If there’s ever been a time in the history of Ghana (in my lifetime) where there’s been a strong sense of ’Youth Empowerment’ then I’d say that time has been the past couple of months where a group of young “fella’s” from across Africa and beyond are bringing to Ghana a one day conference (TExYouthInspire) taking place at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT on the 10th of April 2010. The Conference with the Theme “A Good Head & A Good Heart” will bring together 100 youth aged between 14 and 25 from across Africa.
What I even find more exciting is the caliber of speakers chosen for the event. The team putting the conference together, made a conscious effort to invite speakers under age 30 huh!!! how exciting (never heard of anything like that in Ghana before); I find that very uncharacteristic of most conferences I’ve attended in Ghana. In a latest post on the conference site, this is how the Team captioned the conference: Young Speakers take center stage at first TEDx Conference exclusively for African Youth. I personally found that very exciting
My Take on the Conference
Its just about 5 days to the conference, and I feel so strongly that it will be awesome, why? because in Ghana, I find that it is easy for our older folks to be tempted to tell the youth what is right and wrong and because of this whole generational gap, it mostly does not work out well for our older folks. This time its different, its gonna be younger folks who have had the opportunity to change their environments engage with their peers on national/economic issues. Wait till you hear this: All 8 Speakers are under age thirty, but there are two teenagers (one from Ghana and the other from Nigeria 17 and 19 respectively).
I feel so passionate about Ghana and Africa so much that, you know, I wish our governments will give us (young people) a listening ear just to hear what is on our hearts and how we dream of our nations and continent. I don’t know about you though, but my heart bleeds and I am craving for a positive change for Ghana and Africa and I hope that members of the government will find their way to the conference and hear what it’s future leaders have to say.