Our Collective Responsibility

This week marks the first of two weeks that our schedules at Eduation for ife are a little different. Life Skills i hain a two week pause in order to focus ore on the Youh Alie lus which seek to promote practical ways for children to make their lives and communities better. A central reason why Youth Alive exists is too raise children to be better than they ever thought they could be by empowering them to make decisions that have a positive impact on their own lives. One EFL worker said that it is important for children not to expect handouts because real change requires real work.

One of the hopes of the Beyond Borders program is for students to engage in citizenship. One of the goals of citizenship is too share incollective responsiblity. Collective responsiblity can mean taking ownerships for the challenges of society and to celebrate in he successes of the same society. The ideal is tha we all would have mutual responsiblity for our world. I guess this means that there would be no developped world and no developping world but rather one world with a similar standard of living. Right now, it feels like a dream.

The Youth Alive Exchange will bring together 600 students from twenty schools. The exchange will strive for students to exchange ideas, stories, and messages on how to make their own lives, schools and communities a better place. The children are excited to hear about what other students from other schools believe the challenges of growing up in the slums is like. Its both rewarding and difficult to hear and listen when children discuss their issues. Students have had responses that range from: sanitation issues, garbage collection, access to sanitary napkins, HIV/AIDS, Child Abandonment, teen pregnancy and drug abuse.

Its good to hear these responses because it means that these issues are no longer being pushed under a rug and are open to discussion. On the other hand, it is difficult to hear because you feel helpless when you hear that young girls don't have enough money to afford sanitary napkins or knowing that fathers have no issue with abandoning their unborn children and that the system really does nothing to prevent this and protect the rights of the child.

The Youth Alive Exchange will be a dynamic performance piece that showcases and celebrates the children and will open up dialogue about the challenges that children face. I was skeptical at first on how it would actually work because issue based dramatizations can often be a little cheesy. After touring the Youth Alive Clubs and seeing these performances; I have come to realize that these children know how to tell a story and make it come alive because this is the reality that they live in.

What struck me the most is that these children know what the real problems are. The children at one school sang and danced to a song they created about early pregnancy. In the girls routine, they sing about how fathers will abandon the unwed mothers and the constant struggle for the girl to fight for the rights of the child. The 'children' of the skit are stuck in the middle. These kids understand the issues. The challenge not just in Kenya but all over the world is that we can only educate students on the choices and options that are out there; it is up to the students to make the decisions themselves and live with the rewards or consequences.

It is our collective responsibility to raise the generation of tomorrow. It starts with good parents then good friends then good schools but it needs to extend to other agents of socialization and include good messages. Perhaps the greatest message is hope. Even in the most troubling of times, I have seen real hope Life doesn't end in highschool. It gets better. Life doesn't end at teenage pregnancy or an overdose or at the diagnosis of HIV/AIDS. My hope is for good citizens to take control of the power and to do good. I think every teacher has one final request of their students. The request has nothing to do with climbing to the top of the career ladder or getting power but rather to do good. I hope to one day include this in my teaching pedagogy. The one lesson you must take away is to do good.