International Youth Day Offers No Joy For Zimbabwe's Youths

With their parents long dead, 26-year-old Trynos Motsi and his six siblings, who have not finished their basic primary school education due to grueling poverty that gripped them, are having to make do with handouts from well-wishers.

Even as he went up to Form 4 of his secondary school education, Trynos claimed he did not sit for his national examinations owing to a lack of money to register for them a decade ago.

Now, together with his siblings, Trynos said they have to live crammed in their home of just three rooms, an inheritance from their late parents located in Harare's Mbare Township in Zimbabwe.

Facing poverty

As the world commemorates International Youth Day on Aug. 12, Motsi and his siblings have nothing to celebrate, face-to-face with poverty every day, with none of them employed.

In fact, 23-year-old Latwell, one of Motsi's siblings, professed ignorance about the UN awareness day, incensed instead, saying knowing about it would not change his fortunes.

"We are suffering. I don't know about that day you are talking about, and even if I had known, that certainly wouldn't change my life or take away our plight," Latwell told Anadolu Agency.

As such, as the entire globe commemorates International Youth Day, many youths in Zimbabwe such as Motsi and his siblings grapple with poverty.

In addition, many of the country's young people lack access to a basic education.

A report from UNICEF released this year said that nearly half of the country's youth are not in school due to poverty worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is despite a Zimbabwean family paying less than $100 annually to send their children to elementary school and about $300 so they can attend secondary school.

For people in a poor country like Zimbabwe who sometimes survive on one dollar per day, even this amount of annual school fees may be rather too high, according to civil society activists.

Can't afford fees

"Parents and guardians have been brought low by the harsh economy here, meaning they can't afford even the least school fees to cater for youths who should be in college or high school," said Owen Dhliwayo, a Zimbabwean civil society activist.

With little or no education, civil society organizations say Zimbabwe's youths are having to bear the brunt of growing poverty, which is worsened by joblessness in a dysfunctional economy.

"With little access to education and jobless as a result, many young people here are bearing the brunt of poverty. The economy is not performing well, and it means life is becoming harder for young people without an education," Claris Madhuku, director of the Platform for Youth and Community Development, told Anadolu Agency.

International Youth Day, the first of which was observed on Aug. 12, 2000, is an awareness day designated by the United Nations whose purpose is to draw attention to a given set of cultural and legal issues surrounding young people across the world.

This year's theme for the commemoration of the day is Intergenerational Solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages.

Yet for Zimbabwean youths like the Motsi siblings in the capital, poverty and lack reigns supreme.

More youths

Zimbabwe is a youthful country, with approximately 67.7% of its more than 15 million people under the age of 35.

In April this year, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released a report saying that nearly half of Zimbabwe's youth are not in school due to poverty worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to UNICEF, before the advent of COVID-19, around 21% of Zimbabwean youth were not in school, but that percentage has since risen to 47%.

In its 2021 human rights report released in April this year, the US government had an even higher figure of school dropouts in Zimbabwe, with the report saying non-governmental organizations estimated that 840,000 children dropped out of school during the pandemic.

UNICEF has as a result gone on record in the media saying that Zimbabwe spends 13% of its budget on education instead of the 20% that was agreed to at the organization's conference years ago in Dakar, Senegal.

Youth unemployment

As this happens, Heal Zimbabwe Trust has issued a statement saying that this year's commemorations of International Youth Day are occurring amid rampant unemployment among the youths here.

"On the occasion of International Youth Day, there is need for the government to address a myriad of challenges that young people are facing. Chief among them is the issue of unemployment, rampant among young people such that during elections, they are used by political leaders of the day to resort to violence and all forms of vices. We implore the government to address the youths' concerns," Rawlings Magede, the communication and advocacy officer at Heal Zimbabwe Trust, told Anadolu Agency.

But youths supporting the governing Zimbabwe Africa National Union Patriotic Front party (Zanu-PF) like Taurai Kandishaya hear and see no evil.

"International Youth Day reminds the young that the future is indeed in our hands. We have the task to create jobs, create a conducive environment for free learning by working overtime for the good of our nation, by shutting out interference from other nations," Kandishaya told Anadolu Agency.

Yet Section 20 of Zimbabwe's Constitution says that the state should ensure that youths are afforded opportunities for employment and other avenues of economic empowerment. -