Hassan al-Thawadi addressing the gathering. RIGHT: Dr Auma Obama during her speech.

By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter


Sport enables the youth to find their voice as it has no barriers of language, class or ethnicity, Reach Out to Asia (Rota) chairperson HE Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad al-Thani said yesterday.
She was addressing a gathering of more than 450 youngsters from around the world at the sixth Empower Youth Conference 2014, which is being held by Rota under the theme “Sports for Youth Empowerment”.
HE Sheikha Mayassa earlier inaugurated the conference in the presence of Sheikha Dr Aisha bint Faleh bin Nasser al-Thani, Rota board member; Saad al-Muhannadi, president of Qatar Foundation; Essa al-Mannai, Rota executive director and a number of special invitees.
Dr Auma Obama, founder and CEO of Sauti Kuu Foundation, and Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary-general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, presented keynote speeches on youth empowerment during the opening session.
HE Sheikha Mayassa noted that Rota was committed to providing a platform for community events that the youth could participate in so that they could learn more about the importance of playing sport in order to stay healthy.
“Sport is a platform for motivating people, especially the youth, in finding their innate skills and making them realise their potential. Sport is an international platform without languages, borders, groups or ethnicity,” she said. “The youth empowerment conference’s idea came out of our belief in the importance of youth’s role in shaping the future of our communities through their contribution in finding innovative solutions to their current and future problems.”
She stressed that Empower 2014 was a unique platform for the youth to discover their voice and unleash their full potential to positively contribute in the community and develop their skills, perception and behaviour in order to take effective lead roles in their societies.
Dr Obama, in her keynote speech, said empowerment of the youth is the priority today. “Help them redefine themselves. Make the young people find their own course of actions and choose their destiny.”
She said sport gives the youth a lot of options.  “Sport teaches them that they have a voice. They can make themselves heard through their achievements in sports. Sport will help them  feel proud of their achievements, which will be a great boost in their lives,” she explained.
Al-Thawadi recollected the historic events of Qatar’s successful 2022 FIFA World Cup bid in his address.
“It was not an easy task. There were many obstacles raised by others. But a young team from Qatar decided to turn the adversities into opportunities and make them work for Qatar,” he said. “We meet today because one common goal brings us all together: using sport as a catalyst for social and economic change as we work towards Qatar National Vision 2030. We have always considered sport as an education tool that can be utilised for the benefit of human development.”
During the three-day event, delegates will attend several workshops that will raise awareness and build knowledge and capacity to enable young people to take leadership roles to address local and international developmental issues that concern them.


Some of the Rota volunteers welcoming the gathering.