"We Are The Future of Our Nation"

Today, we went to Solomon Mahlangu High School.  Here, we watched a group of students practice a presentation for the Youth Citizen Action Programme.  The purpose to this program is to “engage the youth in discussion about the challenges they face and empower them to solve the challenges”.  There are 6 steps.  The first step is recruiting the team.  The team was composed of 10th graders. The second step is assigning roles and responsibilities. The group must have a leader, financial manager, marketing manager, operations manager, income generation manager and administration manager.  The third step is for the students to list and research topics.  These are areas of concern for their local community or school.  The students, we observed narrowed their list to absenteeism, poverty in education, and shortage of textbooks. The students decided their focus was going to be “Poverty and Education.  Once they identified this problem, the fourth step included describing the problem. They used student interviews, school based statistics, and read online articles. They researched different causes of poverty such as social issues, unemployment, loss of a parent, etc.  Their student interviews brought up points such as students not doing well academically on empty stomachs.  Poor students felt humiliated when having to wear uniforms with holes and that did not fit properly.  This resulted in the learners not achieving their full potential, acting out, and dropping out of school.  Steps 5 and 6 were the action part of the program. They initiated a breakfast launch, formed community partnerships, started a community service club and held fundraisers.  They made home visits bringing food and clothing to students in need. The final part of the project was a professional portfolio and oral presentation.

These young adults were just amazing.  They were so articulate, confident, passionate and incredibly humble.  This is a theme I am seeing with a lot of the people, especially the youth, in S. Africa.  It is referred to as “active citizenship” They are very motivated to bringing a change to their community and are not waiting for someone else to make a difference.  They do it themselves.  It is easy to say something.  Following through and and being a positive and active member of your community at such a young age is how changes are made.
Whether it is at this school or the Lovelife Center, it is not just their words being heard, their actions are speaking loud and clear!