Youth in Dialogue - Nelson Mandela Foundation

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Informing Future Dialogues Paddy Nhlapo Sipho “Paddy” Nhlapo of Cool Ideas is the programme co-ordinator for the Youth Community Dialogues The social mobilisation approach included going through databases of people working in HIV and AIDS, community development and organised youth formations across the country. We had to develop relationships, without promising any returns financially or otherwise, but we had to cover the costs of local resources that assisted our team and give a stipend of some sort as 90% of the people we work with as Cool Ideas are unemployed youth and young adults. The advantages of working with local people include understanding local dynamics and ensuring that you reach the right target audience. Local resources provide intelligence, insights and advice in shaping a localised intervention. The dialogue programme would not have been a success had it overlooked local people and organisations. Choosing Small Towns First we look at the number of activities that go into an area. We look at loveLife, the Department of Health, who does what in those areas. We choose areas that are not saturated. For example, everyone goes to Soweto. In Mpumalanga, everyone would go to either Nelspruit or Witbank, the key areas that people know. If you go to North West you would go to Mafikeng or Rustenburg. We chose a place that was 70km away from Rustenburg, a village that no-one knows about: Lerome. Where’s that Right next to Paddy Nhlapo. Sun City. That community is highly affected, but there’s no movie house, there are no sports grounds. For young people, the only external activity is sex and getting drunk. There is only so much that we can do on television and on radio, but our focus is to engage communities directly. When we engage them we don’t come to preach to them. We bring the play that highlights issues around HIV and AIDS and then communities engage and say what their problems are locally and what they think is the best way of dealing with their problems. We say “It’s in your hands” as a community to do something about HIV and AIDS in your area or with people you know, you grew up with, people you are intimate with, people who are close to you. The stories vary from one place to the next. In Lerome, they have a huge issue around youth facilities and in Giyani, what comes out very clearly is training. Young people are saying, “Give us skills, then we will do whatever we need to do on our own.” Community Leadership It is important for local leaders to be at events, so they 12 YOUTH IN DIALOGUE
View of Mthatha, Eastern Cape. can take on these things. We facilitate, saying “You know how to do these things, but we are reminding you that this is the way.” So, we are saying, “In African culture this is how things used to be, we used to sit around under the trees.” That’s why in our dictionaries we have lekgotla and imbizo. These words emanate from our origins and this is where community issues were dealt with, community problems were solved. So let’s go back to basics, “an African solution to a global problem”. We are now making that a practical thing. If we could we would conduct these dialogues and say, “Stop your television and your big billboards and engage communities directly.” Know what the person in the street, what the neighbour, the person in the shack in the village, in the farmhouse is saying. Because they know how to solve these problems, but it’s only when you’re there that you get to know that people have solutions. Then you probe it. We’re not an implementing agency, we’re just the catalyst. Empowering Communities What we’re doing is empowering communities to ensure that they deal with their problems and they find ways, resources, within or amongst themselves, to deal with the issues. This is because people have a tendency to sit back and waiting for a funder or government or some corporate to do something when they do not search within themselves to find what they are capable of doing. If you look at the political struggle, we didn’t have the technology that we use today. I remember in my days in the United Democratic Front, we would form street committees. Our townships were the safest places, you never heard of house break-ins. There were street committees, we were so organised, but maybe it’s because our enemy was easily identifiable. Today, this enemy lives in the bloodstream of a person. But I’m sure that there is a solution. It’s in people’s hands. We don’t have the solution; it’s in people’s hands to find that solution. If only we could get extra funding so we could go to many other areas across the country and say, “Stop looking at someone else, look within, say what is it that I’m capable of doing to ensure that I prevent the spread of HIV, but also to ensure that I protect YOUTH IN DIALOGUE 13
Page 1 and 2: Youth in Dialogue Prevention is key
Page 3 and 4: Introduction The Nelson Mandela Fou
Page 5 and 6: Foreword Achmat Dangor CEO, Nelson
Page 7 and 8: HANDY FACTS Young South Africans wa
Page 9 and 10: Social mobilisation strategy Target
Page 11: Province Area Number of Participant
Page 15 and 16: Dialogue Summaries The following se
Page 17 and 18: Mhluzi, Mpumalanga St Peter’s Lut
Page 19 and 20: Galeshewe, Northern Cape Kimberley
Page 21 and 22: Mthatha, Eastern Cape St Paul’s C
Page 23 and 24: Soshanguve, Gauteng Galala Communit
Page 25 and 26: Schoolchildren attending the Mhluzi
Page 27 and 28: Key Issues Raised case study: Mhluz
Page 29 and 30: Interview with Themba, 16 Themba My
Page 31 and 32: Interview with Maleke, 17 case stud
Page 33 and 34: facing and with your kind of advice
Page 35 and 36: Mural in Galeshewe. St Peter’s Lu
Page 37 and 38: Participants in the Mhluzi dialogue
Page 39 and 40: count is below 200. There are also
Page 41 and 42: A view of Soshanguve. skirts, showi
Page 43 and 44: Youth in Soshanguve, Gauteng. educa
Page 45 and 46: Tshepiso I would like to say to gir
Page 47 and 48: someone will listen. If we’re goi
Page 49 and 50: of the people in the area are invol
Page 51 and 52: Veronica I’ll talk and talk. Ever
Page 53 and 54: Kimberley Community Hall, Galeshewe
Page 55 and 56: Using Arts to Mobilise Communities
Page 57 and 58: Bathabile No you don’t. Because i
Page 59 and 60: Reflections The following section i
Page 61 and 62: Ambassador Close-Up Thembi Ngubane
Page 63 and 64:
About Nelson Mandela Foundation Nel
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Youth in Dialogue - Nelson Mandela Foundation

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