Reach Out To Asia (Rota) has unveiled plans for its upcoming annual youth gathering ‘Fourth Empower Youth Conference’ taking place at La Cigale Hotel from April 19-21.In all, some 350 youth between the ages of 14 and 24 years have registered to participate in the event to be inaugurated by Rota board member and Doha Academy founder Dr Sheikha Aisha bint Faleh bin Nasser al-Thani.Focusing on leadership, service learning and global citizenship, organisers will integrate sports, environment, skills development and the Arabic language as key themes of the Empower 2012 programme.The three-day event will feature a combination of seminar panel discussion, keynote speeches, lectures, small group workshops, off-site visits, and a student public debate to be held at the beginning of the event. The public debate is being organised by Qatar Debate in collaboration with Rota with the debate motion carefully selected to align with the Empower 2012 environment theme.For the first time, the conference will create a regional network of youth activists by inviting GCC youth to participate.In addition, other regions have the opportunity to learn from Empower’s best practices as 10 spaces have been awarded to Japanese youth in support of the Qatar-Japan partnership.As Qatar gains a worldwide reputation as a respected host for the biggest and best global sporting events, Empower will focus on how sport can contribute to development and peace, bring people together, help them discover talents they never knew they had and teach important life lessons - striving to be the best, benefit from teamwork and exhibiting dignity and generosity in victory or defeat.The conference starts with a youth debate organised by Qatar Debate in collaboration with Rota, with the debate motion carefully selected to align with Empower 2012 environment theme.Being featured on day two of Empower 2012 are a line-up of inspiring and informative keynote speeches and a lunch-time exhibition followed by some 14 creative and interactive skills and knowledge-based workshops delivered by leading experts in the fields of youth development, leadership, service learning, global citizenship, environment and sports. On day three, delegates have the opportunity to participate in sports and environmental service learning activities taking place at Qatar Sports Club, Education City, Rumailah Hospital Special Education Centre and Al Amina Plastic Factory organised by the Rota Volunteer department. It will also feature ‘Road to Rio 20’, a two-part sustainable development seminar which aims to draft a declaration on youth voice in contributing to pressing issues of sustainable development and poverty eradication. The statement will be supporting the initiative of Road To Rio 20.Empower 2012 will conclude with a series of cultural performances and a youth-led closing ceremony.As Rota strives hard to increase Empower’s realm of influence by involving GCC and Asian youth for the first time, organisers are also taking the opportunity to celebrate two vital global initiatives happening during the event – Global Youth Service Day and Earth Day 2012.Since the event’s inauguration in 2009, Empower has gained a reputation for being the first youth led conference in Qatar to focus on equipping young people to take active roles in building their communities and having a voice on global issues.Demonstrating the wisdom of Rota’s decision to ensure Empower remains a youth-led conference, the event has been organised in collaboration with a planning committee comprising some 30 youth volunteers.Since the Empower planning committee was started in 2010, Rota has trained a total of 85 youths who have gained experience and knowledge in video making, public speaking, event management, facilitation skills, social media skills and organising skills.Rota’s director Essa al-Mannai explained that the main aim of the event was to raise awareness and build knowledge and capacity to enable young people to take leadership roles in addressing local and international developmental issues of concern to them, especially in the area of sustainable development and sports.