by Daily Patriot | September 24, 2014
‘Youthquake’ in country, 70 % below 30 years age
Rizwan Haider
ISLAMABADA: In our country we are facing a ‘Youthquake’ as almost 70 percent population of the country is below the age of 30 years, if they are not provided with the positive opportunities or engaged in social welfare activities they can be involved in negative activities and it would be disastrous for our country.
It was stated by the CEO of Youth Engagement Services (YES) Network Pakistan Ali Raza Khan, he said that youth disengagements is the biggest problem in our society, it could be considered more dangerous than the poverty and unemployment and it is the reason of all the ills, society is facing today. He said that it is the time youth must be considered as a solution not as a problem. He said that he has visited several developed countries ands came across the differences of their approach regarding the policies for the youth. He said that in Western countries young students are asked to get engaged in the social activities and few countries do not offer the higher education degree until the students have performed in social activities for certain period of time.
He further said that education or skills are not enough and can not guarantee a job, only the engagement of the youth can solve this issue as young people would be involved in the social entrepreneurship, finding the ways for other to get employed too. He said that we can engage youth in two ways, first one to tell them what to do and how to do and other to encourage them to think from their own mind to find the solutions of the problems, in this way they would perform to the best of their abilities. He said that “YES Network Pakistan firmly believes in building communities from inside out in order to make sustainable and real change. Peace and prosperity can only be ensured in the country if we have local people working on it and not just service providers.”
He said that 50 hours Training of Trainers (TOT) Workshop for the faculty members and students of 10 distinguished higher education institutes from Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan is a process to provide awareness about the social entrepreneurship. He said that training is organized by YES under ‘Advancing Youth Social Entrepreneurship in Higher Education’ project funded by USAID’s Small Grants & Ambassador’s Fund Program. The project would help the participants to develop enterprise capability, communication and planning skills, team work, problem solving and leadership. Young people are encouraged to be creative and think outside the box. He said that
YES Network Pakistan has played a pioneer role in introducing and institutionalizing the concept of social entrepreneurship in the leading youth-serving institutions across Pakistan.
