Refugee Youth NGO Takes Part In The Programme On Poverty Eradication

The representative of the Veteran Child Soldier Association of Liberia Ramses A. Hutchins traveled to Zambia to take part in the programme “Tackling Poverty Together”. Developed by the United Nations Youth Programme and The National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations, the programme gathered the members of youth organizations from a number of African countries with the objective to analyze the participation of young people in Poverty Reduction Strategies.

During the workshop the participants were able to examine the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers of different African countries and to learn simple and practical tools of policy analysis. “I was fortunate to learn about the SWOT-analysis used by Ethiopia during the preparations of their Poverty Reduction Strategy. This is the tool we used to draw out our own Action Plan on how to enhance youth participation in the process”.

Hutchins was inspired to enhance his knowledge about the Poverty Reduction Process learning from the colleagues from other African countries. Through his participation Hutchins’ also emphasized the role, which the refugees continue to play in Africa.

During the implementation of the Action Plan agreed by the participants, he hopes to identify the opportunities for the active youth organizations to shape national policies of poverty reduction. One of the objectives is to improve networking between the youth organizations working on poverty reduction in Ghana and potentially the whole Africa. “My interaction with the country teams and trainers enlightened me on the youth network. I saw that many different youth organizations all share common idea to meet key objectives”. Another goal is for the young people to understand what the Ghana Poverty Strategy Paper is about and what is its importance for the youth.

As a follow up, Veteran Child Soldiers Association of Liberia is planning to organize a series of consultations in Buduburam to discuss how can the youth living in the camp contribute to tackling poverty in their own community, in the host country, and in the countries they come from.


Veteran Child Soldiers Association of Liberia is the youth NGO based in the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. www.buduburam.org. For more information please contact Ramses A. Hutchins at rahutchins2001@yahoo.com or Artemy Izmestiev, at artyomizmestiev@hotmail.com.