Young Talented Africans Forum (YouTAF) is a movement that aims at transforming African youths into leaders and unleashing their potentials and talents in order to make our continent great. The key is to empower youth to believe in themselves and use the power they have to affect change at all levels in Africa.
12 youngsters from Lesotho joined the forum which was held on 25 March 2018 in the capital of Algeria at Université des Sciences et de la Technologie HOUARI BOUMEDIENE (USTHB) – and I know you didn’t read that!
We caught up with Karabo Geraldine Ramokhoro, 18, who is currently doing her French year at Université de Saad Dahleb, Blida but will be studying Nature and Life Sciences at Université de M’hamed Bougara, Boumerdes in Algeria.
Karabo stressed that she believes the youth need mind-set rehabilitation and such forums are of great help.
“We need to identify the wrong things in Africa and stop relaxing. We should better our lives by being educated. Education is not about white collar jobs for we live in the day of ICT and entrepreneurship. We should not be ignorant of anything that goes on in our countries. We should always be up to date,” she emphasized.
“I also attended for empowerment and to remember that I need not relax as an African youth because I am a leader,” she pointed out as one of the reasons she attended the forum.
“It is at such forums that youths from all over the continent are able to connect and share ideas on how to improve their communities,” she continued.
The Young Talented Africans Forum entailed various panel discussions, cultural display, projects and talents exposition. Some of the core themes for discussions were leadership, mind-set rehabilitation, migration, creativity and innovation.
At large, the majority of participants at the forum were African youth studying at various colleges and universities in Algeria. The event was officially sponsored by African Union and AFREC.
Attending the event were Ambassadors from various Embassies, most notably, the Ambassador of South Africa to Algeria, the Ambassador of Ghana to Algeria, the Ambassador of Nigeria to Algeria, and Malian Ambassador. Present was also the Director of AFREC (opportunities of youth in the African Union).
Karabo urged youth to take heed that ‘leadership is about empowerment but not always group empowerment. It involves self-empowerment and self-improvement.’