Background

Young people are among the most affected by violence, unemployment, HIV/AIDS, discrimination, exclusion and restricted access to social services like health and education. The situation is even worse and dehumanizing for the young women and the girl child who are often excluded and discriminated against on the basis of gender. In many countries, young people because of their vulnerable economic position are often abused as tools for political violence.

With its foundations in the World Social Forum and the Intercontinental Youth Camp activities and resolutions, the Zimbabwe Social Forum Youth Camp presents a space and platform for local youth activists, organizations and movements to consolidate the local process of working towards social justice. The Youth Camp brings together youth activists and organizations that are committed to building people-centered development paradigms that are democratic, inclusive and sustainable.

In responding to this challenge there has been an identified need to build more broad and inclusive youth camps at the national level which are less resource intensive and can be strong platforms for local mobilization of the youth/students movements. The Youth Council, the Youth Camp's organizing committee, has a diverse membership of powerful youth organizations which include the Zimbabwe National Students' Union, the Zimbabwe Integrated Youth Survival Alternative Project, the Students' Solidarity Trust, the Young Commercial Workers' Union and the Students' Christian Movement of Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Social Forum Youth Camp provides the possibility of consolidating this initial process and organizing towards the future editions of the Youth Camps at a Southern African, African and world level. This challenge becomes more exciting for African youth activists as they are going to host the WSF IYC in 2007 when the WSF comes to Africa.

Uhuru Youth Camp

The Uhuru Youth Camp is being organized as a youth/student initiative independent and parallel to the Southern Africa Social Forum that will be held in October from the 13th to the 15th in the Harare Gardens. This will be the third Youth Camp to be organized by the Youth Council of the Zimbabwe Social Forum following the successful youth camps of 2003 and 2004.

The Uhuru Youth Camp will bring together youth participants from the whole of Southern Africa with already confirmed participants from South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and Swaziland

The Youth Camp will be an important popular advocacy tool against poverty, exclusion, and all forms of violence and discrimination. It becomes a commitment by its participants to build a Southern Africa, an Africa and a world based on peace, solidarity, sharing, equity and popular democracy. In Zimbabwe in particular the Youth Camp provides a unique opportunity for responding to local issues such as bad governance, human rights abuses, privatization of essential services, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, violence and all forms of discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, class or race.

The identified themes for the Uhuru Youth Camp are:
· Labour
· HIV/AIDS
· Debt and Trade
· Constitutionalism and Governance
· Peace
· Land and Environment
· Food Security and Social Service Delivery
· Arts and Culture as tools for positive Social Change
· Education

The One Love Peace Concert

This seeks to promote and foster the culture of peace amongst young people through popular education tools of music, poetry, and dance. The concert will feature selected artists performing on the theme of peace.

Artists Workshop/ Teach In

A one day workshop/Teach In will be organized for the selected artists prior to the One Love Peace Concert where artists will be engaged on matters of peace building, conflict prevention and resolution. This will sharpen the artists' message on peace so as to achieve the objectives of the concert.

The Concert

This will run from 6pm till late in the Harare Garden on 15/09/05 the last day of the SASF. Though championed by the youth, this will be the main event for the night for everyone at the SASF thus large numbers are expected to turn out.

Artists
· Chiwoniso Maraire and the Vibe Culture
· Sounds of Edutainment
· Shuramurove Mbira Group
· Leonard Zhakata
· Ghetto Projects
· Comrade Fatso and Too Open