ICYO  Youth Information-2009/7

 (E-Newsletter from Indian Committee of Youth Organizations)

ICYO - Platform of Youth Organizations in India.    ICYO - India’s the largest network of rural youth.

  

 

 

 

Commonwealth Day

Commonwealth must safeguard and promote its young people

 

The association’s task is to look straight ahead and ask how it can continue serving a new generation in 2009 and beyond

– Secretary-General

 

Surrounded by layers of dust and paint in his workshop, 21-year-old Franky Phillip routinely works 18-hour days making arts and crafts, which he then sells to vendors based around Grand Fond village in the south-east of the Caribbean small island state of Dominica.

 

There is a big demand on the island for the cups, key chains, piggy banks and model helicopters, all made using coconuts and designed by Franky, who has seen his business grow markedly since it was set up in 2005.

 

Franky is a beneficiary of the Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative, a programme that offers loans, training, education and business support to entrepreneurs. This training includes advice on formulating business plans and how to effectively manage a company.

 

This initiative was piloted in Guyana, India, Solomon Islands and Zambia, and has since been replicated in a further 12 countries.

 

“Through training the Commonwealth helped me recognize the potential for establishing my own business,” said Franky. “They helped me lay the necessary foundations, which have stimulated me to spend more and more time working on my designs.”

 

Franky was one of the special guests invited to the Commonwealth’s headquarters at Marlborough House in London on 9 March 2009 for Commonwealth Day. 2009 marks the 60th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth, where the group left behind its colonial past, becoming a free and equal association, which has grown from 8 countries to 53 members.

 

Another young person present at the Commonwealth Day celebrations was Sarika Katoch, 26, a youth development worker from Dharamshala in India. She is also a regional Youth Caucus Representative for India and the Chair for Asia, a position which has seen her become heavily involved in Commonwealth activities. One such activity she works on is taking part in plays organised in local communities, where actors perform anywhere from on the streets to in schools, educating people about HIV/AIDS.

 

Sarika was also part of the Commonwealth Observer Group present in Ghana for the December 2008 elections, where she was the Youth representative on the team that was led by Baroness Valerie Amos.

 

On being asked whether the Commonwealth is relevant today, she responded with another question: “How can national and international policies be made which affect young people without even consulting us? That is where the Commonwealth comes in.”

 

“The Commonwealth is an organization which treats young people as the solution by giving us a platform to speak out and make our voices heard,” added Sarika, who was part of a planning team looking ahead to the Commonwealth Youth Forum, which takes place just before the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago this November. This Forum will offer young people an opportunity to engage on a high level and provide an input into the youth agenda in countries across the Commonwealth.

 

Out of more than 2 billion citizens in the Commonwealth, around half are under 25 years old. It is these young people who the Commonwealth must continue to serve, HM Queen Elizabeth II said in her message for Commonwealth Day.

 

To help them make the best of their opportunities, our young men and women therefore need the opportunity to become active and responsible members of the communities in which they live, said the Queen, who is Head of the Commonwealth. “I am pleased that the Commonwealth recognizes this, and is determined to continue to put young people at its centre.”

 

She added: “Together, we should continue to work hard to deal with today’s challenges so that the young people of today’s Commonwealth can realize their aspirations. In that way, we can look to the future with confidence.”

 

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma asked what sort of twenty-first century today’s young will inherit.

 

“The Commonwealth has always had an eye on the people and the tasks of tomorrow,” he said. “Now, it must be prescient again in safeguarding and promoting the guarantors of the best hopes for its future: its young people.”

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Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

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Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO) is a registered non-profit, non-governmental network organization, committed in developing areas of mutual cooperation and understanding among different youth voluntary agencies, youth groups, clubs and individuals working in the field of youth welfare in India. 

ICYO functions as an umbrella organization of youth NGOs in India. It's family consists of
over 356 organizations spread in 122 districts of 22 states from different corners of India.

Our goal:
To improve and extend the youth work and services through Youth Organizations;
To enhance and demonstrate youth work in the society;
To promote effective youth programmmes;
To organize network of civil society organizations working towards the development of youth work;
To organize seminars, conferences, workshops, trainings;
To maintain international relation with organizations promoting young people in their programmes and activities

Affiliation: 

Consultative (Roster) Status with ECOSOC, United Nations;
Consultative Status with Commission on Sustainable Development;
Full Member of World Assembly of Youth (WAY); Asian Youth Council (AYC);
 CRIN, South Asia Youth Environment Network (SAYEN),

Affiliate group of ECPAT International, Thailand;
ATSECE-DELHI, Indian Partner of AIDS Care Watch Campaign;
Steering Committee member of World Bank's YDP Network;
Working relation with Indian Association of Parliamentarians (IAPPD);
International Medical Parliamentarians Organizations (IMPO);
Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD);
World Youth Foundation, Malaysia.