My name is Nobukhosi Ngwenya from Zimbabwe. I am a 24 year-old Masters student, who on more occasions than not sets out to have the silenced voices heard. I will be one of the delegates offering my thoughts on a range of issues on WHYS throughout the conference.
I am looking forward to the OYW conference because I get the opportunity to have my say and get those in power to not only listen but also put pressure on them to do what is best – not for their pockets or envisioned futures but for our today and tomorrow.
I live in a society where the adage “children should be seen and not heard” is tantamount to law. We have youth leagues that are headed and run by individuals, namely men, who for all intents and purposes do not remember their youth. If they do, they remember a troubled youth, one marred by struggles for freedom and democracy. These men cannot truly say they speak on our behalf because they simply do not understand our present realities as the young people of today.
To you the reader I ask: is a child, taken here to be anybody under the age of 18, living under the most dire circumstances imaginable, incapable of saying what they need to make their lives more bearable? Why do we think ‘ah cute’ when a child shares their hopes, dreams, and aspirations for not only their lives but their entire communities as well? Why for that matter is anybody under the age of 35 not taken seriously enough in the political realm?
We are rarely, if ever, in our developing nations, given a platform from which we can debate topical issues. It is through such dialogue, that we find solutions to the problems. They range from security issues within our schools to drugs and alcohol abuse, not forgetting the politicised HIV and AIDS pandemic. However, people may hear us talk, but they do not listen. Participation in such dialogue ends up declining, simply because we are not given the opportunity to implement our ideas. Once participation declines at such a young age, we are less likely to take an active interest in the politics that govern our lives.
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BBC World Have Your Say 
Nobukhosi your speech is clear and sound. The picture that people of the first world have of the third world countries is that they are ignoramus and for this reason they don´t want to progress. But what they mean by progress is to have all the material things so they can have time to spare for nothing. What you propose is a change in the mentality of the third world. That is that first comes the change in the Spirit and then the change on the material things. Machines make life more easier when they are taken as machines. When the machines take your will of living that certainly is a misery. Go forward and even though you get to an older age your Spirit shall be the same as now.
I am sure young people like Nobukhosi can make a change in Zimbabwe.
Dear sister Nobukhosi Ngwenya,how is your country doing now under the same old regime?
I am hailing from your neighbourhood,viz.,Kenya.
I have lived from my childhood to 1954 in Zanzibar under the sultunate,and then for 17 years in Mombasa,working in the then Standard bank of south africa limited,and then in Nairobi for 27 years.I was born in Malindi,Kenya.
MEK
Hi Nobukhosi,
I wish you successful time at the delegates convention and I hope you achieve all that you have set out to do.
God bless you,
Philip
This young lady looks more like someone attending a beauty contest.Zimbawe sent out its beaty with a brain to the world full of opinions on public policy issues? . Who knows she may be the future zimbawe woman leader.Best wishes to her.
Dear Nobukhosi, wish you succesfull in your vision.
Hi Nobukhosi,
I am so delighted for you and perhaps this opportunities are for people like you with a clear vision of the future not only of Zimbabwe but some African states as well, Be strong and never be silenced by the slice of bread with butter but be silenced by the achievement of your dreams and vission,
we are here to support you and good luck.
—– from Swaziland