In Their Shoes: Coming closer to children and youth

HIVAN's commitment to providing children and youth with a platform to express their experiences of the world, and to gain the skills to do so, was advanced by two forum sessions held during the last several months.

The first was a two-day Child and Youth Research Forum held in November 2004, at which a range of community-based practitioners and academic researchers shared their knowledge and stories with guests representing many different social sectors. Presentations were given on the latest findings regarding prevention of mother-to-infant transmission of HIV, anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy for children in poor settings, sexuality education with disabled youth, how to include youth in HIV/AIDS management programmes, the impact of the epidemic on housing for families, family-based interventions, and the use of photography for learners to understand life in the centre of the epidemic.

A key topic at the Research Forum was the stigma of HIV/AIDS as it affects young people, in particular orphans of AIDS and vulnerable children such as child migrants and children heading households. Two highlights of the overall programme were the performance of an isiZulu play, composed by girls and boys from HIVAN?s ?Leaders of Tomorrow? project, about their lives in Magangangozi, Bergville, and 10-year-old Siphelele Ndlovu?s launch presentation of a 34-page illustrated booklet he authored, entitled ?Babiza?s Story?, which relays his personal account of how HIV/AIDS has touched his life.

?

The November Forum established a clear focus on human rights, participatory processes and the cultural arts for the HIVAN series of Youth Forum sessions planned for 2005. In March, HIVAN?s Community, Arts and Advocacy and Sectoral Networking Units partnered with the World Conference on Religions for Peace (WCRP) to co-host the first day-long programme in a series called ?Learning together for the Future?, for a limited group of KZN secondary school learners. Devised and co-ordinated by the CAAU?s Artists? Action Around AIDS team, with the help of peer facilitators from other partner organisations, the main work of the programme was a guided journey for self-expression on the theme of ?The Landscape of My Life?.

This involved dividing the learners into smaller groups who worked on creating collages (pictures made up of cuttings from magazines and decorated with crayons and colour-pens), which described their own lives and dreams. This was followed by naming parts of the pictures, sharing the ideas behind them with their peers, and team representatives presenting these to the gathering. All the ideas were explained as either mountains (problems), bridges (plans) or valleys (goals), and a large wall-poster was used for building this communal ?life landscape?.

In this way, the workshop journey moved from the girls and boys as individuals, into teams of fellow-learners, and finally to the full workshop group. It showed them how to work alone by going within themselves and finding their own identity and voice, and then working with each other to make shared decisions. No specific focus was aimed at HIV and AIDS; the participants could express any and all issues lives that were important to them. At all times, the peer facilitators were nearby to encourage, advise and support them through the process, and several teachers were guest observers.

At the end of the day, the learners were given a toolkit for their schools and community centres, and were asked to share their workshop experience with their classmates and families. They were also invited to contribute their own written piece for publication in Sondela.Kyle-Ben Snyders from Durban?s Holy Family College sent us his thoughts:

I didn?t really know what to expect when I entered the Temple David hall to attend the Youth Forum. The first thing I thought was ? oh no, here we go, all these co-ordinators who look very strict, and one has an American accent, oh dear - kind of thing. After the initial introductions, it turned out they were a bunch of helpful and open-minded individuals, the respectable kind, you know? I relaxed at the realisation of this. And started having fun.

?

We were split off into groups, made up of people from different schools, which was cool because I got to meet some interesting people and got a good idea of how other people from different environments think and behave. It made a good dynamic, because the whole forum was all about taking ideas, discussing and combining them to turn those same ideas into something that affects things on a global scale.

It started by everyone working on their own personal collage, about things in their life that affect them and things they believe in - because it all starts with the individual! Then groups exchanged ideas and make a list of all the ideas they had collectively. We then changed those ideas into global ideas, so things like "Buddha" became "Religion" and "Spiritual Development", "Bananas" became "Nutritional Food" and "Healthy Lifestyle" and so on and so on. We took these ideas up to the front and presented them to the rest of the groups. [We did a lot of this - I mean, a lot. But it was fun going up and making people laugh about issues that negatively affect millions of people a year].

We finally took these ideas and split them between three categories - Mountains: a problem (hard to climb over), Bridges : a solution (a way of getting over the mountain) and Valleys : goals (at the end of the mountain, you'll get to your valley). Some very relevant issues that I had never really thought about came up as mountains. Some very clever bridges were suggested and some nice valleys described.

I felt quite enlightened coming out of the Forum, as I'd met new people and had a huge paradigm shift in my view of the world. I really can't wait for the next one. Thank you HIVAN!

A second Forum day will be held in mid-2005.

?

?

<