Initiated in 2008, the Youth Empowerment Through Arts and Media
(YETAM) project is an initiative by Nokia, Plan International,
and local partners which seeks to give youth the skills and
tools to communicate at local, national, and global level about
issues impacting on their lives. Through arts, traditional
media, and new media tools, youth engage in the community
development process and beyond. They are trained on different
forms of communication, which include verbal communication,
performance, visual arts, and social media, in order to help
them effectively raise their viewpoints and enter into dialogue
with families, peers, community members, decision makers, and
the general public. Social media and new technology allow those
who formerly did not have a space at the global table to enter
into the dialogue directly. To date, the project is being
implemented in 6 countries in Africa (Senegal, Mali, Cameroon,
Rwanda, Kenya, and Mozambique), with plans to expand to Ghana
and other countries in 2010 and beyon