The National Youth Development Trust (NYDT) will this Saturday hold Arts for Peace Festival at Gwanda District Club.
“The festival shall bring together artists from Gwanda and surrounding areas as a way of reaching out to youths through entertainment,” said NYDT in a statement released on Wednesday.
“Artists that will perform include poets Sithandazile Dube and Mgcini Nyoni, Ghetto Smurfs, dance and music groups, GDA, among others,” noted the youth organisation.
Arts genres to be presented will include theatre, dance, music and poetry.
NYDT said the festival would be held under the theme: “Youths Building Lasting Peace in Zimbabwe”.
“All performances at the festival would be related to peace building and conflict resolution.”
The organisation said the festival aims to utilise entertainment to “build a critical mass of artists and youths that would engender peace and development in their respective communities.
“The festival is one of the many ways that NYDT is engaging youths, policy makers and other various stakeholders to foster sustainable peace and development in the country.”
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NYDT aims to develop youths who would have sustainable leadership qualities in areas of education, politics, the economy and culture as well as “to expose wounds of conflict, soothe tormented spirits and teach valid lessons about war and peace”.
The organisation also said politically motivated violence in the country had curtailed the participation of youths in elections and other national processes.
“As a result of this, most young people have not been voting and entertain certain crucial processes as sources of conflict that should be shunned.”
It said the high number of unemployed youths in the country had made them susceptible to “being used in perpetrating violence”.
The Arts for Peace Festival would therefore engage the youths “in a manner that is appealing to them on the importance of peacefully taking part in important national events and ensuring that they contribute to sustainable peace in the country”.
