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YouthGive in Africa 2008: Malaria

They gave me a mirror, so it's time for reflection

I’ve read that the smile of a child gives happiness equivalent to eating thirty thousand chocolate bars. So what would the smile of a dozen children do? Two dozen children? I had no way to measure it, but the image of the flock of children laughing and playing with us makes me smile just remembering it. Children are the ones inheriting the future. When children have hope and joy, it is an indicator that there is a light ahead, no matter how dark the tunnel may seem.

The townships—sprawling neighborhoods of packed tin huts, each one the home of several people—do not comprise a small percentage of Cape Town’s people. These informal illegal settlements hold at a majority of the city’s population. They hold the poorest urban people, many of whom are unemployed or eking out a living in tiny businesses run out of shipping containers. The streets are tight and living room scarce. It is an image symbolic of the challenges of Cape Town, and, to some degree, the challenges of poverty facing all of Africa.

As young people with great resources at our disposal, probably more than we realize, we have the power to make a positive impact in the world, like on the places we’ve seen in Zambia and South Africa. The difficulty is in finding the most effective ways to make an impact. The members of YouthGive have made small impacts already, like giving hope and happiness to the children we’ve played with. These bits should not be underestimated, but nor should be they be mistaken for the solution. The solution lies in a sustainable change that will have an impact on the future generations to come.

One simple way to create focused change is simply to donate to long-term projects already in Africa. Many of these projects are working efficiently but simply lack the capital to expand their influence. Giving money may not be as emotionally rewarding as building a house and watching the family move in with smiles, but the impact can be just as great. Youth have access to more financial resources than immediately obvious, such as through relatives and friends. But working in a country in Africa, using your time and talent to make a difference, shouldn’t be marginalized. Working as an English teacher for a year can impact thirty students who may go on to create their own changes and spark a chain reaction to a better world.

The students of the YouthGive Africa Trip 2008 have come back specially equipped with having traveled to Zambia and South Africa and seeing a few of the challenges that are abstractly discussed in the United States. Not only have we seen the problems, we have seen some of the solutions at work. We have the tools to teach others and perhaps inspire them to take action to contribute to a better Africa and a better world in their own way. I’ve read that a small, dedicated group of people can make a difference in the world… and in fact, it is the only thing that ever has.

On the plane again, storytelling of the past

Yup, still on the plane, almost at JFK. Fortunately, I happen to have an entire four seat row to myself and a crew who doesn’t care if I put up the armchairs and create a full bed. Birthday luck, eh? (Quite a few South Africans seem to use “eh”, by the way.) Back to the story, where I left off.

The next day was a work day, where we worked on reflection, doing interviews of each other about our experience so far. Then we traveled to a village to do a tour set up by one of the villages. We knew it was a little bit canned and designed for tourists, but it was interesting nonetheless. The guide led us through the village and into a few huts, and we were able to take a seemingly realistic sample of what village life was like. We saw the inside of a few homes and some children grinding grain, as well as the general surroundings. Then the guide led us to the curio shops, which was a very new experience for me.

The curios are the small little trinkets usually carved by locals or other villages nearby. The vendors themselves were very up in your face, trying to draw you into their stalls with “hello, friend, what’s your name? Where from? Just a handshake. I just want you to see what I have here!” I did one run around the stalls, practicing giving a nod of acknowledgement then moving on. Then I chose a random stall and stopped there, just to be hit with the overwhelming new phenomenon of bargaining.

I am sad—okay, not really sad at all—to say that a combination of factors led to my subsequent shopping craze. One was the low price, once I got it down to it. In the U.S. the things there would be marked up maybe 200% or more for what we could get it for there in the village. The second factor was the act of bargaining. I’ve never bargained before, and the raw excitement was new to me. Trying to find a satisfactory price, usually more than half of what they originally asked is a battle and a game at the same time, as well as a mental challenge with real stakes (made especially hard and fun when bargaining in three currencies—rand, kwacha, and dollars—sometimes in multiple combinations.) I calculated it out afterwards and found that I spent somewhere around 70-80 dollars, but the return was worth it. Besides, I hate gift shopping, and now I have a solid stash for the future.

The last thing we did that day was go on a cruise on the Zambezi River. We were able to find the hippopotamuses (hippopotami? Spellcheck is telling me both are right) that we had sought. We also found a herd of elephants and crocodiles. The cruise was a good way to relax after packed days, as it we could sit back, laugh, and talk. And, once again without fail, the sunset was spectacularly vibrant.

Schools and falls

Again, the number of stories I need to tell is steadily increasing. But first off, it’s my birthday in Cape Town time! I am now 17 years old, at least according to my skewed sense of time.

Now that that’s over, to keep this chronologically intact, let’s turn back time to over a week ago to after we left Lusaka for Livingstone. We traveled via small bus first to St. Vincent De Paul Community School in the town of Monze. We only planned to drop of the insecticide treated bednets and maybe tour the school, since we informed them so last minute, but we were in for a surprise.

We met in a room with all the teachers. They were delighted to hear that we were partnering with the Malaria Foundation to supply the entire school with the bednets. Then they led us into their assembly hall where the entire school was waiting. Then we were treated to a song from the entire school that filled the entire room and completely impressed us. The chorus alone sang us another song about HIV/AIDS, malaria, and child trafficking, then a drama group did a small piece, and finally a culture group performed a dance for us. Not only were awestruck at the skill, they had put it together at a moment’s notice.

After presenting ourselves and the bednets, we traveled to a dwelling of a student (one of the drama students) to se the bednet hung. We played with the children there. Even though they were young enough to be in a U.S. preschool or even kindergarten, they seemed to be at home on a school day. I think they may have been there because there wasn’t a comprehensive preschool system in most of Zambia and there is also an older age for starting school. We also met the student’s grandmother. The parents had died, and the grandmother was raising the six children on her own. She couldn’t walk and could barely stand. When we met her, she was sitting under a tarp cooking a mix of chicken and fish in a pot.

The home itself was a small building made from mud (to the best of my knowledge), and a thatched roof. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the mosquito net put up, probably because the room was too messy. After that, we thanked them and departed with a mass of young children as an entourage flanking the sides of our bus.

After yet another seven hour drive and after a ridiculously potholed road requiring creative driving, we arrived at the Natural Mystic Lodge. We dropped off our packs then sped over to Victoria Falls before it closed. Victoria Falls was as indescribable as any of the other Seven Wonders of the World. We got there right as the sun was dropping over the horizon. And, as is fitting of any incomprehensibly powerful and majestic phenomenon, here’s a poem, courtesy of yours truly.

Sunset over Victoria Falls

Waterfall under sunfall,
Two titans colliding with
Raw elegance
A last farewell to the simplicity of day,
A prelude to the romance of night
Ruby wings shrouded in diamond sprays of mist
Heat and cool caress
Spouting breaths of
Eternal glory

After being completely soaked by the spray of Victoria Falls, we went to a private outdoor barbecue at one of the hotels nearby, where we dried and relaxed over a fire.

Building a foundation of leadership

Today, we met with a group of students who had received the Desmond Tutu Award, which is awarded to students in Cape Town who were outstanding leaders, giving back to their community. We started out with basic introductions of ourselves. This group of people seemed a lot more at ease with each other and us than the last group of youth. As they introduced themselves, we learned they were a lot closer to our age, many out just out of high school, all very involved in their communities.

We dove in with an abbreviated history of South Africa by a professor who was participating, focusing on apartheid and its effects. Throughout the lecture, the South African students would chime in with their own takes and opinions on apartheid and the results. What was nice was that it wasn’t just a dry recitation, but sprinkled with commentary and insights, which were especially interesting coming from someone who had experienced it herself.

Then we went down to the office, where we had a small snack. Not only was this a time to relax, but we also had the chance to get to know people from the other group. I entered into a discussion with Nicole and Mandla about what types of things they did and about foreign accents.

We returned and the main facilitator, Brendan, who is studying in college currently, surprised us and made us recite something we’d learned about a person from the other group. Then, he gave us a presentation on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of goals created by the U.N in 2000 to try to cut poverty in half 2015 (so far, we haven’t really been succeeding). The information about the PowerPoint I’d seen before, but it was the commentary and discussion from the group, both South African and American, that was the most insightful. We focused especially on areas like gender equality and creating a global partnership for development. After, we also did a small workshop activity where we created an outline about how we could create impact on certain MDGs, writing it on a large piece of paper. Actually, this activity made me have a higher appreciation for groups creating poster presentation in small, fifteen minute brainstorms. Previously, my only experience with them has been in school, where it has been a compulsory chore. In fact, if the right energy and mindset is put into the activity by all, new ideas can be created.

Later, we had lunch then did a lesson on Scenario Planning, which is thinking up possible future outcomes and then deciding what course of action is needed to reach the one you want. This was a change from the other leadership lessons we’ve received. The activity not only stressed the importance of leadership, but gave us a tool to possibly implement. It was a well thought activity which I felt was very productive. After, we exchanged contact information with everyone, did a few interviews, took a group photo, and said goodbye.

We’d gotten to know them pretty well for just a day, and I was disappointed that we had to leave. They had a lot more of a relaxed and cheerful energy than the last group, for, in my opinion, a few reasons. Firstly, they were all awarded for their achievement in giving back to the community, and that requires a good deal of self-confidence in the first place. Secondly, the majority of them grew up in Cape Town, which contains a mass of different cultures they’d been exposed to, which leads into the third point that they were not intimidated of us at all. This was a huge help in facilitating discussion between our groups and made the entire experience quite enjoyable.

Our experience in Cape Town has been at a bit of a contrast with the other experiences we’ve had in South Africa and Zambia. Cape Town seems a lot more developed than most of the other places we’ve visited, barring perhaps Johannesburg. Previously, we’ve been involved in a lot of the poorer and more rural areas, meeting mostly either very young children or youth who have grown up faced with financial hardships. While I’m not sure of what these Cape Town students faced growing up, they seemed like some of the brightest, most involved, and educated students in South Africa. If you guys are reading this, then cheers for the free compliments. I was very glad to meet you all, and plan to keep in touch with you! Thank you so much!

Zambericans

After meeting with WaterAid on Thursday, we hurried back to the hotel after lunch in order to meet a group of Zambian youth from different organizations. Scrambling into the conference room late, we found them dressed in suits, collared shirts, and generally nicer clothes. I remember looking down at myself with a t-shirt and jeans and felt embarrassed, hoping that I didn’t seem like the typical American, rude and sloppy. We sat down, and started talking to each other loudly, laughing together in the previously quiet room. That probably didn’t really lessen the contrast between the Americans and the Zambians.

We began with introduction of names and ages. I was slightly intimidated to learn of the age gap between the two groups. They put our names and ages up on the board. On one side were our ages, 13-18, and on the other side were theirs, 20-23. There were youth from several organizations, though they all seemed to be linked through a common facilitator, Walu. We conducted an ice-breaker (three truths and a lie), then another from the Zambians, which involved one person generating a random question, then a random answer. After, we opened it up to a question and answer session between the two groups.

One thing that came out immediately was how everyone on the Zambian side was Christian, and strongly so. the American side there was a high percentage of religious people (most Christian, to the best of my knowledge), but not all of us. To point out the difference between us, the Zambians were surprised we had not started out the meeting with a prayer. Also, another thing that was apparent from the introductions and even the ice-breakers was that the other groups’ focus was on HIV/AIDS. Their strategy on prevention seemed to stem from abstinence rather than condom use, which is different than the teaching methods I’ve been exposed to. Although, as a disclaimer, I’ve read that there are many programs that advocate abstinence in the U.S.

The last activity we did was a discussion about views about the other country. The Zambians put what conceptions they had about U.S., and the Americans put what misconceptions they had about Zambia. I wish we had actually done this before the Q and A session, because it opened up a lot of discussion, especially about their views of the United States. Unfortunately, the talk about our previous misconceptions about Zambia didn’t bear much fruit since we listed and they addressed the things that we’d already found to be untrue, like that Africa is all desert, that most people live in tribes, etc.

I was very glad to meet with them. Even though they weren’t precisely our age, they were also youth and just exchanging information about our different lives with them was incredibly valuable in learning about other lives.

Busy busy busy busy

I am now, officially, horribly behind on my blogging. Five days have passed, and I’m going to rush through them so I can put down the latest and most vivid recollections before they fade away.

Wednesday, four days ago, we went to a microfinance fair in the village of Chongwe. It was designed to be a celebration of the microfinance funded by the United Nations Development Programme, as well as a place where groups funded by the microfinance program could sell their products. We drove in serenaded by a group of women singing who continued even after we exited the van. There were at least one or two hundred people in the audience, though practically all were women. Men weren’t there perhaps because they were working or just weren’t interested in coming, since I saw plenty of men and boys on the drive in. That just highlighted how microfinance has focused a lot around women, due to their historically higher rate of fiscal responsibility, and also women’s cultural position of staying home and creating crafts that they can sell.

The microfinance fair was interesting, though they had to switch between the local language (Tonga, I believe), and English, which was difficult to understand because of the accent and because were in the back, and also because we were distracted by the mass of children who had surrounded us.

The kids, for most of us, were the highlight of the microfinance fair. Our attention drifted off as the kids giggled and we began to play with them. There ages ranged from about four to eleven, and we had fun as we took pictures of them and then showed the images to them. Grayson was behind me showing them how to do “American handshakes”, and others were throwing around a ball. We tried to pay attention to the presentation in front of us, but the kids were extremely distracting (although in a good way.) We did, however, watch as there were dances and a singing group, a short skit about how microfinance saved one woman’s daughter from prostitution, and two women who presented about their experiences. A representative from the Grameen Trust was there (one of the original microfinance groups, based in Bangladesh), and talked a bit. We were also able to browse the wares of the entrepreneurs funded by microfinance, and we bought from a few as well.

After the Chongwe Fair, we went to the Grassroots Soccer group in Lusaka. We thought it was odd that it was called soccer when it was based in South Africa, where the term is football. But we learned that it was a non-profit started by a student from Dartmouth, focused on teaching about HIV/AIDS through a curriculum of games and activities. We played a few games, many of which were surprisingly similar to Tam drama activities (CTE). They were name games, although with forty or more people, it was nearly impossible to remember everyone’s. Afterwards, we did one of their curriculum games, where we created two lines of people and passed a ball, which represented HIV, behind our backs so the other team didn’t know where it was. Each line had to guess where the ball was in the other person’s line. There were three lessons behind the game: you can’t tell outwardly who has HIV, the only way to know for sure is to go for a VCT (voluntary counseling and testing), and where you could go to get a VCT.

Afterwards, we played football (soccer) with the Zambian youth. We were split into separate teams, mixed Americans and Zambians, and played. Firstly, I rarely play football. Secondly, they were really good. Needless to say, I was destroyed and humiliated for my lack of football skills. But either way, it was exhilarating and fun to play football with Zambian youth underneath a vibrant sunset… even if I did fall multiple times and my passes were completely out of luck. We all left, excited and satisfied, although all a bit embarrassed by our lack of football ability.

Thursday, three days ago, we visited multiple non-profits and projects. The first we visited was the Malaria Foundation in Zambia, which was the umbrella organization uniting the multiple efforts against malaria in Zambia. This was the first malaria organization we’d met, and it highlighted the need for efforts to roll back malaria. They stressed the use of awareness programs and ITB, or insecticide treated bednets, as well as early recognition and treatment. Malaria is a disease caused by the parasites in the female anopheles mosquito. It is transmitted when a mosquito feeds off an infected person then feeds again off another, who will then become infected.

Next, we visited a PlayPump at a school in Lusaka. PlayPumps are being touted as a cutting-edge tool in providing clean water access to schools and communities. While it is a simple mechanical pump, it also acts as a game for children. PlayPumps are wheels like those in parks that children can spin around. PlayPumps, however, pump water into a water tower while the children are playing on it. This is a simple but effective tool that eliminates the tedious hand pump. When we went inside, we were able to see pictures of when Laura Bush visited to see the PlayPump in action. We also played with the children at the school on the PlayPump wheel, spinning around with them until everyone was dizzy. (I admit, when I spun them the Director had to mention to Jenny he didn’t want them going that fast.)

WaterAid Zambia was our next stop. Unfortunately, all the senior officials were out touring the projects with a group of people from the U.K., so our meeting was conducted by one of the project monitors still being oriented to the program. He seemed to be a little intimidated, but he immediately brightened up in answering whenever we asked a question. I feel we did gain some valuable information, like how WaterAid Zambia focused more on sanitation, since there seemed to be a lot of efforts going towards clean water access already. This involved setting up latrines in villages and promoting hygiene awareness programs.

I’ll put the rest later, so that’s what I have now.