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.