Members of the Rota Youth Advisory Board and youth ambassadors from the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy’s Generation Amazing programme meet with HE Sheikha al-Mayassa (centre).
HE Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad al-Thani, chairperson of Reach Out to Asia (Rota), has signed the Empower Declaration 2014 to promote health and development among the youth.
The proclamation comes as part of the sixth annual Youth Conference, Empower, organised by Rota, which is a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF).
Titled “Sports for Youth Empowerment”, the declaration was launched by young Rota volunteers from Qatar and the Gulf region. They include Generation Amazing youth ambassadors from the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.
In an attempt to impart the values needed for society today and in the future, the declaration highlights the importance of sport for youth development, promoting health, education and professional growth as well as peace locally and internationally.
The initiative also calls for a variety of private and public organisations to come together to support the declaration through joint co-operation to achieve its goals, including youth and sport organisations, local and international development organisations, UN entities and government departments, and comprising schools, sports media and athletes alike.
HE Sheikha al-Mayassa expressed delight at the signing, saying: “Today, we are reaping the rewards of five years of continued efforts to develop youth capacity in Qatar and the Gulf region through Reach Out to Asia activities. We celebrate this declaration launched by Empower volunteers themselves.
“Through their own determination and sense of responsibility, they drafted its content with the intention of investing in younger generations. They are using sports as a platform to inspire the values that build a healthy and thoughtful society. Today, I am very happy to see our dreams come true at the hands of young volunteers.”
Essa al-Mannai, executive director of Rota, added: “We have dedicated our work during the past five years through Empower to equip the young volunteers with the concepts of leadership, learning and global citizenship. Today, we see the translation of these concepts through this declaration, which is a guideline gift from today’s youth for tomorrow’s youth to pave the way for their future. It takes inspiring young people from a local to a global level in a way that reflects the basic concepts of Empower.”
The declaration has been a prominent topic of admiration within UN organisations, conferences, NGOs, sports groups and government ministries, which have all recognised the impact sport has as a starting point towards positive change.
Rota supports QF’s mission to provide world-class education and foster a progressive society by addressing immediate social needs.
