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Telenor Group recently organized Telenor Youth Forum Asia to discuss and develop solutions to the challenges faced by Asian Youth. The two-day forum took place in Bangkok, Thailand.
It is the first time that Telenor Youth Forum has been brought to Asia by Telenor Group and Telenor Pakistan. The forum invited leaders across Asian countries to empower the new generation through digital narratives and build solutions to tackle youth problems in the region. The Forum focally targeted five key impediments:
- Fighting youth joblessness
- Getting more girls into schools
- Educating young laborers
- Breaking the taboo of mental health
- Engaging youth in national dialogue
Fatima Rizwan (disclosure: She is the founder of TechJuice) along with her team developed a solution to tackle youth unemployment in Asia, which was chosen as the top presentation at the Forum. The team proposed to develop an online portal that addresses current joblessness and also preventing future unemployment by helping young people explore occupations and take online learning courses according to industry needs. This winning team will be joining as featured speakers in this year’s edition of Telenor Youth Forum held in Oslo, Norway in partnership with Nobel Peace Center.
Karianna Helleby, Head of Global Partnerships at Telenor Group was impressed by the quality of solutions produced. She said,
“The creative, inspiring solutions presented by the delegates is a testament to the incredible potential that is available within youth all across Asia. We look forward to continuing the dialogue with these participants in order to support the possibility of bringing these solutions to life as real, scalable programs to benefit their peers.”
Five Pakistani alumni of Telenor Youth Forum represented the country at Telenor Youth Forum Asia. The Pakistani delegates included Fatima Rizwan from Lahore, Sadaf Amin from Faisalabad, Saad Hamid, Awais Imran and Haroon Yasin from Islamabad. Michael Foy, CEO Telenor Pakistan encourage the participating delegates and said:
“We are very proud of delegates from Pakistan who contributed perceptively towards dialogue and developing possible solutions to solve the problems faced by youth in Asia. Looking at these talented minds equipped with technology, it is not hard to imagine the Pakistani youth changing lives for the better.”
29 delegates from all across Asia participated in the Forum and was mentored by word-class speakers and organizations such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UNICEF Global Innovation Center and the Nobel Peace Center. These organizations provided expert resources to the teams in terms of strategy building, design planning and solution delivery.
The global Telenor Youth Forum is in its fourth year and will be held in Oslo, Norway during the Nobel Peace Prize week in December. Apply now to represent Pakistan at the coveted international forum.
