The founder of the ‘Be Involved For The Youth’, BIFTY, ROD ON Jr. has called on Africans, particularly Cameroonians, to get engaged in the struggle to surmount the many troubles challenging the African youth. This call comes at a time when over 200 school girls have been kidnapped by terrorists in neighbouring Nigeria.
ROD ON Jr was talking recently at a press conference in Yaounde, where he indicated that so many social, humanitarian and educational challenges are hardening the lives of many African youth and putting their futures at risk. The BIFTY initiator noted challenges such as poverty, fight against hard drug trafficking, security and sanitation in school environments, among others.
In a bid to use music to engage the youth in humanitarian actions, the On-Spot Enterprises USA in collaboration with its Cameroon counterpart and international musicians like T-Pain and P-Square is organising the maiden edition of BIFTY, Concert Awareness, billed for August 9, 2014. The event will have a pre-event which is going to be a social and humanitarian occasion and will mainly be attended by top ranking authorities in the country, and the main goal of the pre meeting is fundraising (meant for orphans and health centres to be visited by the artists). Artists to grace the event include; Danielle Eog, Macase, Vincent Nguini, Gaelle Wondje, Sally Nyolo, Mystero and Sanzy Vianny.
The deal day, August 9 at the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium, will be a grand awareness concert featuring international artists like T-Pain, and P-Square. Other local artists to grace the night from 4:00 pm to 12 midnight are X-Maleya, Stanley Enow, Mani Bella and Duc Z. Apart from the musical performances, the night will also be characterised by an educative cultural and humanitarian impartation to be done by the seasoned artists.
In prelude to the concert, the three international artists will have a round table discussion and press conference on the theme of the conference which is “BIFTY: Lets Not Forget Our Girls…Bring Them Back Now!”.
The day will also be an opportunity for the youth; not limited to teenagers, to join the clarion call of Michelle Obama, America’s First Lady, and the international media in pleading to the Islamic sect Boko Haram, to bring back the over 200 school girls captured few months ago in Nigeria.
According to the initiator of BIFTY, also CEO of On-Spot Enterprises, ROD ON Jr, the objectives of BIFTY are to sensitise on the evils plaguing the African youth, particularly those of Cameroon, to provide an avenue for the youth to share their constructive points of view, offer the Government a platform to sensitise the youth on the dangers prevailing and to guard against, create the spirit of sharing and help African youth, launch a social, humanitarian and educative movement christened “Be Involved For The Youth”, bring African and Western celebrities in domains such as sports, culture, politics, and economics to impact the African youth, visit orphanages and hospitals to impact the underprivileged, and to participate in the fight against Boko Haram in solidarity with other social and humanitarian bodies through the message “Let's Not Forget Our Girls….Bring Them Back Now".
Speaking to one of the senior executive consultants of the On-Spot Enterprises, she revealed that the purchase of any CAMTEL gadget is a means to obtain a pass in to the stadium on August 9. She added that the telecommunication company is the main sponsor of the event.
Some institutional partners that attested to the substance of the project included the Ministries of Social Affairs, Arts and Culture, Youth and Civic Education, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Red Cross among others.
Some of its media partners are CNN Africa, Trace TV, Africa Magic, RFI, Canal 2 International, CRTV, Africa 24 and Vox Africa, among others. The organisers; On-Spot Enterprises USA, On-Spot Enterprises Cameroon, and L’ Association IRONDEL- BABEL@RT say the next edition of BIFTY is slated to take place in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire in 2015, adding that their success would be limited without the assistant of benevolent persons and institutions.
