Delegates with Yeshi Tsering IAS, Chief Secretary, Government of Meghalaya, Summit Mentors, Summit Partners and CAN Youth Team.
DIMAPUR, OCTOBER 13 (MExN): A four day 2nd Xchange North East Youth NGO summit got underway on October 12 at the Pastoral Centre in Shillong with Y Tsering Chief Secretary, Meghalaya as the chief guest in the inaugural function.
In his address, Tsering encouraged the Young NGO’s participating in the summit not to be depended on others for charity and donation. He cited examples of how high earning corporate executives and government servants gave up their jobs to start social work. He felt that the urge to work for the society is something very important that comes from within and hoped that the youths who are attending the summit would prove their participation fruitful as they would learn from each other and develop themselves.
Tsering said that the states in North East were created to meet the aspiration of the tribal’s and to promote and protect their culture and traditions and their way of life. He also said that westernization was taking place but major states like Meghalaya have preserved their identity and culture in spite of it. He urged the youth to maintain their identity, which would be the leaders of tomorrow and emphasized that even if just two or three came out of the lot, the movement for change would start.
He also felt sorry that the sense of community partnership and participation was gradually dying away, and that we failed to maintain our strong tribal traditions. He encouraged the youths to be productive and look for employment away from the usual government jobs and hoped that these youths would be the agents of change.
CAN Youth Chief Functionary Jenpu Rongmei in his key note address said that the summit was about coming together and bringing young NGOs amid renowned NGO’s with Corporations to see the possibilities of working together for the development of the region. He said the Summit was started with the idea to bring all the young people who had started initiatives that were struggling with funding, pressure and failing, Vote of Thanks Delivered by Levi V Sumi, Asst. Chief Functionary, CAN Youth.
The inaugural function also saw the NGOs sharing their initiatives, Challenges, Struggles and the work that they have done so far.
The summit will have motivational speakers and Panelist like Varun Gandhi, MP, Lok Sabha, Lezo Putsure, Director Youth Net Nagaland, Nasreen Habib, Editor, Eclectic Magazine, Partho Chakraborty, Senior Journalist and Aiban Swer, OSD, Meghalaya Institute of Governance, Monica Banerjee, Director (Programs) National Foundation for India, Bidhayak das, Senior Journalist & Expert on India-Myanmar issue, Pradyot Manikya Deb Barman, Editor The Northeast Today, Rosanna from Impulse NGO Network and Shweta Raj Kumar, Managing Editor, The North East Today.
The Summit has also Four Mentors which have vast experience working on Youth & Social Development, Amba Jamir, Fr Jerry Thomas, Deepjyoti Sonu Brahma and Lorenzo Warjri.
The Valedictory Function on 15th October will Grace by Gaurav Gogoi, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha.
The Summit was started last year in Dimapur to bring Non-Governmental Organizations in the North East that have been initiated and started by young people. It provides a platform for these NGOs to pitch their initiatives and to discuss current challenges in the society. The summit is also aimed at connecting major youth leadership development organizations in a substantive 'open space'.
