KIGALI - The General Assembly of African youth under the auspices of Pan African Youth Organisation against HIV/AIDS (PAYA) will open, today, in Kigali with an aim of setting a roadmap towards achieving young-related Millennium Development Goals and sharing of information on HIV/AIDS.

This was revealed yesterday by the Minister of Youth, Protais Mitali, in an interview with The New Times.
The two-day meeting will attract participants from 36 African states.

Mitali pointed out that African youth need to be sensitized on how to develop themselves and their countries.

"Our youth can play a significant role in developing this continent, especially by championing the fight against HIV/AIDS. This assembly, therefore, will allow them to share experiences, best practices and challenges towards creating a prosperous and sustainable continent free of HIV/AIDS,” he said.

The Minister noted that this was the first time Rwanda is hosting the assembly.

"I am optimistic that the assembly will yield good results especially on sharing information and experience from other countries on how we can overcome the problem of HIV/AIDS; so this will definitely help the country,” he said.

PAYA was established on the directives of the African Union heads of state and its continental secretariat is hosted by Rwanda.

This is the first time the PAYA has organised the assembly since the establishment of the secretariat.

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