It gives me great pleasure to be invited in the official opening of this workshop dealing with the youth. Words cannot express how grateful we are to the United Nations for considering to conduct this workshop in the country. I understand only three countries were chosen in Africa for this workshop on population education. I least expected the United Nations to include Swaziland in the list as it is the second smallest country in Africa after the Republic of Gambia. This demonstrates clearly that all countries are equal in the brotherhood of the United Nations.
This workshop could not have come at a better time for Swaziland as the Ministry is engaged in an effort to organize and streamline all youth bodies in the country so as to make them more effective in their endeavours to alleviate the problems faced by the youth. In short, youth work in Swaziland is still at its rudimentary stage and we hope the United Nations will help us in developing it to the desirable state of maturity. The programme of the workshop is quite impressive as it is designed in such a way that the first part involves local instructors who will be imparting knowledge on the situation facing the youth and the invironment in which they have to grow and develop. I hope through this background the United Nations will be able to address our needs accordingly and the participants will become more conversant with their own condition.
I would like .to urge participants to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly in this workshop since the country has a lot to gain through their active participation. Through the free exchange of ideas, the Government will be able to plan accordingly knowing exactly what the needs of the young people are. I was quite happy when I saw in the programme that one of the topics to be taught will be the strategy of communicating effectively with the youth in rural areas. Eighty-five percent of our population lives in rural areas and unless we can communicate with the rural people we cannot claim to have communicated to the people in Swaziland. Furthermore, the Government policy is to take development projects right where the people are instead of removing people from their own environment.
The Government wants to eradicate the noteion that if a person wants to live a better life he must depart from the rural areas. This goal can, of course, be realized when we have developed the technique to communicate with the rural population.
With these few remarks, may I declare the workshop officially open and wish our visitors a happy and memorable stay in the country.
Thank you.