Youth day is a public holiday in Zambia which is celebrated on the 12th of March every year. This holiday highlights the importance of the youths and their contribution to Zambian society. This year’s youth day was celebrated under the theme “Enhancing Youth Participation at all levels”.
Copper Rose Zambia (CRZ) brought together a team of 33 youths which comprised 19 Females and 14 Males from Mtendere and Chainda youth friendly spaces to the CRZ Youth Hub to commemorate Youth Day. The celebration was characterized by a number of interesting and youthful activities such as a career talk session, a talent show and a movie screening.
One of the youths who attended the Youth day celebrations at the hub, Ilunga Kasongole highlighted that this year’s theme is about involving young people at all stages of decision making so that they can be fully equipped with the right information and understand policies made by policy makers in order to capture young people’s views and interests.
“Nothing about us! Without us!” she said.
She also encouraged her fellow youths to grab every opportunity with both hands, stay updated on current affairs and voice out on issues that concern them.
The youth day event at CRZ kicked off with a career talk session which was dubbed “choosing the right career path”. This session was very educational and interactive as it unwrapped tips on how one can identify the right career path and how one can get into it. They also discussed what it takes for youths to successfully build a fulfilling career.
The career session was drawn to a close with a question and answer segment where the participants asked questions for further understanding and clarifications on how to choose the right career path.
The day also had a talent show segment which allowed the youths to team up and express their talents to depict some of the struggles they encounter in their daily lives as young people in a fun and creative way. The teams were created based on a particular art such as poetry, dance, music and drama play. By the end of the session the young people were able to tell their own stories through different art expressions.
The last activity of the day was screening of an educational Nigerian movie titled “Nimbe”. The aim of screening the movie was to enable the participants to relate and depict the various challenges youths face. By the end of the screening, the participants were provoked to think deeply on the importance of resilience and resistance to peer pressure when it comes to substance abuse and unsafe abortions.
The idea of celebrating national youth day is to bring young people together so that they can share innovative ideas so as to become better individuals in society in an effort to transform the global space.
