Youth in Dialogue - Nelson Mandela Foundation

Mhluzi, Mpumalanga
St Peter’s Lutheran Church, Mhluzi, Middelburg, Mpumalanga: November 15, 2007
The Mhluzi community adheres strongly to customary
practices. The stigma around HIV and AIDS is
widespread and people living with HIV and AIDS
are detested. Young people are conscious about HIV and
AIDS messaging, but would not dare tackle the subject
openly for fear of being labelled.
dialogue
summary:
Mhluzi
Attendance
About 380 young people comprising community members, members of NGOs, CBOs, loveLife
groundbreakers, community development workers, local municipality representatives, Witbank
Correctional Facility and Middelburg Correctional Facility offenders and warders attended the
dialogue.
Summary
In the initial stages of the dialogue
session, the youth were wary of
expressing issues that were close to
home, but the discussion soon got
heated and they started arguing
about problems in a forthright way..
Offenders from local correctional
facilities talked about accountability
and young people appreciating what
they have and being responsible. A
poem by one of the offenders touched
the audience. The stage was used to
seat the audience, giving a grandstand
effect, which proved more intimate for
the youth as they faced each other and
seriously engaged on issues.
Top: Participants at the Mhluzi dialogue.
Above: Group discussions at the Mhluzi dialogue.
Commitments
◊ Talk more to each other about HIV
and AIDS.
◊ Encourage each other to be more
ambitious and not lustful.
◊ Look after each other as brothers
and sisters and abstain.
◊ Empower parents with information
on how to be better role models.
◊ Maleke, 17, says: “Young people
have the responsibility to live for a
freedom for which those before us
have fought and died. It’s in our
hands!”
YOUTH IN DIALOGUE 17