BUJUMBURA, December 23rd (ABP) – As part of the project to build capacities amongst civil society organizations involved in the economic empowerment of young people, the Youth Sounding Board, in consortium with the bibliothèque sans frontières project, Street Child and social action for development, organized on Wednesday, December 11, 2024, an entrepreneurial evening for young innovators.
According to the coordinator of the bibliothèque sans frontières project, Sosthène Irumva, the goal of the evening was to be able to raise the awareness among young people so that they can undertake, innovate, connect and connect young entrepreneurs to potential sources of financing for their projects, but also to encourage other young people who do not have innovative ideas so that they can follow in the footsteps of young entrepreneurs, he added,.
For him, Youth Sounding Board is an advisory body that works to follow up and monitor the activities of young people, funded by the European Union, in order to see if the funding or the achievements of the projects take into consideration the needs of young people.
As for the young entrepreneur by the name of Ornella Munezero, the evening event was intended to make an in-depth diagnosis of the needs of young people in terms of innovation and participation in sustainable and inclusive development in Burundi.
“We are proud of the step already taken in the implementation of our projects,” said Munezero, while exposing the challenges that young entrepreneurs face. These challenges are related to the lack of information, because, according to her, opportunities through social media are observed but these young entrepreneurs do not know how to go about it. Another challenge mentioned is that of reaching other young people who live in the interior of the country, despite the fact that they organize direct field visits. However, she pointed out that as young people who represent others, they will do everything so that all young people, wherever they are, can integrate the entrepreneurial space and be able to contribute to the promotion of the development of the country.
It’s worth noting that this platform is made up of 25 young innovators who represent others, who are in all the provinces of the country. The evening event was attended 53 young innovative entrepreneurs.