Youth in Dialogue - Nelson Mandela Foundation

Reflections
The following section is made up of a few of the key reflections on the
Youth Community Dialogues.
Looking Towards the Future
Lesley Nkosi
Facilitator, Cool Ideas
As we are taking
the responsibility
of HIV and AIDS
back to the community
through young people,
the future of tomorrow,
we’re trying to establish
what are the unique
problems with regard to
HIV and AIDS within
the communities.
And then see if we can
come up with specific unique
solutions to these problems
and then have the youth make
unique commitments.
When you go into one
of these dialogues do
you know what’s going
to happen
No. When you go into it,
you’ve got to be really openminded
to whatever possibility
there can be. All I’ve got to do
is make sure that I encourage
young people to talk about
their issues to each other and
not to me.
The one thing that I always
try to avoid is to create a
teacher-student environment,
where you’re going to teach
them how to behave, you’re
going to tell them what to do;
it’s already been done. This is
a platform for people to step
out and look at each other as
friends and peers and let’s
talk about our problems and
let’s talk about our solutions.
So you never know what
comes out. You’re always
surprised as to how much
there is out there that hasn’t
been done or that can be
done and how easy it is when
it turns out. So it’s always
exciting when it comes out.
What are some of the
things you have found
at these community
dialogues
In the North West, Lerome,
I found that it is a mining
community and I found that
the aspect of aspiration for
young people makes them
susceptible to exploitation
by those who are working
in the mines. Those guys are
earning in the region of R7000
a month and they carry the
power. It’s also culture, in a
way, working against them, in
the sense that the roles within
relationships are males being
superior beings and females
taking all sorts of crap because
they are the weaker sex in the
relationship. That makes them
very vulnerable.
So you find that these girls
know that the guy is going
reflections
Lesley Nkosi.
Participant in the Galeshewe dialogue.
YOUTH IN DIALOGUE 59