“Every single day as I walk to school through the dirt littered paths, filled with brackish water, I long for the day I will move and erase every trace that I was ever here…” This is one of the poignant entries that I made in a journal that I kept early in life as I grew up in Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa.

Most, if not all of the entries that I made, screamed an urgent desire to come of the slum. Beneath that desperate cry were echoes of ambition that reverberated in my heart. I wanted to be a lawyer so badly so that I can participate in weaving a society hinged on social justice. I worked very hard, got lucky and against all odds, and joined the law schooll. -  

A couple of months after graduation, I attended a burial of a guy I grew up with, played house with and schooled with. He had been gunned down as a suspected criminal, just like a dozen of my other friends, s. this was very heart wrenching for me and triggered a deep desire to work with youths in my hood and other similar .if only to work together and figure a way of getting out of the slums without dying in the process.  . This served as the inspiration behind Living In a Shanty Town ( L.I.S.T.) – an organization whose mission is to convene a grassroots movement of empowered youth who can initiate personal, economic, political and social change in slums.

I have always felt the story of our team captures what L.I.S.T. is all about: we are change makers who are not chained to our past. L.I.S.T is us coming together and working toward breaking the poverty cycle and creating a platform for reaching out for the support to help break the poverty cycle   to do that, we don’t need charity – we need a fighting chance.
 You, the wonderful S2C ambassadors, are the shining stars that the world needs to be a better place. We are living in an interconnected era and greater solidarity is needed as we make the world a new, address some global issue like poverty, climate justice and other pressing problems.

There is no better place to be than Africa. Ten years ago, “The Economist had a cover article that read: “Africa, the hopeless continent.” Recently, it   another one that read: “Africa Rising.” We are privileged that in our generation, the world is looking at Africa in a new set of eyes.

Even more exciting, is the current youth demographics, over 60 % of Africa population is youth full. Young people are interrogating the realities of their continent, finding gaps and working toward new Africa realities. You, the S2C ambassadors, are a testament to the passion, focus and commitment to shape a new Africa. We have technology in our hands – social media, mobile technology – to drive our agenda. Let us not relent in our commitment. How, then, do you claim our space?

(i)    Be The Change
Changing the world is not dogmatic. Neither is it philosophical. It starts with changing the small acts of injustice around us.
(ii)    Be Focussed
There are many things that you can do but you don’t have to do everything. Identify a cause that you want to live for.
(iii)    Better Together
Network with your peers,. there is power in numbers. Solidarity in confronting global challenges in this age of connectedness is direly needed.

I wish you well in your work and in Mahatma Gandhi words  go and be the change you want to see in the world.

Our keynote speaker for the 2012 Youth Summit, Charles Abugre, Regional Director of UNDP United Millenium Campaign, (which focuses on the MDGs with a view to bringing in the citizens voice) voiced a rousing and highly motivational speech on the realities of Africa and how we can be positive about our futures. Below we publish some of his key quotes from the speech. Please note, the opinions of Mr Abugre do not necessarily represent the opinions of the United Nations.

• "A subject is someone who does not have their own mind... a totally mentally manipulated person."
• "A citizen then means going from being Africans who are not our own person, to Africans who are our own person."
• "The engine of the economies are the citizens who think, create and labour. The direction for movement, the wheel, is the state. the fuel into the engine that drives the direction, is the private sector."
• "There is no problem with multiple identities. There is problem with bigotory. It handicaps our development."
• "There is no nation that has made progress anywhere without first fixing he state."
• "You can't withdraw from politics, you can not replace the government with a private sector or NGOs... you can not make progress without fixing the state."
• "For the state to be corrupt is pricely the reason why you should act. You can not withdraw when the state is corrupt."
• "In Africa we are in the best situation ever to make progess. We have a big enough population to actually start building economies. The populations are increasingly youthful and the most vibrant demographic group that makes change in a society are the youth."
• "We can actually now market a literate, savy, hardworking, young population. This is the best we've ever had. We are learning lessons, even from the period before colonialism and dictatorship."
• "There is absoluately no need for doom and gloom. From subject to citizen means 'I believe in progress, in harnessing opportunities.'"
• "Learn your history. We should listen to our poetes and sing our songs. They are all routed in our history. They contribute to our being. So we should read to become our being."
• "If you privatise under a state of corruption this is what will happen. The state will thrive, some people will thrive, you will see some services, but many people will be excluded."
• "The slums are the sources for a lot of creativity that is coming along."