Zambia Makes debut at the 2011 International Gold Event

The IGE is the triennial meeting of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Association which deals with issues such as amendments to the constitution, membership issues, and the forward strategy into the future. The event brings together young Gold Award holders from across the globe to engage in governance and policy of the award and to encourage a commitment to lifelong service.

The IGE 2011 was held in Nairobi- Kenya this year-September with the theme, “Each One, Reach One”. One of Zambia’s delegate Esanju Maseka stated that, the theme was appropriate to the National Award Authority (NAA) particularly as it was a call of duty to those just starting, especially for as no Zambian had previously attended one, and the current gold award holders to each use the individual experiences to reach out and encourage more young people to get involved in the award.

The first meeting started in the evening of September 2^nd 2011, the participants were split up into designated groups, each having an English name and a Swahili name, and briefed on the next day’s program. The groups were Elephant, Hyena, Giraffe, Rhino, Buffalo, Cheetah, Crocodile and Hyena. The participants were also given t-shirts that said ‘each one reach one’, with the IGE 2011 logo on the front. On the back it read “challenging young people everywhere”, which was the slogan for the Award. The t-shirts had matching caps.

On the 3^rd of September, the participants were at Savage Camp, Sagana for the weekend. Savage Camp allowed the participants to relive their experiences of the expeditions they had undertaken during the award. The activities involved hiking, mountain biking, white water rafting and rock climbing and camping. Although for some, it proved to be a challenge with the mountainous terrain, perseverance kept the participants going and truly the achievement of having conquered Savage Camp was felt.

After three days and two nights out in the bush with the occasional rain, the participants were ready for a change of environment and ready to see what the rest of the two weeks had in store for them. 5 hours from Savage Camp, located on the floor of the Great Rift Valley lies the Great Rift Valley Lodge and Golf Resort, one of the Heritage hotels, where participants spent the rest of the program.

Esanju Maseka shares her excitement; “the air was almost tangible as we pulled up to the lodge. Welcome banners greeted us along with the smiling hotel staff and a masai dance group who presented us with small welcome presents. Our residence facilities were exquisite ranging from cottages to villas, but even those in the cottages could not complain for it was all beautiful. Eburu restaurant served us with daily ‘all you can eat’ buffets and the warm kitchen staff always seemed happy to serve us, whether it was for an early breakfast or for afternoon tea. The next two weeks of the program were packed with lots of briefings, workshops, a youth forum and lots of fun”.

The program was officially launched by His Excellency, The President of Kenya, Honourable Mwai Kibaki on the 6th of September. Other speakers included: Hon. Prof. Sam Ongeri, EGH, MP, the Minister of Education, Hon. DR Paul Otuoma, EGH, MP, the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Mr. Edwin Otieno Joseph, the Executive Director and Secretary to the Board of Trustees of the President’s Award Kenya, Tim Smith, the Head of Operations at the International Award Association and Olunga Otieno, the International Council Representative for the Africa Region who served as the Youth Representative from 2008 till 2011.

The entertainment of the event was provided by various choirs from across the country and Sarakasi Performing Arts School. This was followed by an exquisite dinner which provided the participants a chance to interact with various people involved in the award in Kenya.

There were 6 workshops of which participants could pick to be involved in, namely Reaching the World, Reaching Support, Reaching Decisions, Reaching Policy, Reaching your Goals and Reaching Youth. Esanju Maseka narrated that, Zambians had to split so as to attend all of them. She personally attended Reaching Policy, which was focused on teaching the participants the importance of getting involved in policy making in the award and at national level in general, Reaching Support, which was focused on how to go about the fundraising aspect of the award, Reaching the World, which was focused on communications, in terms of increasing publicity and sharing our experiences and Reaching Youth, which was focused on how participants could get more people involved in the award and how they could go about designing training programs. In this, participants were able to get an idea of the type of work required of them as individuals and together as an NAA.

The evenings were entertaining and educative as participants were presented with a colourful array of cultures presented at the regional nights. The countries were split up into four regions, Africa, Asia Pacific, EMAS and the Americas, according to their geographical location. The participants also got a chance to learn about the impact of the award in the various countries represented at these events.

As part of helping the participants reliving the award experience, they took part in various community service projects at Ndabibi Primary School, Empash Primary School, Ole Soila Masai Girls Centre and Longonot Township Primary School. All these places were about 21-70kms from The Great Rift Valley Lodge. According to the various groups in which the participants were split, the activities included, redoing the concrete floors of some classrooms, repainting some classroom walls and fixing the fences surrounding the premises.

The participants also had a chance to each plant a tree as a means of enhancing environmental awareness and sustainability. The work was physically taxing but the appreciation showed by the local community made it worthwhile.

On Sunday 11^th September, the participants were given a break from all the hard work and went on a game drive in Lake Nakuru National Park. They had the privilege of seeing three of the African big five, namely the rhino, giraffe and the buffalo. There was a wide variety of animals such as flamingoes, various antelopes, zebras and baboons. The view was breath taking and at a certain location participants were able to get a bird’s eye view of the actual Lake.

The participants elected new youth representatives, two from each of the four regions, who were going to represent them on the International Council. After an intense election process and a long wait, for the votes to be counted, the winners were announced. From the Africa region it was John Laryea from Ghana and Robert Otunga from Kenya. From the Americas region, Al-Kharim Khimji from Canada and Anne Mirelle Martins from the Bahamas were selected. From EMAS region Ravichandran Balasubramaniam from Mauritius and Tan Yan Ling from Singapore were selected. And from the Asia Pacific region Sophie Kerstens from Holland and Michael Adamberry from Gibraltar were selected.

One of the highlights of the whole program was the Youth Forum. Participants were given a chance to put forward ideas of issues they believed were most essential to the NAA’s. They were grouped into four categories namely, Partnerships, Youth Engagement, Youth Empowerment and Environmental Sustainability. According to the one signed up for, all the participants had to come up with a workshop to present to the International Council, the Secretariat and the IGE staff. This allowed participants to contribute great ideas to help them with the different problems they had identified in their respective countries.

The Youth forum was launched by His Royal Highness, The Earl of Wessex Prince Edward, who had travelled all the way to Kenya particularly to attend the last few days of the IGE. A few outgoing youth representatives also gave some speeches. The workshops were done four times in order to allow each member of the International Council to attend them all. All the hard work the participants had put in paid off as they got positive feedback and managed to have interactive workshops. Each group also proposed a strategic plan on how they were going to implement their findings and ideas in their various countries.

One of the International Council members also presented a briefing on the One Award Alliance project the international office is currently working on, to enable a more unified award across the globe by about 2020. This will help to increase issues like funding for example, as it will be easy to identify and to ease policy and decision making for the award as a whole.

Each of the participants was also presented with a T-shirt on which they had to make a pledge for what they wanted to achieve before the next IGE.

Esanju Maseka the Zambian delegate’s pledge is, ‘to create opportunities for more Zambian youth to get involved in the award”. As previously, the award was mainly available to those in private schools, it’s important for us, as the NAA, to create opportunities for more people who never had the chance previously to get involved. Although this is nationally based, we can learn from other countries how they have reached out to more groups of people. For example, in South Africa, they have reached out to some prisons. This event was followed by a bush dinner with a live band playing classics from across the globe and a buffet with an interesting variety of foods such as crocodile and ostrich.

The official closing was on the 15^th of September. There were various speakers such as the Executive Director of the President’s Award Kenya followed by remarks from HRH, The Earl of Wessex, and Prince Edward. This was followed by a vote of thanks by Lady Mary and presentation of certificates.