Hyde Park Youths Lament Lack Of Development Of Their Community

Young people from ward 17 encompassing Pumula and three peri-urban villages of Robert Sinyoka, Methodist and St Peters have lamented lack of income generation projects in their area amid high unemployment levels in the country. 

They said given the fact that it is already difficult enough for educated people to get employment, there is no need for them to bother looking for jobs as the economy is clearly not creating any. Instead, the youths called for a diversion from focusing only on formal education at the expense of vocational skills training.     

“The majority of young people in our areas are not only unemployed but uneducated as well. So we need a training centre that will help us improve on the skills that we already have and that we can use to generate income for ourselves, “said Sithabile Ndlovu. 

The youths acknowledged that there are some negative perceptions about their community, attributing these to high levels of crime by a couple of unruly elements within the community. Despite this, economic conditions have not helped the situation either as young women have to turn to prostitution as a means of survival, while others settle for menial jobs such as being maids.  Lack of sexual and reproductive health information in the area has also immensely contributed to increased numbers of early pregnancies, the spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections and a high HIV prevalence rate. In this regard, the young people pleaded with the partner organizations present at the meeting to come up with the necessary interventions that will ensure an improved way of life for youths in the area.  

The general lack of access to information has affected their socio-economic status in society. In this regard, the young men and women called on the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Empowerment to provide sufficient and diverse information and ensure equitable distribution of the youth fund. They argued that they have failed to acquire loans owing to a lack information and training on project proposal writing and also called on the ministry to deploy more youth ministry officers in their community so that they can assist in project development. They further called on the relevant authorities to pay attention to the resources available in their area so that they begin to benefit their community rather than a few unscrupulous business people. 

“We have vast deposits of pit sand that are being illegally harvested by some people for sale to those who are undertaking construction projects. Somebody has to make sure that at least our community begins to benefit from this rather than one individual extracting the sand for free and making thousands out of it, “said Calvin Moyo, Youth Councilor for ward 17.

All these issues were raised during an NYDT community engagement meeting which involved different organisations from different parts of Zimbabwe.