The forum attracted stakeholders across the district and was aimed at helping the district youth better understand the opportunities available for them.
In addition, the forum also brought to the fore the leadership role youth must adopt to ensure their development.
Welcoming the gathering, Aboulie Njie, chairperson for Kombo East Youth Committee described the forum as very important for the district youth as a whole.
He noted that the subject matter of the conference: Peace building, youth in migration; youth employment and women in community development are all relevant for youth folk.
“This youth talk show is very important. The leadership and advocacy is something very important. We are facing leadership crisis in our country and young people we are seeing ourselves as future leaders. Therefore, it is very important that we start everything from the grassroots level.” he said.
Creating an enabling environment for the young people, he observed, would help in eliminating the unfortunate situation in the society.
“We want to see our young people empowered and we want to see them in a new direction.” Njie said.
Ebrima Ceesay, secretary general for both KEDYC and Jiboro Youth Development Association (JYDA), highlighted that the forum would help the youth in the district immensely especially in making informed-decisions.
He thus urged the participants to make best use of the forum.
Dembo Kuyateh, chairman for Kombo East Youth and Children Development Alliance (KEYCDA) said the forum would help youth leaders to learn from one another and develop best practices.
Kuyateh, who presented the topic: ‘drug abuse’, revealed that statistics have shown that 98.5% of the population whose drugs were seized, are young people between 18-35 years old.
He therefore called on youth leaders in the area to engage their fellow youth to ensure they avoid drug abuse.
