As ia Youth( )The Is s ues

3 Billion people in the world are under the age of

25

61% of them live in As ia

Statis tics• 26% of all youth deaths in China are from s uic ide• , 50% 18In India of g irls will be married before they are• , 60%In Nepal the rate is• ( ) 800,000 In the greater part of Xian China there are s tudents• , 36 – 22 In South As ia million children are out of s chool million

of them are girls• 22% is the percentage of g irls who have completed primary

47% s chooling in rural areas of Pakis tan as compared to ofboys

• , 350,000 Each year univers itie s and colleges in India produce new engineering graduates

• - Dhaka is the fas tes t growing mega c ity in the world• 36% ’ of Mongolia s population live be low the poverty line• 25% of the workforce of the Philippines works overs eas

Technologically Aware• 4.7 Hong Kong youth s pend hours online per day• 0.9 Indones ian youth s pend hours online per day• 14 , 12.8 Per week Korean youth s pend hours on the computer hours

0.7 watching TV and hours reading news papers• 67% of young As ians have downloaded mus ic in the las t month but

27% only paid for thos e downloads• (6.2 )Young Filipinos watch the mos t TV per day hours• 37.5 90% There are million gamers in China and of thes e play online

games• 85% of Korean teenagers own a ce ll phone and they s end an average

60 of text mes s ages per day• 10 Chines e s pend times more money on the internet than people in the

( 10% )Wes t This repres ents of their monthly income• . The lives of young As ians are be ing defined by technology It is not

, s omething extra young people are do ing to fill in the ir s pare time .technology has become s ymbiotic to their life

( . . )From www threebillion com

Trends

• , After a decade of re luctance mobile phones were allowed in 2003. Indian adminis tered Kas hmir in Since then Kas hmir has

witnes s ed an unprecedented boom in the s ector with three 1.6 . mobile operators holding around million s ubs cribers A fair , s ection of thes e mobile us ers cons is t of youth many of who

. pay for the us age charges from the ir pocket money With , extens ive us age of mobile phones by youth fas t food outle ts

and news paper vendors s ays the phones are encroaching upon the ir bus ines s es

• , , Tattoos or patterns drawn up on s kin wide ly prevalent among, , s ailors bikers and outlaws have now become a popular body

( ) decoration for the youth in Mizoram India Tattoos have now over the pas t decade become a s tyle s tatement

• With s tate te levis ion and radio broadcas ts limited to bombas tic , patriotic blas ts from the pas t and benign pop the popularity of

online mus ic has exploded in China

Is s ues

• Migration to urban centers for job opportunitie s leading to . expos ure to different cultures and ris ky environments

• ( : ’ Conflic t between s ecular values and traditional values eg It s , , often okay for girls to be modern but when they get married

they are often expected to fall back into traditional roles and ) patterns of behaviour expected of them

• , Hardly any good teaching on s exuality and life s kills e ither , from parents peers or the s chool s ys tem

• : Oppres s ivenes s of education s ys tem high demands and . expectations can be placed on youth who are s tudents

• : ( Influence of g lobalis ation and multimedia even rural -communitie s can have acces s to TV or can hire battery

’ , powered DVD s inc luding even availability of s exually explic it’ )DVD s in many village areas

• Girls affected by unhealthy gender attitudes of men and boys

More Is s ues

• : , Cons umerism with influx of materialism many young people live beyond what they can afford

• ( : ’ Gap between reality and expectations eg Many don t end up in ) the career they would like des pite training for that career

• “ – Downageing” people of all ages getting younger in the ir cons umption patterns becaus e in many countries in As ia

‘ ’ youth is becoming a ce lebrated phenomenon with people of all ages trying to live like them

• ‘ ’ – Impatient As pirers a new group of younger cons umers , acros s As ia with a job a s alary and no s upervis ed s pending

. limits They want it all now and will go into debt to get it• , , For many urban youth the ir body language dres s ing s tyle

, accents all po int to a total irreverence to values the ir As ian cultures s tood for

…But

“ Globalism does not provide a s atis fac tory home for the . , individual human being The market may be global , , communication may be global the technology may be global

. , , but I never will be Human beings need a place a s tory a s et of. re lations hips This is why ethnic ity and re lig ion are emerging

- as s uch powerful counter forces to globalism today”

Bryant Myers – The Whole Gospel of the Kingdom

So how does this impact the way we s eek to deve lop youth and ?s tudent minis try in As ia

…Ideas• Conduct Life Skills management modules in s chools and

colleges• ‘ ’Provide coaching to youth in emotional inte lligence• ’ Set up hangouts and s tudent centers life tea hous es and café s

that hous e couns e ling and recreational fac ilities• Interactive small group concepts meetings in hos te ls and

homes• Deve lop leaders hip princ iples that will motivate youth workers

to work with the youth community at the gras s root leve l and - - not be caught up with a hit and go approach

• -Deve lop and enable the large s cale c irculation of pre evange lis tic news magazines acros s major c itie s

• Churches to be encouraged to commission the ir profes s ionals , for youth minis try es pec ially thos e in indus tries that come in

contact with youth in large numbers• Us e the internet to make connections and build re lations hips

with young people as a way of s haring Chris t

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