My Age Zimbabwe Trust through the support from Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT) undertook the youth engage project which started in 2016 in Masvingo so as to complement government initiatives and create platforms for youths (15-35 years old) to meaningfully participate in civic activities in their communities through the Village Development committees (VIDCO) and Ward development committees (WADCO).
This project helped bring to light the fact that there is a general lack of information about governance structures and processes.
Through this project, young people revealed that they were not aware of how they can participate in local democratic structures and if by any chance they become informed then they will be willing to participate.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the project took another stance in response to what was happening all over the world including Zimbabwe. Through the Youth Engage project My Age Zimbabwe Trust has managed to conduct online engagements with young people helping them understand their role and how important they are in the fight against the pandemic.
The engagements include young women’s caucus meetings on WhatsApp, a dialogue that brought young women together sharing the challenges they are facing during the lockdown period. The issues affecting young women were later presented to their different ward councillors in a bid to have the issues addressed.
Young people also had a chance to engage with parliamentarians online including the justice parliamentary portfolio committee and the youth parliamentary portfolio committee. Through this engagement, young people got to understand the process of bill amendments until they become laws. More so, through the project, My Age managed to mobilise 70 young people to participate in the constitutional amendment bill 2 which was held at Mucheke hall in Masvingo.
My Age Zimbabwe trust in partnership with the Youth Empowerment and transformation trust managed to do field visits in the rural wards of Masvingo District with stakeholders such as the Ministry of youth, Sports arts and recreation and the District Administrator. The District Administrator’s office is the leading body in the provincial COVID-19 task force and we managed to capacitate young people concerning the structures of the task force and the role which they play in the community as citizens in fighting the covid19 pandemic.