Youth representatives from the East African Community (EAC) partner states have been called upon to help advance the deepening of EAC integration process by creating awareness among their peers.

The call was made yesterday by Edward Kalisa, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, while opening the EAC Youth Forum on Rights and Good Governance that brought together youth leaders from the five partner states in Kigali. 

"EAC youth can play a very important role in increasing the awareness and active public participation in community affairs by sensitizing others about the region’s issues,” he said.

Kalisa noted the challenge of low public acquaintance with the integration agenda can only be overcome by full participation of the youth, "with this, we shall be able to achieve a stable and prosperous EAC.”

He further said that the youth have fresh minds that enable clear thinking, are energetic, ambitious, and courageous, a combination of which he said could inevitably promote peace, democracy and good governance within the bloc.

"Our agenda is to empower young people in EAC to champion youth-driven change and become vehicles of a peaceful positive change for a better future.”

He explained that by coming together to share experiences amongst themselves, Rwandan youth will be able to draw lessons from the forum.

The three-day forum seeks to provide a platform for the youth to assess the role they can play towards achieving deep EAC integration and encouraging them to harness new strategies and tools to get their message heard.

The meeting is organized by Rwanda Youth Network in partnership with the Ministry of Youth.

During the workshop participants are expected to meet the general committee of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) at the Parliament and also visit Rwanda genocide memorial centre at Gisozi.

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