Tebogo Suping
Cape Town - When young people are provided with the right capacity and the spaces to be heard, they lead in developing their communities.
We don’t believe young people are apathetic. Young people need to become active participants in the future South Africa, as part of building public, private and community partnerships.
It is very limiting when young people rely on handouts from Government. People don’t want to be saved; they want to be acknowledged.
ACTIVATE! Change Drivers is celebrating its 10th anniversary and a decade of empowering the youth with critical leadership and civic skills to help their communities at grassroots level across South Africa.
Activate has mentored 4 500 young people, called ‘Activators’, from both urban and rural communities, creating South Africa’s largest youth network.
In celebration of its decade of service to SA’s youth, we hosted imbizos in each province to listen to the concerns of its young civic activists in each region. Issues arose such as GBVF, climate change, service delivery, protecting democracy, engaging with municipal and provincial structures, starting their own NPOs to create the change they want to see in their country, and so on.
Capacity
When Activate was conceptualised, it was all about how we move beyond the health issues to developing the capacities of young people and helping them make better decisions for their own lives, not just their health; but for their potential, capacity, purpose, passion and own interests. We believe that if young people know better, they will do better.
We asked the questions: How about focusing on the aspirations of a young person, instead of seeing them as a risk? How about enhancing a young person’s ability to speak for themselves? How do we enable them to open the door to the resources they require?
Remarkably, 39% of Activators own businesses; 44% of Activators are involved in HIV & AIDS programmes and 87% of Activators engage with other youth to support and mentor them through various programmes.
As an organisation, Activate has also contributed significantly to the National Youth Policy.
Identity
We need to break the poverty cycles most young people find themselves in.
We need to get every young person to generate an income, and get the resources to young people where they are; to help them create meaningful work to give back to society.
It goes without saying that South Africa is going through a hard transitional period in its history; and we need to revisit the principles of democracy and unity that hold us together.
We need to build social capital and reignite what has been lost. We need young people to understand public policy and how government and governance works, so they can participate, as well as hold those in power to account.
Our ethos is that if young people are provided with platforms to connect with others who are like-minded, and if they are inspired to work towards the common good and strengthen their abilities and skills set, then they can become active citizens within society who can drive positive social, economic, and political change for the greater good of society.
Young people have such a need to be seen and heard. We do not want to leave any young person behind in this dream of building a better society.
Most importantly, they should become a collective force in society to enhance their individual and collective drive to build a better life for themselves and others, within their communities and in South Africa.
We want South Africa to still believe in the good stories.
Suping is the Executive Director, ACTIVATE! Change Drivers.
Cape Times