A delegation of young talents from Africa are actively participating in the World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) which is currently being held in Sochi, Russia. The festival started on October 14 and will run until October 22 in the resort town which recently hosted the Winter Olympic Games and Formula 1 Grand Prix in 2014. Young people aged between 18 and 35 are engaged in numerous activities, discussions and competitions, nearly 25,000 guests from 185 countries are participating in this year’s festival.
The Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom has also made its contribution, by inviting and hosting gifted young African professionals and students, who are interested in science and innovation. “We are happy that we were able to provide this exciting opportunity to our future African leaders, to gain knowledge and exchange experience with their peers on a global level,” said Viktor Polikarpov, Rosatom regional Vice-President of Sub-Saharan Africa.
A specialized programme includes events related to science and education, group discussions as well as cultural and sport activities. The main agenda of the discussion programme encompasses the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by the United Nations.
The festival attracts proactive young people from all over the world, most of whom are already leaders in their respective fields. Numerous young specialists from Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa are among the attendees, most of whom are oriented towards research and the development of new technologies.
The young talents are engaged in various activities, creative workshops, brainstorming sessions and round tables to try find answers to some of the globes most burning questions. Issues of ecology, sustainable development and international cooperation are in the limelight of the scientific focused section of the Festival.
During a round-table discussion the representative from Zimbabwe, Simbarashe Mhuriro, demonstrated benefits of sustainable energy development. He leads the company Oxygen Africa, which focuses on energy, mining and agriculture. Simbarashe argues that in Africa only two percent of the population has stable access to electricity, and the use of diesel engines is both expensive and destructive for ecology. Therefore, the young businessman is championing sustainable sources of energy, which can help global population to resolve current energy problems.
Nigerian born Chukwudi Ojinnaka, who currently studies nuclear engineering at the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI in Moscow, notes that the Festival provides exciting opportunities for young professionals to meet different people with different ideas from all over the world. He highlights that these very ideas will help the future generations achieve their goals.
In collaboration with other participants of the festival, this young Nigerian talent is working tirelessly on the project of the ‘aqua-cities’ – self-sustainable cities floating cities, that will be engineered to help to solve the overpopulation problem in the future.