.
Giving an overview of the project, the team lead Eastern Region Youths Network ERYN–SL Ambassador Alhaji Yayah Swarray, disclosed that the Government of Sierra Leone through the National Youth Commission NaYCOM has received a grant to expand the space for the greatest engagement of electoral stakeholders in the electoral process through Election Coordination with Stakeholders on Youth participation and Violence free 2023 elections, supported by the Fostering of Peaceful, Credible and Inclusive Elections Projects 2022–2023, funded by Irish Aid, EU, Canada, Iceland and UNDP.
He went on that the main objective of the project is to establish and provide an effective platform for qualified youth, youth groups or organizations to actively engage in expanding their current social and youth empowerment project activities, to promoting violence free elections and youth meaningful participation in the 2023 electoral process and in governance.
He said the Commission have engaged in the training of youths to change the narrative of people that young people are there to cause havoc.
The District Youth Chairman Kenema District Alhaji Mohamed Mansaray said the district youth wing was created in 2019 to see that young people are transformed, that is why the have trained the youths in various skills across the nation and some of them have being self-employed.
The participating youths promised the audience to remain peaceful throughout an electioneering era before, during and after June 24, general elections.
