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Richard Nyamanhindi Our Children Our Future
Have you ever noticed how people in general and young people in particular are generally not interested in issues to do with the environment, poverty and development in general?

Sometime last year, a few colleagues and I attended the second edition of the Green Concert which was hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate in Harare.

We arrived at the venue in Avondale as Zahara (a South African songstress) was set to hit the stage, and I could not have been more excited.

We had been given tickets to the concert, one of my favourite bands was playing and it was a splendid winter evening. Plus, I was there to defend the green cause!

I was excited that thousands of people were also taking action. So when Zahara finished her set and we were watching some presentations and videos from organisations working in preserving the environment, I was surprised to realise that I was mostly wrong about the thousands in attendance.

When one organisation got to the stage to explain environmental issues the people around were astonishingly uninterested. “Boooo! Get off the stage! No one cares,” they said. “We just want to see Zahara!”

I was shocked, sad and annoyed. Why didn’t people care? This is the environment we are talking about! This was our chance to do something big and make a lasting impact on the future of our children.

I left the concert excited about the music, but also thinking that our generation was just not the “Woodstock” type that camps out for a few days in honour of peace and love.

As a part of the Millennial Generation — people currently in their teens and 20s — it is frustrating that many grown-ups see them as self-centred, know-it-alls that are constantly glued to the television, phones or listening to music. I have tried to defend the youths through a number of programmes that I have been involved in, but at the concert I began to understand the stereotype.

I originally intended to write about how Millennials were not the right group for sweeping declarations about things like healing the environment and ending world poverty, because I was focused on the image of the young as a group who do not want to do anything that does not benefit them directly. But then I realised what I should have seen from the start: Millennials like a challenge. They want to be involved, not simply show up or read through a set of messages on Facebook or Twitter.

Countless articles and studies have been written on how to engage Millennials, but few hit the nail on the head like The Millennial Impact Report.

The 35-page report essentially advocates one thing: “Stop trying to figure out Millennials and just include them.”

What the Green Concert did not do was include Millennials in the personal way they want to be included.

That would have been virtually impossible, of course, when dealing with a crowd of more than 2 000 young and old in attendance. The argument is that the concert did not raise at least some awareness; it just wasn’t the platform for engaging thousands of 20-somethings who attended.

By engaging with young people through youth information centres and more recently Social Media, I have realised that Millennials like to be social, personally engaged and more involved than simply given information.

The young people who comment and participate in the various activities that we host say they want to be personally connected to a cause — from engaging in child rights campaigns to preaching the gospel of behaviour change.

A majority of Millennials in urban areas have smart phones, and an equally large number engage with non-profits on Facebook and Twitter and the overwhelming majority of them prefer short-term volunteering opportunities. The Millennials I have engaged with want to know how their action will make an impact.

So instead of hosting a huge concert to deal with environmental issues, a smaller, more involved event (where it is actually possible to really engage and make the youths feel personally involved) will have a greater impact. Most young people yearn to understand what is happening in the developing sector and with a number of colleges and universities now teaching Development Studies — how they can bring change.

Most young people have no useful information about what development partners are doing. Instead, involve them in the process of development work through board meetings, volunteering, fun events or working with them in the field.