This year’s Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Information and
Technology (ELIT 2017) summer camp would allow young
people to become rural mentors in their own regions as well
as other regions of the country.
The 10-day event would hold under the theme ‘ELIT 2017: Expanding Youth Development through Entrepreneurial Mentorship’.
It is aimed at establishing a rural mentorship
programme; sharing knowledge and experience on
entrepreneurship, agribusiness and youth development
issues; seeking business opportunities and networking, and
to design a rural youth employment survey plan.
Activities would take the form of conferences, individual and
group presentations, quizzes, comedy, culture; field visits to
agricultural project sites (rice and poultry farms), markets;
and case studies on youth mentorship programmes.
Forty-five (45) youths from across all regions of the country, aged 18 to 35, are to participate in the event.
The venue and call for application would be announced shortly. Subsequent editions of the ELIT starting from 2017 would be designed to build up on the interest and potential recognition in the youth and further this dream into an authoritative document which would serve as a developmental guide.
“This is because the absence of a domestic and all inclusive
baseline source on youth participation in national
development is a leading challenge to designing such a
project in the name of young people,” Mr Ebrima Bah,
chairperson of ELIT 2017, said.
“Interestingly, the 2016 camp successfully compelled many
of its participants to either expand their scope of business
ventures or began to dip their legs into more meaningful
associations with a view to inspire themselves for
community development.
“Out of thirty contestants, nine of the first batch of ELIT were
shortlisted in the first edition of the Rural Youth Award out
of which four won the awards in the categories of Young
Entrepreneur of the Year, Young Emerging Business of the
Year, Young Information Technology of the Year, and Young
Business Innovation Business of the Year by a verdict of
independent panellists.”
Mr. Mamadou Edrisa Njie, GYIN Gambia Executive Director,
said a gap of technology and user competences between
urban and rural youths, which often presents itself in access
differentials, was identified prior to the camp.
Aware of the
potential of technology in improving community
development, the camp introduced the teaching of the
subject as core for participants.
“This time, it will be interesting to partner up the most skilful
computer users with those less exposed to the system with a
view to allow peer learning during the camp,” he said.
“The
ELIT 2017 will facilitate the launch of the Youth Mentorship
Programme to raise-up momentum of knowledge sharing on
entrepreneurship, leadership and informational
technology.”
By way of the mentorship programme, GYIN Gambia Rural
Youth Awardees (Youth Champions) would be presented as
exemplary team by the GYIN Gambia secretariat at ELIT
2017.
Having them as Rural Youth Mentors would strengthen
their potentials to expand their enterprises and inspire their
mentees on entrepreneurship and business technology.
Mr Njie said: “One of the core values of ELIT is to transform
knowledge and skills into performance-oriented ventures.
Therefore, this strategy will not only address the crises of
unemployment, it will also bridge the gender gap in the
labour market thus address several other social ills such as
irregular migration (back-way) and rural urban drift.
“ELIT 2017 is designed with special emphasises in the
agricultural value chain- production, processing, and
marketing of crops by young people which is a scientific
model in the fight against poverty.”
The Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN) is an
international youth network supported by the Rome-based
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Its
Gambian chapter specialises in rural development by
supporting rural youth to become self-reliant.
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