Following the end of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, the National Youth Ambassador, Anthony Navo Junior, who is also the proprietor of the Africa Young Voices Media, has congratulated young people in the country for the resilience they exhibited during the outbreak.
Ambassador Navo made this disclosure to this medium before taking off for the United Kingdom. He spoke on the way forward for young people at the end of the ebola epidemic in the country where he expressed appreciations to ebola frontline workers for their efforts, which he said led to the end of the outbreak in the country.
He noted that the ebola virus struck Sierra Leone unexpectedly; hence most young people could not believe it was real and were resistant to precautionary measures suggested by the health experts then, thereby causing lots of deaths.
Recounting the effect of the epidemic on youths, Ambassador Navo maintained that about sixty percent of people affected by the Ebola virus were the youths. Nevertheless, he said as a result the awareness raising campaign undertaken by several individuals and institutions in the country, the youths contributed immensely to moves aimed at cutting down the virus’ chain of transmission.
Speaking on the way forward for youths in post-ebola recovery, Ambassador Navo emphasized on the need for more premium to be paid on youth empowerment activities as most youths were distracted from their academic pursuits and a good number are today orphans and are left in dilemma regarding where to start with life.
He noted that the epidemic left the bulk of the country’s youth population unemployed as most mining and other companies in the country cut down on their services and production output during the outbreak but he expressed hope that those companies would soon start effective operation and reemploy those workers that were redundant.
However, he called on the youths to be disciplined and law abiding, noting that ebola virus overwhelmed the country as a result of the attitudes of some of them that were disrespectful to the communities’ leadership structure and were spreading false rumour, thereby undermining the fight.
The Ambassador, however assured that in order to refresh the minds of young people after a sad chapter in the country’s history, the Africa Young Voices Media will hold the annual Miss University Beauty pageant, which could not take place last year as a result of the epidemic. The theme of the beauty pageant will be ‘The Role of Young Ladies in Post-Ebola Sierra Leone.
Friday November 20, 2015
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