USA: JPAI-Rhode Island Leader calls for Diaspora youth to be included in Cape Verde's development process

The President of JPAI-Rhode Island-USA calls for young people from the diaspora to be included in Cape Verde's development strategy. Any Almeida (photo) proposes holding a Forum with young people from the diaspora to study how they can contribute to the development of our country.

With that in mind, the President of JPAI-Rhode Island argues that Cape Verde needs a Government that has youth at the heart of the country's governance, given its demographic condition, both in the country and in the diaspora. « We have a large diaspora with competent young people in different areas that must be included in the country's development strategy. We have to get out of theory and move on to practice, because we in the diaspora are still Cape Verdeans and we want to help build our country, and who knows, someday return to stay in it''.

In a statement, Any Almeida says that he does not understand the fact that youth is not part of the MPD Government organic, with a clearly defined entity and with public knowledge competences to protect the youth sector, working a strategy of inclusion of young people from the diaspora in conjunction with other central and local government entities as well as civil society. «By the way, the high abstention rate and the lack of political participation, especially among young people in the American diaspora, is a highly worrying sign for the future, requiring urgent measures. We cannot allow our young people to deviate to such an extent that future generations feel completely detached from their origins», he highlighted.

In view of all this, JPAI-Rhode Island understands that it would be opportune to provoke a Forum with young cadres from the diaspora for a deep reflection on the future of Cape Verde, as well as the role and contribution that young people from the diaspora can make in the process of development of Cape Verde. "Young people abroad are concerned about their country's affairs and want their voices to be heard now," reads the document sent to this newspaper.

JPAI leader's visit to the US

However, the document insists on highlighting that, during the visit that the President of Youth of the PAICV, Fidel Cardoso de Pina, has just made to the USA, the organization had the opportunity to develop an agenda with an integrated and diversified program, allowing to collect grants from various organizations and young people from different walks of life in the USA. « Of the many aspects addressed by JPAI, the integration of young Cape Verdeans remains one of the great challenges of our diaspora in the USA. The reflections of the non-integration of many young people prove that it is necessary to reinforce the Government's work in this field, together with the different Cape Verdean organizations in the country and in the diaspora», concludes the same source.