The Zimbabwe Women Against Corruption Trust (ZWACT) has urged authorities to put youths at the center of empowerment programs so as to save them from corruptly acquiring resources and wealth.
By Charles Dzimwasha
In a statement to commemorate the International Youth Day 2022 celebrated under the theme: Inter generational Solidarity: Creating a World for all ages, ZWACT said empowering youths to actively participate in the mainstream economy and take leadership positions allows them to grow in a positive environment that promotes their personal growth.
The organisation, however, bemoaned the low participation of youths in politics, leadership and in mainstream economy, which they attributed to corruption and poverty.
“Corruption is making it difficult for young people to get employed even after graduating from the best Universities and Colleges.
“The country is losing large sums of money annually through illicit financial flows and tax evasion. When the government fails to collect enough revenue, many obligations won’t be fulfilled especially that of creating jobs for the youths,” the statement reads.
The stated noted that mainstreaming anti corruption teachings in the education curricular from early childhood learning up to tertiary institutions will ensure that people know their rights from a younger age and be empowered to resist and report corruption when it occurs.
It further stated that it is disheartening to note a generation being lost to drugs and substance abuse because they feel being let down by society.
“Drug abuse among youths has reached unprecedented levels such that there is need for urgent multi stakeholder intervention to save those already involved in drugs and also come up with preventative measures to avoid substance use,” ZWACT said.
Many youths, ZWACT added, are unable to participate fully in society and their challenges are even worse for girls who encounter sextortion when seeking opportunities such as employment and work-related learning .
“Because of fear and scarcity of opportunities, the victims usually don’t report such cases and they prefer suffering in silence. It is important to create safe and gender sensitive mechanisms for victims of sextortion to report the perpetrators.
