Importance of Youth Empowerment

Importance of youth empowerment

When I was still a kid, I did not fully understand the level of hard times many youths were passing through. Then, when I saw young men and women grooving in their clean cars, I felt happy and thought it was easy for them before they established such achievement. As I was growing, I began to find out the reality about the life you and I are living in.

Some press companies all over the globe through their publications on poor youth empowerment have been lamenting on its bad side, which youth unemployment is not an exception. The media is doing the much it could but yet, the problem persists though some impacts have been made.


This is evident through the publication of News 24 South Africa some time ago. The rise in youth unemployment has the danger of increasing crime as young people are idle a lot of the time.

Many jobless youth seem to have given up in life (Javed Malik 2016). According to Malik, who is a journalist in News 24, Johannesburg, the condition of the youths in the country is pitiable because the challenge will keep pushing them into criminal activities to make their money and excel in life. In June 2016, youth unemployment in the South Africa was put at 53.70 percent, which makes the country most affected by the menace in that year.

As Malik pointed out one of the consequences of youth unemployment which is increase in crime, there are other bad fruits that can follow it. But, this topic is mainly on the importance of youth empowerment which can go a long way to reduce the unemployment status of many young people in countries of the world.

Information sourced from Statista stated that there was an estimate of 16.84 million youths living in United Kingdom in mid-year population estimate in 2018 who were of the age of 15 to 34 years. From the same source, as of July 1, 2018, there were 88.65 million young people in United States of America age 15 to 34 years. In 2018, the population of United States of America was 327,096,265. From this statistics, it shows that young people from 15 to 34 years occupied 27.1% of the country's population in 2018. According to Silky Jain of Your Story Media Pvt. Limited , India is a country teeming in youth, with 70 % of people below the age of 40 years. From these statistics, it is important that youths in various countries be empowered to have a better society tomorrow.

Empowering youth is defined in this study as “creating and supporting the enabling conditions under which young people can act on their own behalf, and on their own terms, rather than the direction of others (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2007).

Youth empowerment; design by Okwuagbala Uzochukwu Mike

The importance of youth empowerment are but not limited to:

• Crime reduction;
• Creation of brighter future;
• Income diversification;
• National development;
• know their rights and peace maintenance

Crime Reduction 

How can youth empowerment help in crime reduction?

The rate of crime in societies varies when compared to others. One of the reasons for this is because the youths are not empowered. But if the youths are empowered through training to learn what will make them live comfortably, the rate of crime will be on the lower side.

If the youths in a particular society are empowered on how to live good moral lives, there will be low level of crimes committed by the young. The reason why we see reports on newspapers on the involvement of our young men and women in crimes is because of weak moral empowerment. If they are properly trained, the level of crime will reduce among them. The reason why many find it difficult to abstain from crime is because their foundation is weak. They lack empowerment.

Since governments of many countries set up some youth empowerment programs in some locations, the rate of crime have really reduced in such locations. Many of the youths in those locations find themselves busy learning one or two skills that are to beautify their lives for good. Today, many of them have graduated from such programs and are doing exceptional well with the skills they learned. Because of the good engagement brought to them by their governments, their attentions are shifted far away from crimes.

Creation of Brighter Future 

Can youth empowerment help create brighter future for the youths? An empowered youth stands to live better. That is to say that the empowered young man or woman has promising future than those that do not have anything to offer. Lets take for instance that there are two young people planning to start foundation of their houses in the next two years.

One has skills that gives him money and the other has nothing doing and is not ready to get empowered. Who among the two do you think can make the dream comes through? Of the truth is that one with skill that will easily succeed in his plan because he has already been empowered by having the skill that will make him excel. Youth empowerment has really create bright and promising future for young people.

Income Diversification 

Income diversification is another importance of youth empowerment. There are young people that have started earning money legally before they graduated from tertiary institutions. Some of these young men and women earn money from many skilled works and ease the stress of their parents in paying for their academic dues. Some write codes for individuals and also create websites for business owners at the same time. They were able to do these because they were empowered.

When youth attend some schemes that are structured to make them gain the necessarily information and knowledge for excellence in life, they can diversify the channels through which they earn money. With the diverse knowledge, they will make it in life and make more money through what they do. The power of youth empowerment cannot be over emphasized.

National Development

When people who live in a society are developed, the society they find themselves in becomes developed as well. In fact, the people is the country also develop positively. So, if the youth of the country are empowered and are progressing, the country will stand to develop as well.

Lets take for instance that a nation is made up of over 30 percent of youths who are good in technology, with their skills, they can change the face of the nation technologically. They can also manufacture products that will be exported to other countries as well and thus increasing the revenue of the country.

Youth empowerment and youths rights; design by Okwuagbala Uzochukwu Mike

Know their Rights and Peace Maintenance 

How can empowering youths help in peace maintenance?

Youth empowerment has really made the youths more importantly the women know their rights and avoid being intimidated in some countries. Youth empowerment is a process where children and young people are encouraged to take charge of their lives. Since many organizations and institutions start promoting youth empowerment, the right of the young are not being taken for granted to some extent.

Some youth empowerment programs focus on youth rights. With the empowerment, many understand formally their rights and practice them. Also, gender equality is promoted and enforced though youth empowerment programs.

A busy youth do not have the time to be part of any form of social unrest in his or her community. Youth empowerment is a source of engagement for the youths. When they are empowered, they become busy and shun any thing that may disrupt the peaceful nature of their community.

Conclusion

The world would have been a better place for all of us if the youths were empowered. Youth empowerment is a combined effort for all irrespective of the place of origin. These men and women are growing and if they are equipped with the right tool for societal development, they will do greater works today and in time to come.  

The youths need all of us. We have to help no matter how little we can. We have to teach them that skill which we have. It will make them better and happy. If you teach the young close to you the skill that will help them make money and I do from my own end as well, our communities will be better places to stay. 

The book below discusses more on the topic and it is written by the author of this article. Get the book and read more. You can search through Google for outlets closer to you and order if the outlet you will be taken to is far from you. 

References 

• Daniel Clark (2019), United Kingdom (UK) population in 2018, by age group, published by Statista, Hamburg, Germany
• Erin Duffin (2019), Population of the United States by sex and age 2018, published by Statista, Hamburg, Germany
• Silky Jain (2017), Importance of Youth Empowerment, published by Your Story Media Pvt. Limited , India