Good news for young people in the Mano River Union region, the Young Political Leadership School (YPLS) to be established in Sierra Leone soon! Our first regional partnership meeting was held today, September 16, 2016 at NAYMOTE-Liberia office in Monrovia where NAYMOTE’s Executives met with a team from Sierra Leone. The team was headed by the County Director of Search for Common Ground-Sierra Leone, Mr. Jimmy Sankaituah with the Executive Director and Program Officer, Mr. Ngolo Katta and Abigail Stevens of the Centre for Coordination of Youth Activities CCYA also based in Sierra Leone in attendance.

The team congratulated NAYMOTE for the level of political transformation being witnessed through the institution’s flagship initiative, the Young Political Leadership School (YPLS). The team expressed interest in working with NAYMOTE to establish the YPLS in Sierra Leone, adding that young people across the region have similar challenges and therefore the need for a regional approach solution cannot be overemphasized.

NAYMOTE’s Executive Director, Eddie Jarwolo welcomed this timely partnership invitation and expressed great optimism to extend the YPLS initiative to other countries within the Mano River Union region. He stated that as Liberia and Sierra Leone approach elections in the coming years, the need to strengthen cross-borders youth engagements in support of the peaceful conduct of political and electoral activities remain a major concern. Mr. Jarwolo concluded by affirming that the #YPLS is dedicated to strengthening the capacity of young political leaders, emphasizing the proposed partnership is an excellent opportunity to share initiatives geared toward transforming youth from being perpetrators and victims of violence to a group of positive transformational leaders across the Mano River Union basin.These groups of young leaders are expected make their political institutions more effective players in the political system accross the region. We are therefore calling on all our partners to support this timely intervention. More information about the partnership and next step will be shared soon.