Hello!
Recently, Africa Teens Summit had an Instagram Live session in collaboration with @bellanaijaonline tagged: A conversation with African teens about human rights, advocacy, activism, #EndSARS, #ShutItAllDown, #CongoIsBleeding, #AmINext and #ChildTrafficking.
On the continent, there are a lot of conversations currently being had. We thought that it was important for us to spotlight them as much as we could, however from the perspective that concerns our community – teenagers.
We discussed what is really going on in the continent of Africa, how it concerns teenagers, how teens can protect their mental health with all that’s happening and how these issues can be solved.
There were Four (4) speakers in all and they spoke about different topics as they relate to the happenings in some of the African countries.
Priscilla Toko spoke about the #congoisbleeding going on in Congo. Congo, an African country is very rich in natural resources however, they seem to be one of the poorest in africa. Children who should be in school are being made to do manual labour. According to Priscilla, more than 10 billion people have died since 1990 due to hunger and poverty at large, while the rate of sexual violence in Congo is one of highest in the world.
For a country to be one of the richest in the world and at the same time, one of the poorest, it should raise some questions in your mind.
Micheal Doku spoke to us on the #ChildTrafficking going on in Ghana.
Child trafficking in Ghana has been around in decades. According to him, 1.8 million children work in cocoa farms in Ghana and Ivory Coast. This also involves trafficking children as sex workers.
He spoke extensively on the importance of advocating for this cause and the reason why this topic should be discussed everywhere.
He raised questions that we all need to answer as they are thought provoking.
Temitope Johnson spoke to us on the #EndSARS Protest going on in Nigeria. Nigeria as a country has had different cases of police brutality which the atrocities of the SARS group targeted towards the youth. The youths in Nigeria came out to protest against police brutality and a call to put an end to the SARS group. The protest then went up to raise awareness for several other topics like putting an end to corruption, increasing police salary amongst others.
Bertha Tobias spoke on the #ShutItAllDown going on in Namibia. The hashtag went out as a result of a report that a woman had gone missing. This then led to the protests by the youths to raise awareness of the happenings in the country. Namibian women lives are in danger and they do not feel safe even in their own homes. She highlighted the importance of teenagers to get involved in raising awareness because the time is NOW and we are the leaders of Now and not tomorrow anymore!.
She went on to say that the very important request that the youth were requesting is for the government to declare a State of Emergency in the country, 24 hours armed patrols amongst others.
In conclusion, we as young people should seek to prioritise justice, people's happiness and not pursue money.
Lastly, African countries need to unite, pray, speak to each other and educate each other on the importance of creating better environment, opportunities and safety for our countries.
To watch the full videos, kindly click the links below:
Priscilla- https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHId_2EHMzs/?igshid=xq6cn5jui06h
Micheal-
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHIr7kInjNA/?igshid=6h9p4ithr80d
Temitope- https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHIxTgtnxzs/?igshid=1nf9yzc2cbqsu
Bertha- https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHI2oxzHpjC/?igshid=ycimcr8u5jwo
This conversation was a collaboration with Africa Teens Summit and @BellaNaijaonline. It was brought to you in partnership with the United Nations Information Centre and NGYouths SDG.
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