World Youth Channel

 The youth today are an unexploited resource. Prevalent unemployment rates (over 50% in most economically challenged countries) have led to a majority of them looking for alternative sources of self-sustenance. These alternatives do not always bear positive outcomes. A significant proportion of the challenge is created by lack of ownership by these youth of the change process required to improve the African continent.

The youth are additionally not aware of what their colleagues are pursuing in neighbouring countries and regions. The most intensive interaction is with the West where there is a huge effort to ape and extol contemporary Western culture. Yet there is such a rich heritage and capacity in the rest of the world which remains unexploited because of lack of a structure to accommodate and drive the process.

If youth can be brought together to speak with one voice and share experiences with a view towards establishing a singe-source point of departure for evidence-based interventions, a proper effort will bear fruit on the ground, and the youth shall eventually be a significant factor in African growth and development. This growth is not just economical, but is also socio-cultural and intellectual, since a cultural and knowledge interface is easily accommodated when packaged in the right way for the youth. We are here to foster this!

There is already an interest in global youth initiatives, with some agencies such as UN-MC, Action Aid and we at the World Youth Channel expressing an inherent desire to bring youth together for a common goal or purpose. A sustained platform that enables the youth to identify best practices and glean and learn from each others’ experiences, together with an outstretched arm of help from the generations that have gone before them, will ensure that the youth take their place at this moment in time, for the betterment of their generation. With keen planning and effective follow-up, they are bound to be a model to emulate.

Problem Statement

The youth in Kenya today have a very passive attitude towards poverty. Those that are well endowed are not piqued enough to act against poverty, while those that do not are resigned to their fate and exhibit social ills that are a panacea to our society.

The dissemination of pro-poor information has not been in a manner palatable to the youth. Indeed, a random survey anywhere reveals a general lack of knowledge on the country’s poverty situation, with most indicating a basic understanding that Kenya is not a well-to-do country on the international front.

The premise of this paper is that if the youth can be educated on poverty in a manner that is attracted to them, a passion shall be ignited that is characteristic to their stage in life. Being the overt majority in this country, their induced passion for poverty is bound to make a positive and lasting impact.

There is a ready and willing group that has been socialized to be caring towards the less fortunate in society. Most Kenyan youth would probably contribute to an impromptu financial cause like a hospitalized friend or orphaned children’s home. The challenge is bringing out this generic sense of care to the forefront in order to stir the youth to action against poverty.

A well packaged and sustained media campaign is bound to increase the involvement of this key crowd in the fight against poverty. This paper seeks to identify these key areas of intervention and bring them to the forefront to elicit positive sustained change.

Broad Objective

Creation of awareness about poverty among Kenyan youth to the extent of stirring them to action against poverty.

Specific Objectives:

1. Using Mass Media To Disseminate Pro-poor Information To The Youth.
2. Using The Arts To Disseminate Pro-poor Information To The Youth.