The Youth Market is on again for the final time this year and it’s bigger with more components than its predecessors being the only five day youth market event to be organised this year by the Youth@Work Youth Market team.
According to Youth Market officer, Gino Oti this is by far the biggest event of this year for the Youth Market team.
“Being the last youth market for this year, we wanted to provide a bigger avenue for our young entrepreneurs one last time before everyone goes on their holidays.”
“The concept of the Youth Market remains the same; to provide an avenue for young entrepreneurs to sell their products, we just added a few more components to the event to accompany the actual market,” said Mr Oti.
“Apart from the song competition and the dance competition we have added the choir competition and the FOTOVOIS exhibition which is an exhibition advocating for youth unemployment, youth disengagement and other related youth issues.”
Solomon Islands joint programme co coordinator on ending gender against violence, Ayako Iori said in a statement that youth get conflicting messages and it’s time to change that behaviour. Youths are important to get messages across to other youths; they are powerful instruments of peace in their society.
“Youths should be given opportunities to build; we support this event also because we see youths are powerful instruments to help eliminate violence against women once they are given enough information and the opportunity to express themselves on such important issues,” Ms Iori further stated.
She also confirmed that the UN Women will have an information stall during the market and they will erect a wall for people to write their views on the theme on the market “stop violence against woman. There will also be speakers from the UN Women agency between the entertainments on stage, on which they will talk about their aim.
This event is organised by Youth@Work and is heavily backed by UN agencies and is a symbolisation of the healthy partnership between Youth@Work and its stakeholders.
Youth@Work is an implementation of SPC; the Ministry of National Unity, Peace and Reconciliation; the Ministry of Commerce, Industries, Labour and Immigration; and the Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs. Youth@Work is an initiative to tackle youth unemployment in the Solomon Islands and is funded by Australian Aid.
By Joseph Manemaka
