Africa #6 - What are we teaching our youth?

In addition to my work at the Creche, I have been privileged to observe and interact with some of the older village kids at their after school programs. First, a bit of background...Another American volunteer (Katie) who was previously a WWISA volunteer about 3 years ago has since started a charity to raise funds for the local area and has relocated to South Africa on a 3-year volunteer visa. As part of her programming, she has started an after school "social club" of sorts for the 12 - 15 year olds in the village. When deciding (as a group) what they wanted to do at this club, they decided that they were interested in discussing social issues for the most part.

The meetings that I have attended have been focused on a recent news article in which it was reported that an HIV-prevention vaccination being researched at the University of Cape Town had recently lost its funding from South Africa and was being now solely funded by the USA, even though in 2008 something like 5 million+ people in South Africa were living with the HIV virus. Apparently AIDS activists argued that the money should not be spent on medical research towards a vaccine that may never lead to a way to actually prevent the virus, but should instead be spent on educating people how to prevent the disease (safe sex, myths vs. facts how you can get it/not get it, etc.)

I was most impressed with these young peoples' interest in the topic and willingness (after lots of conversations and practice!) to go out into the village to interview people about their thoughts on the topic. It reminded me that these types of issues are happening in some pockets of America and I wonder how we can motivate our youth to learn and become more actively involved in stopping them. I've mentioned before that the changes taking place here are generational changes that will take awhile to take root in the village. It is exciting to see these kids involved, interested and discussing these social issues with their elders in this way.

**Note: This picture is one of the kids from the Social Club, Clayton, who really wanted me to take his photo.