The European Union (EU) Delegation to Lesotho together with the Embassy of France to South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi on Tuesday celebrated Europe Day by hosting a youth-focused event at the National University of Lesotho (NUL).
Europe Day annually celebrated on May 09 and this year termed Europe Day for Youth is a Joint event of the EU Delegation to Lesotho and the Embassy of France to South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi to support youth in Lesotho. It follows the EU Delegation’s engagement and support to Lesotho’s youth.

The Europe Day for Youth event brought the voices of young people into a discussion that focused on the future of Lesotho and covered topics of particular importance to youth, including youth participation in decision-making, youth unemployment and economic Opportunities and mental health and substance abuse.

It also unpacked the contributions that young people can make in building a future-focused Lesotho. In his remarks, NUL Vice Chancellor Professor Isaac Fajana said that the event is an Opportunity to draw attention to the situation of young children in contemporary global Issues. He said that it is important that the education system adopt a strategy to prepare Lesotho Youth for the global market, saying that it is high time that youth in Lesotho are trained for the international labour market by ensuring that they learn other languages besides Sesotho and English. He said that this event shows that there is hope for the future saying that the youth should let their voices be heard. He added that global self-youth engagement is fruitful dialogue to carry change.

On the other hand, EU Ambassador Ms. Paola Amadei said Europe Day in Lesotho will focus on listening to and learning from Lesotho’s youth saying that they are interested in hearing their personal visions, ideas and hopes for the future but also for the future of their country. She said that 30 young people who represented different backgrounds took part in a visioning Exercise titled Visions for Lesotho’s Future: Youth Dialogue on Europe Day. She said that this is a great opportunity to learn from them saying contributions will help Shape the EU’s engagement and programmes for the future. She added that the EU has Created a global Youth Sounding Board including 25 youth from all around the globe to Engage and actively participate in shaping the EU’s development cooperation.