Sometimes We Improvise

Twice weekly I travel an hour or so to work with a group of born free young adults in the Valley of 1000 Hills. We work on writing stories and taking photos of their community to tell stories. Born Free-are youth who were educated post apartheid (Bantu) education. From what I understand the assumption  is that their education and life opportunities would be better than prior generations. The expectation is that they will have gainful employment or be able to consistently contribute to their family and local community.

Unemployment is high, the tertiary path-what it takes to get there, application times lines, costs, etc. to education isn't always clear. Although a diploma(degree) is more valuable you can get a job after successfully completing secondary school. The challenge for those who have and even for some of those who've completed college or varsity(university) there aren't enough jobs, but the pressure and expectation for them is still there.

For young people respect of elders is paramount, having their say, well perhaps among peers...The objective of this project is to provide young people with a "voice" for their experiences which ever they choose to tell,  using photos, stories and poems. The youth receive cameras biweekly to take photos of their communities-anything they believe is important. We meet 4-5hours a week at S'Thandokuhle Community Center. Early into our project we couldn't open the gate so we improvised by the side of the road, it worked!