Nairobi, Kenya, 8th August, 2015 – Every year on August 12th, the world commemorates the International Youth Day. This year, the celebrations were held under the theme “Youth Civic Engagement”, a key focus of the United Nations System-Wide Action Plan on youth. The theme sought to promote young people’s civic engagement at all governance levels in the society which is often low or non-existent.
In Kenya, the Global Peace Foundation through its youth arm, Global Peace Youth partnered with Action 2015 Kenya in its efforts to celebrate IYD. This was hosted by the Nairobi County Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Movement (NCHESHM) and brought together 40 young leaders for a Clean Up and Tree Planting Exercise in Babadogo, Mathare Constituencies. The participants planted 30 trees in Mathare Church, Chandaria Primary School and Babadogo Primary School.
The celebrations brought together different stakeholders including the International Citizen Service Youth Volunteers from VSO Jitolee, NCHESHM, youth and women groups in the community among other participants.
(NCESHM is a movement of environmental youth groups in Nairobi County which has received Peace and Leadership training from Global Peace Youth under the United Generation Platform.)
In attendance were, Mr. Stephen Cheboi, Director, ACTION 2015, Mrs. Susan Kiraguri, Environment Officer at One Stop Youth Centre, Mr. Joshua Owiti, the Sub-County Officer, Mr. Arthur Wasonga, Director of Global Peace Youth among others.
The Mathare Sub County Officer was pleased to see the youth in that community take ownership of their poor waste disposal problem and clean up their environment. In his speech, Mr. Joshua Owiti was encouraged by activities the young people have initiated to clean up in the area.
“I am pleased to see young people take responsibility of their environment through such activities. My plea is that this becomes a daily practice for every household so that we can collectively maintain a conducive environment for our children,’ says Mr. Owiti “I would also like to emphasize that responsibility starts from you, through good character which eventually spreads to your immediate families, the communities and the society. Cleanliness in character reflects through the cleanliness and well-being of your environs.”
Youth volunteers from VSO Jitolee were also excited to be involved in the Clean Up exercise. “As I quote President Obama’s recent speech, …’we have borrowed this land from our children’, we are the present generation and we need to take care and add value to our environment so that our children and grandchildren can find a better place to live in” said Mr. Kimani, the VSO Youth Representative.
Mr. Arthur Wasonga applauded the youth for their innovative actions, leadership initiative and for participating in MILEs trainings offered under the UGEN platform. “The membership of NCHESHM has shown so much improvement in terms of character and you can see the results through the dedication they have shown today. As a person who views character as the focal point of change in a young person, I would like to urge the youth present to reflect on what they envision for themselves and for their societies and start acting on the change they want to see by joining other like-minded groups.”
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