Voice 1
Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight. I’m Joshua Leo.
Voice 2
And I’m Rebekah Schipper.
Spotlight believes that young people are the future. They will be future leaders. They will be teachers, doctors, lawyers, business people, mothers, and fathers. So, Spotlight likes to encourage young people to be their best. Spotlight likes to challenge young people to help make the world a better place.
Voice 1
So, today’s Spotlight is on four [4] young people who are changing their communities for the better. Their stories can encourage everyone, both young people and adults. Anyone can make a difference in his community.
Voice 2
Spotlight has taken each of the stories today from Unicef’s Voices of Youth website. Unicef is part of the United Nations. Unicef serves children and young people.
Voice 3
“Now we are small, but when we grow up then we can teach our little brothers and sisters, the younger generation, to understand what is good and what is bad.”
Voice 1
This is Shamima from Bangladesh. She is seventeen [17] years old. She teaches people living in her community about safe water. Many people living near Shamima do not have toilets or latrines in their homes. They do not have a clean supply of drinking water. And there is a lot of waste in the river where people collect their water. Many people are sick in Shamima’s community because of the bad water situation. But, Shamima plans to change that.
Voice 2
Shamima visits many homes. She carries with her a simple set of directions and a picture that she made herself. The picture has two sides. Shamima calls one side “good” and the other side “bad.” She shows people her picture and explains what a healthy community looks like. She makes sure each family is drinking safe water from the well. She also teaches them methods to make drinking water safe. She asks if they are using toilets or latrines. She tells them where to throw their waste. And she teaches them the importance of washing their hands before eating or preparing food. Shamima is improving the bad water situation in her community.
Voice 4
“I am the one who has hands and feet and mind. And AIDS is only something that is inside my blood. So it will try to rule the inside. But outside I will be the boss. I will be in control.”
Voice 1
This is Thembi. She is nineteen [19] years old and lives in South Africa. She is very young, but Thembi has AIDS. She is one of the five million [5,000,000] people living with AIDS in South Africa. AIDS is a big problem that affects many young people in South Africa and all over the world.
Voice 2
Unicef’s Voices of Youth asked Thembi to record parts of her life. She agreed. And Unicef made a radio program about Thembi’s experiences. People in many parts of the world heard Thembi’s story.
Voice 1
You see, Thembi wants other young people to know what it is like to have AIDS. She wants to tell them about the risks of having sex without using the protection of a condom.
Voice 2
Thembi has experienced many hard times in the last few years. And she has recorded many of those hard situations. While recording, Thembi tells her father for the first time that she has AIDS. It was a very hard thing for Thembi to do. She also records herself after a time when she was very ill. She says,
Voice 4
“My face was becoming like bones. I could not walk. Everything that was happening I thought would never happen to me. I just wanted to sit home and hide.”
Voice 1
Many people do not understand the AIDS disease. They fear it. And they fear the people who have it. It can be dangerous for people who have AIDS in Thembi’s community. She said,
Voice 4
“People talk. People point. Sometimes if people hear that you have AIDS they will burn your house down, so that you cannot stay there anymore.”
Voice 2
Thembi hopes that other people can learn from her experience with AIDS. She hopes people can remain healthy. And she hopes that more people will understand more about the AIDS disease. She hopes that violence against people with AIDS will stop. Thembi says,
Voice 4
“I think when people hear something that is coming naturally from someone; that is personal. It is better than reading it. It affects people and someone may change his mind.”
Voice 1
Thembi is teaching the world about what it means to live with AIDS.
Voice 5
“We talked with some young people. We asked them questions. Some young girls have been forced to have sex. The rebels are fighting them. So, they have lost their parents. They are living in the camps. They have spent like eighteen [18] years in the camps.”
Voice 2
This is twenty [20] year old Edward and twenty-one [21] year old Stephen. They live in central Uganda. Rebel armies are fighting to the north of them. Many innocent people suffer in northern Uganda. In fact, the rebels sometimes steal children. They force the children to fight in their army. Many of the rebel soldiers force young girls to have sex with them.
Voice 1
To avoid being captured, children often walk many miles a day. They walk to a safe part of town. They sleep there. Then they walk home in the morning. It is a bad situation for the people living in Northern Uganda.
Voice 2
Edward and Stephen visited Northern Uganda. They have experienced the violence and fear. They offer their time to an organization called GEMS, or Girls Education Movement. They encourage the importance of education for girls in Uganda.
Voice 1
Edward and Stephen live in a safer part of Uganda. It is easy for them to forget about the young people in Northern Uganda. It is easy for them to forget the fear. But, they do not want to forget. They want to remember. And they want to share about the problems of Uganda with other people. They want to be the voices for people who have no voice. Edward said,
Voice 5
“It is as if we are two [2] countries within one [1] country. The people in the north are suffering. And the people in other places are enjoying.”
Voice 2
Edward and Stephen care about the suffering of others.
Voice 1
Ending suffering takes courage. The stories we heard today were of four [4] courageous young people. Each of them is trying to end suffering in their community. They realize that there is an unfair balance between those who enjoy much and those who suffer much. Many more people around them are suffering.
Voice 2
We all live in lands where suffering exists. We cannot end suffering alone. But working together we can help to lessen the suffering in our communities. Let today’s stories encourage you.
|