World Youth Skills Day, which falls on 15 July 2020, is organized by the United Nations to draw attention to the opportunities and challenges facing young people’s employment. This year’s theme is ‘Skills for a Resilient Youth’.
Missed opportunities
The number of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET) is increasing, exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis.
The decline in opportunities caused by the pandemic has not been compensated by returns to education and training. As a result, the NEET rate has risen in many countries and will remain high unless significant action is taken.
How we can help
Intouch Global Foundation knows that education is the surest path out of poverty. That’s why we support projects which strive to empower young people, giving them access to quality education and equipping them with the skills they need for their futures.
Over the last 18 months, children in the communities we partner with have displayed incredible strength and resilience during a period in which they have experienced nationwide lockdowns, school closures and sudden loss of family income.
Young people are particularly vulnerable to the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic, the effects of which may still be felt for years to come. When their education is disrupted, it can have a knock-on effect on the rest of their lives, and this generation of global youth already face an ever-changing and increasingly uncertain future.
How our partner projects supported young people during Covid-19
Our partners responded quickly at the onset of Covid-19, redistributing resources and attention from classroom teaching to facilitating home learning as best possible.
At Asociación ONG Añañau, Peru, homework packs containing worksheets and beautiful new reading books were delivered personally by staff and volunteers to each student’s home during nationwide lockdowns. Peru had among the strictest regulations in the world and many families moved back to their rural community when lockdown resulted in unemployment.
Still, the children continued to study and dedicated time each day to school work and reading.
On the the other side of the world, Flame Cambodia provided similar supplementary educational packs while regularly phoning children to check in on their welfare and emotional wellbeing. For those families without a mobile phone, house visits took place when possible.
Our partners Book Aid International, Windle International Kenya and Windle International Uganda ensured that library books were still being read by students in Kakuma and Rhino refugee camps. Fortunately, solar lamps and new, age-appropriate library books were already in circulation at the time schools in Kenya and Uganda closed down, ensuring students at least had some resources to study from.
Mid-way into 2021, things are starting to look up with schools gradually reopening and students returning to the classroom. Intouch Global Foundation will continue to support our partner projects in bridging the gap in education brought on by the pandemic.
