BY SETHABILE MYENI
MBABANE – The Ministry of Sport, Culture and Youth Affairs, in partnership with the Eswatini National Youth Council and UNFPA, has started the regional International Youth Day activities in the Shiselweni and Hhohho region.
It has been gathered that these activities focuses on green skills for youth, asserting initiatives at the global and national levels, discussing relevant opportunities and challenges, offering forward- looking policy guidance, creating synergies and mobilizing support from companies for youth projects.
Other stakeholders also supported these activities and they made presentations on the opportunities they support in the green space. Eswatini Environmental Authority is one of the stakeholders and they presented that acquiring green skills will not only help the environment but will also help reduce unemployment rate.
A representative from EEA mentioned that green skills are almost free because other than going to a physical institution one can learn using social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. He said a study has shown that green skills can create 8.4 million jobs for young people by 2030.
KOBWA Water Resources Management Specialist, Khetsiwe Ngcobo, made a presentation on Water Resources Management which contributes to Sustainable Development Goals. Encouraged the youth to come up with innovative ideas that will ensure clean water.
“It is our responsibility to keep the environment clean because sanitation is important. Waste like disposable pampers, plastic, containers they should a legal site where they can be disposed. We can also share ideas in a set up like this on how to recycle the mentioned waste,” she said.
Piggs Peak Town Council representative, Bongekile Mkhontfo talked about climate change that it is a worldwide issue and the damaged environment contributes to climate change. The young people have a challenge of fighting climate change.
“Funds to combat climate change are available all we need to do is to conduct proper research and write proper proposals to unlock such funds. We can turn trash into treasure,” she said.
