Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Naseer, Chairperson of Silatech’s Board of Trustees, and His Excellency Mr. Ahmed Isse Awad The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of The Federal Republic of Somalia, attended today in New York City today the signing of three agreements to economically empower Somali youth by securing more than 75,000 jobs in Somalia.

A collaboration between Silatech, American Refugee Committee (ARC) and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the first agreement aims to provide housing and energy solutions for 1,000 families and develop local youth owned enterprises; creating around 3,000 jobs for returning refugees and IDPs in the Kismayo district. The second agreement is to support Al Amal bank in financing youth enterprises to create 63,414 jobs around Somalia. In partnership with the Somali Institute for Development and Research Analysis (SIDRA), the purpose of the third agreement is to build the skills of 9,000 graduates and place them into jobs in the labor market.

As part of its continuous efforts to empower youth in Somalia and activate their role in developing their communities, Silatech signed the three agreements to provide solutions to combat unemployment, poverty, marginalization and extremism. Silatech also focuses on economically empowering women in Somalia and engaging them in promoting peace and security in their societies.

Furthermore, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Naseer, Chairperson of Silatech’s Board of Trustees, has attended the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Silatech, the United Nations Democracy Fund, and Tamkeen for Development to collaborate within their respective mandates and their common goals in the area of improving youth empowerment and participation and skills developments based on the World Programme of Action for Youth. The MoU aims at engendering, promoting and strengthening youth engagement, skills development, entrepreneurship and improving employability in countries or regions of mutual interest.

Since its inception in 2008, Silatech has secured one million jobs for youth through working in coordination with governments and international organizations and in cooperation with its partners to design and implement programs that uproot youth out of poverty and chronic unemployment, thus empowering them to contribute to the socioeconomic development of their countries.

Doha, 4^thof September 2018:Silatech has created and launched an exciting opportunity for youth from every corner of the world to share their talents in graphic design through the Youth Icon competition.

As part of Silatech’s initiatives aiming at empowering youth and promote their role in their societies, the competition provides a unique opportunity to engage talented youth in designing an icon that represent youth on an international level. The winning design will be adopted as the youth icon of Silatech, an organization that aims to combat youth unemployment and economically empower youth through connecting them to job opportunities and resources.

The competition calls upon youth aged between 18 and 35 to submit their creative design. Deadline for submissions is October 18^th, 2018, and the winner will be announced on November 11^th, 2018.

The winner & creator of the icon will participate in launching it at an International event, the light will be shed on his/ her work and the design and will gain recognition in international and local media outlets as well as all Silatech social media platforms, along with other prizes to support and motivate the winner in their work.

The jury will be composed of many experts in the art and design field, including experts of

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), a renowned university in the field.

Details of the application process and the terms and conditions are available on Silatech’s website http://silatech.org/youth-icon-competition.

Silatech seeks to achieve the dreams of youth to live a decent life and achieve a world that allows them to work and participate in the economic development of their societies. It works to connect youth to jobs and economic opportunities and jobs through innovative enterprise development and employment initiatives. Over the last ten years, Silatech has secured around 900,000 jobs for youth in 17 countries.

Women are an important element in every society: They are the daughters, sisters, and mothers of the world’s population. But they are often the disregarded/unofficial pillars in their communities, homes, and workplace, and to this day, women are exploited, oppressed, violated, and marginalized…

The unemployment rate amongst young Arabs is the highest in the world.

NEW YORK, June 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Ms. Sabah Al Haidoos, Chief Executive Officer of Silatech, joined a high-level panel of leading global policy-makers and practitioners, as well as civil society, private sector, and youth voices, to discuss best practices and initiatives that empower young women and men to fulfill their role as protagonists in preventing and countering violent extremism..