ALA Students Report on the NMC Youth Conference

This past January, four students from African Leadership Academy, Ability Kakama, Ngozi Cole, Edward Ndopu and Tobi Runsewe, attended the NMC World Youth Meeting in Bari, Italy. The following report has been edited from their impressions of the conference:

“Ciao”, “Grazie” … these are some of very handy words when you are in Italy. Through the plane window I could see the beautiful green scenery of Italy, a pleasing welcome. I could sense that much awaited me at the conference as the plane descended into Rome’s International Airport. We were on the same flight as other delegates from all over the globe: Palestine, Tanzania, Kenya, Israel, the list goes on. 122 Nations were represented at the conference.

“The future is not over …"  was the conference motto. Speakers would complete it with themes such as “it is here with us” or “but we must decide.”  Plenary speakers were very engaging. Professor Matteo Mortellini, of University of San Raffaele in Milan presented on Cognitive and Economic theory. He challenged the economic theory saying that it is based on assumption that consumers are rational where they are not. Other impressive presentations were given by Saskia Sassen, a professor from Columbia University and Marcella Echavarria, the owner of a South American entrepreneurship company called “surevolution.”  One sobering moment was when the delegate from Haiti raised awareness about the situation in Haiti following the large earthquake.

The breakout workshops focused on civic engagement, education, employment, environment, human safety and development, and the potential of tackling them through policy initiatives, campaigns, and youth led actions at the grassroots level. Edward Ndopu was a presenter in the Education workshop, focusing specifically on universal education for children living with disabilities

ALA’s unique curriculum was put to good use in the "Poverty should not be a fate" workshop. Tobi Runsewe, the youngest delegate in the room, was able to put into practice ideas learned in Leadership and Entrepreneurship classes, much to the amazement of her co-delegates, most of whom were university students and young business professionals from large multinational companies.

It was good to meet different young people form all over the world, Israel, Greece, Sweden, and Trinidad. However, it was shocking to see how much ignorance there was about Africa and Africans, and some unintentionally racist comments and actions were noted. But I guess that was to be expected anyway. It was also interesting to hear current ideas about issues affecting the world now, although in the workshops, real solutions were not presented by most delegates to solve these problems.

After long, busy days of workshops and conference activities, the evenings featured dance and concerts by MTV, who partly sponsored the conference. People from different countries were dancing to Italian songs. For once in the conference, people were disregarding their race, and nationality, and enjoying spending time together. That was very touching.

On the whole, Italy was in many ways an unforgettable experience. ALA students must capitalize on these opportunities because they are in line with our objective to be bold trailblazers of change within Africa. We look forward to undertaking projects supported by the conference organizers and supporters.

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