Theodore Klouvas ,
Please provide us with your views on the state of youth (un)employment in your country, and how it affects your country's state of peace?
As a holder of two EU nationalities (Greek & Dutch) I will share my opinion about both. I was raised in Greece, the country with the highest youth unemployment in Europe over the last 8 years! I have seen, felt and experienced how much damage this has done to Greece. Families have been forced to bid farewell to their kids in search of a job with dignity outside of Greece! 400,000+ youngsters have left the country! This is an unprecedented brain drain with long term impacts. The last 14 years I have been studying and working in the Netherlands. My other country that has one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the EU! Despite that, unemployment is present in the Netherlands although its low. Minorities are most affected. Many have been experiencing racial discrimination in the job market. Although peace hasn’t been threatened, this has polarized the societies and increased extreme opinions in political parties.
How does your work and/or activism promote youth employment and/or sustainable peace?
The last 6 years I have been initiating and running entrepreneurship programs that empower local youngsters and promote financial independence in difficult financial environments. After Greece, I focused on Africa where we currently run entrepreneurship programs in 10 countries and 19 cities. This all operates under the auspices of the local Dutch Embassy - a key success factor that has opened most doors.
By connecting corporates to entrepreneurship initiatives, scaling up the knowledge capacity of universities, helping governments understand their role in such complex ecosystems and empowering local hubs, we have managed to create more sustainable programs that continue after subsidies have ended. Our program promotes context-consciousness and actor interaction for the benefit of young entrepreneurs. By helping these stakeholders understand the potential impact of their actions and how to create and support a sustainable venture creation culture, we indirectly contributed to an economic stability and hence broader prosperity of that country.