Youth work, youth development, youth education! YOUTH!
YOUTH! YOUTH!
We’re loving this topic here in Choma, Zambia! For many of
us it is at the heart of our future ambitions, it’s what gets us out of bed at
6am every morning and it’s what puts a smile on our dial!
One of the shining benefits of being placed within clinics is
the access and opportunity to make an impact on Youth Friendly Corners (YFCs). These
youth-led groups use a peer education system that allows young people to come
together and tackle issues/concerns head on in a non-judgmental environment.
Typical topics include safe sex, substance abuse and sexually transmitted
infections.
In Choma, there are currently 4 YFC’s set up; Rail Surgery,
Shampande, Choma Hospital and more recently, thanks to an awesome group of ICS
volunteers, Prisons….(WAHEYY, GO PRISONS!)
Being part of the team at Rail Surgery we were lucky enough
to take part and observe one of the most established YFC’s in the area in terms
of membership. However, we soon learnt that numbers were declining and
considering the many benefits of educating youths on such topics, we agreed
that we couldn’t let this happen…
It was time to pump a little soul into our corner and make Rail
Surgery YFC a pretty damn cool place to be!
One issue we noticed during previous sessions was the repetitive
classroom methods of facilitation...*snores*…It became glaringly obvious
that this was a golden opportunity to do something a little….different.
SO! Rail volunteers, along with a helping hand from Prisons,
took it upon themselves to bang heads, explode ideas and create a bubbling
concoction of insightful topics, fresh brains and pumping energizers that would
hopefully spark and spread enthusiasm like wild fire!
Wednesday approached fast and while we were expecting our
usual turnout of 15 faces, we jaw-dropped at the sheer sight of 35 curious
youths walking through our door…our golden opportunity had become a LIVE or DIE conundrum and as we scraped our jaws off the floor, we
nose-dived into one of our biggest challenges yet!
Despite the heat, the lack of space and the double-plus
numbers we held an amazing afternoon of heated debates, passionate discussions,
powerful presentations and of course, lots of laughter - all centered around
the issue of Gender Equality.
2 hours flew by and the blood, sweat and tears of
facilitating our biggest YFC to date was met with a round of applause, a thanks
and more importantly…enthusiastic smiles J
I for one, think we
all deserve a huge pat on the back! Well done Rail Surgery and Prisons! We aced
it guys!!!
