Week 5 was, by far, one of the funnest weeks. On Monday, we had a field day with the kids, meaning that we spent the whole day with them. The day was packed with a girls’ empowerment session, a storytelling and art session across different age ranges, and the main highlight of the day, the State of the Youth Address, SOYA.
SOYA is a parliament style youth forum that invites different speakers, called ministers, to address different topics that affect South African youth, from unemployment, to imagination, to menstrual health, and law and accountability. Huge shout out to Elizabeth for coordinating this!
It was fascinating to see the kids from SOS take up space in the event, as one of them wanted to talk to one of the ministers after, to discuss solutions to the problems he posed during his speech. One of the other kids, who wants to be a lawyer, walked up to one of the invitees and asked if he was a lawyer. He wasn’t, because he’s a CEO, but the fact that they had the courage to walk up to someone and strike a conversation was both bold, and admirable. This event reinforced the need for creating more opportunities like these for the kids. They are already budding with ideas on policy, and law, and medicine among other fields. Additionally, they have the lived experience that can add nuance to discussions on bettering the lives of youth in South Africa and beyond. They just need the platform to voice out their ideas.