The Students for Humanity were part of an exciting discussion that was based on a cultural exchange we’ll be doing a Netherlands-based youth activism organisation. The Students were asked, ‘What would you like to know from a dutch youth in Netherlands?’. Then we asked them to write down a key word (from the discussion). Key words were scrambled amongst them and they had to pick a keyword from a pile. The keyword they ended up with was the topic of their blogpost today. Here’s what they had to say on each keyword (issue):

(image under the creative commons by Feuillu)

Nosizwe on ‘Challenge’:

If the question was directed to me the first thing that would come to my mind would be how things don’t always go the way I want them to. Now I would say the one challenge that most of us face would be getting our voices heard especially when people don’t even want to listen to what you have to say. We’re all faced with different challenges as we aren’t raised in the same families and aren’t influenced by the same things and sometimes the decisions we make are the main source of our challenges.

Nontombi on ‘Influence’:

What influences me the most is the music I listen to and how I see things. The music that I listen to mainly is hip-hop, but that’s not the only that genre that influences me in music, there are lots of other genres that I like and listen to. What I like to do is to mix them up and come up with my own style. I also mix the style of clothes according to different genres but make them fit. My mainly focus is on African hip-hop clothing, becoz I believe in loving and supporting my country in every aspect of life. I don’t like being influenced by friends becoz today a friend is saying this and tomorrow is saying that, which doesn’t comply in my lifestyle. So as free as a bird I live my life the way I want to.

Yandisa on ‘Lifestyle’:

Living in South Africa, there are different types of lifestyles. You get the style where you just have to live and not see what is happening around you or you can live your lifestyle to the fullest. Living your life to the fullest is in two ways, you either want to live your life by taking chances by making other people hurt or you can do what I do: live your life and making other people who are around you happier.

Happy Lifestyle is one of the concept that I consider when changing my lifestyle and for me I always make sure that everything that I am going to do and the thing that I have just done that it didn’t end up hurting someone else, and also since I am also human, I do something s without considering and it end up hurting someone. I make sure that it doesn’t hurt someone else again and I make sure that that person which I have done wrong I do something that will make that person to know that I’m really sorry.

Aphiwe on ‘Education’:

In my own opinion and experience, I think education is putting someone’s mind to maximum, it lets your mind go wild and perform at its best. I think education was introduced for two reasons: first to train someone’s mind and secondly to put one’s knowledge potential to maximum . Education is a gift of life no one can take it away from you. Thugs can rob your valuable things such as cell phones and clothes but they forget one thing to rob which is education, they can’t rob you of it – it’s something that you will die with. Education is the key that opens closed doors for everyone education is the key to success.

Nwabisa on ‘Peer Pressure’:

Peer pressure can be a good and a bad thing. I have experienced peer pressure in good manner. Because since I came to COSAT my behavior towards my books changed. I used to kind of not care what was going on in class because I believed I was clever but my grades were actually going south. Then I came to COSAT, the students and school’s environment thought me actual opposite. They’ve shown how to act in a more moral way. So I have experienced peer pressure by wanting to belong in the COSAT community by practicing their values.

Siphe on ‘Improvements’:

Improvement involves both prospective and retrospective reviews. It is aimed at improvement — measuring where you are, and figuring out ways to make things better. It specifically attempts to avoid attributing blame, and to create systems to prevent errors from happening.

Improvement activities can be very helpful in improving how things work. Trying to find where the “defect” in the system is, and figuring out new ways to do things can be challenging but also can be fun. It’s a great opportunity to “think outside the box”. An effective Improvement program can really help make your life better. So take challenges to get better improvements in life for yourself and for the country.

Busie on ‘Dream’:

My dream is for South Africa to be a better place. I wish to see our country becoming a place where everyone is willing to live peacefully with one another regardless of our religious, cultural, economical, sexual or racial differences. I hope that in doing so we will be embracing our stunning diversity at its truest roots. South Africa will be hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup very soon and so we (as South Africans) should be united and prepared to welcome the world.

Bonginkosi on ‘Youth Empowerment’:

Youth empowerment for me possesses that element that actually defines the way teenagers inspire themselves. That creativity plays with my head and it goes around the fact that we have something to share as teenagers. It makes me proud, in this sense, for example, we as the youth we inspire ourselves by writing poems!!!

For me that is youth empowerment in a nutshell, that’s my own definition and opinion. What’s yours?

Sphamandla on ‘Wealth’:

My understanding of wealth, it is the definition of being rich or wealthy the person or a country is.It is also the quality of wellbeing .It also influences power, for instance, if you are wealthy you have that power to control others. It is the great amount of a particular valuable material possession or welfare. Is the quality of having good wealth.

Tash on ‘Obstacles’:

Main obstacle is life but then you need to divide life into different pieces. Poverty is the verse of everyday where people can’t discover their talents because their main focus is poverty. There is also crime that is destroying our leaders and citizens foundations. There are those who are being feared because of the path they took to get out of poverty. But they are just hidden/singing the same song about poverty. But in all that its part of life and just take it as another unpleasant day and make sure it does not repeat itself tomorrow cause life goes on.

Mlamli on ‘Change’:

Change is something that is happening here in South Africa. We as South African are still developing but there is some change happening in our country – especially since we’re going to be hosting the world cup there is a lot of development happening. But we have problems in our education system because most of the youth here don’t make it to university. That is one of the reasons that there isn’t enough change in the country. There are more people who are uneducated than those whore are educated .

Nkosikhona on ‘Pain’:

Pain is painful and undesirable to everyone. Many hate pain. Some even ask questions like “do we really need to go through pain”. To us as South Africans this word means a lot, which I cannot explain in simple terms that will make you feel satisfied. For one to understand ‘pain’, one needs to go through pain. As a South African I can try to give you a brief explanation, but don’t think what you’ll understand is really what it means, only because you need to experience it first.

Pain is part of us. Pain is nearly what we are expecting each and everyday. Please don’t get me wrong! South Africans’ ‘pain’ is different. Through pain we realize our purpose of living. During moments of pain we tend to find our true beings, not what people want us to be. True friends or ‘best friends’ are examined through pain just as gold goes through fire. For one to get what he/she wants to its best, one needs to go through pain for it. What easily comes, easily goes. We love pain, not because of the fact that it is pain, but because of its outcomes or things that come after pain.

Sbuja on ‘Influence’:

Influence is what really affects the way we think as young people of South Africa, some of us live in areas where there is poverty, substance abuse and violence. This affects their point of views and the way they think, do things and the kind of dreams & goals they have as young South Africans. We are also as South Africans influenced by the many opportunities we have and you learn to use them wisely so that you can achieve.

Nanzi on ‘You’:

I’m a 16 year old girl who is very serious about life, very driven and diligent. My motto in life is “Luck has nothing to do with it!” because I believe that everything that happens in my life was meant to happen. I love life and always make sure that I live life to the fullest; a wise woman once said that ‘tomorrow might never come’. I like people who know what they want and actually go for it, and never let anything get in their way. I love reading fantasy books because it’s the only time that I get to escape from reality and not think about my personal issues. I love thinking about the superiority of God. I’m very fascinated by the fact that so many people are willing to change their rebellious ways for HIM. Music, nature, poetry and family inspire me to be, and they actually influence the person that I am. My message for the youth is very simple ” be you!”.

Iran on ‘Cultural Diversity’:

In South Africa we are a diverse country because of the different cultures, people, customs we have. We as South Africans are people that are proud to be called South Africans, you might ask why or what makes us to be different, well that’s simple, the cultures we have make us who and what we are and it determines the choices we make and for the future. Without the cultures we have we wouldn’t know where we come from and in order to know where you going you must first know where you are going.

Yara on ‘Economy’:

My country has just recovered from the huge economical crises and during the time of the ecomical crises everything’s price was raised up everything was expensive back then. This affected us a lot as students and as youth because we don’t work and even that the taxi fair was also raised up because of the petrol consumption that has increased. In these kind of situations as youth we got to flow with the flow of the others meaning that we have nothing that we can do like disagreeing except to make a muchto those who know much than us but that won’t help either.

Have you been inthis kind of a situation or your country and how does that affect you as youth and as a student?

Mfundo on ‘Pride’:

First of all, what does “pride” mean to me as a youth of South Africa? According to my understanding, pride is a feeling of self-respect and personal worth, but most of all it is a right of being unique, a right of being an individual and having a freedom of being who you want to be.