With the promise of youth in the limelight as the 2021 International Youth Day is celebrated around the world, the MINUSCA Force organized an Open Day for young people – to help sow the seeds of peacekeeping, to help inspire Central African youth to reach for their potential.

International Youth Day, celebrated on 12 August every year, seeks to highlight the power of youth as change agents, and to raise awareness on the situation of young people – their challenges as well as their potential. Peace is, of course one of, if not the most pressing of issues for youth and society at large in the Central African Republic (CAR).

About 50 invitees to the Open Day – comprising an exhibition held on the tarmac of the M’Poko Military Airport – were met with an impressive array of aviation and military equipment, including helicopters from the MINUSCA Pakistani Aviation Unit as well as armoured vehicles and engineering equipment used by peacekeepers in their daily work. UN blue helmets from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Portugal and Rwanda were on hand to answer questions from the curious visitors – on both their tools and trade.

“We are here to show you how we work to ensure security together with the Central African authorities,” said the MINUSCA Deputy Force Commander Major General Paulo Maia Pereira, while taking the visibly excited visitors around to get a feel of the helicopters, otherwise used for escorting convoys, information surveillance and reconnaissance missions and transport support, among others.

“This country has problems like many other places in the world, but its youth can help construct it. In 15 to 20 years, it will be you conducting this work,” he added.

16-year-old Bemicia Ayao, a student at the Lycée St. Charles relished the experience: “It was such a pleasure to see the helicopters. It is my first time ever climbing into one, even touching one. I usually see UN cars passing by in the city, but this is my first time interacting with the people who work for MINUSCA.”

Abassa Issa, aged 14, from the Lycée Nasradine, was eager to share his newfound dreams: “Seeing how helicopters work has made me want to join the military to defend my country. I want to be like these people who came to protect my country. Seeing what they do makes me want to be like them and do what they do.” 

MINUSCA Force Chief Public Information Officer, Lt. Col. Abdoul Aziz Fall, hopes the Open Day will trigger the butterfly effect – that the exhibition will open the minds of the young attendees and that they, in turn, will influence their peers: “The goal is to increase their awareness of peacekeeping; to encourage them to have dreams and to fight for those dreams to come true; and for them believe in themselves and in their country.”

Youth – who make up 16 percent of the global population today “are at the forefront of efforts to build a better future for humanity”, in the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Providing them with knowledge to help them unlock their potential, to be a positive force for change, is in line with the Secretary-General’s clarion call for “everyone to ensure the participation of youth in building a world based on inclusive, just and sustainable development for all”.

The MINUSCA Force Open Day for young Central Africans was a step towards harnessing the power that young people have in promoting peace and security.