Amanda Dlamini posts her first Students for Humanity blogpost about HIV testing

Wednesday, 1^st day of the month of December, in the year 2010; I went for an HIV test, something which I never had in mind, because I am a virgin.  They say if you are a virgin why bother testing but you know what they say; never say never.

Here  I was in a clinic in line to get  tested, I was so happy and proud that am doing this; and on the other  hand I was asking myself what it is that am actually doing.  One thing came in my mind: that HIV does not only infect a person by having unprotected sex, you can get it in many different ways. For an example when you are staying with a person who is a victim of this disease and they never open with you about their status then it‘s so easy for you to become its victim too, if blood was transferred somehow.

I was then called into the room, well I was scared, it felt like I was in a room where  people are killed – everyone came out looking scared. I felt like I had lost my mind, I was going crazy and asking God to be with me as I enter that scary room. When I got inside there was a fat lady and the skinny one – it was like I was in a judgement room – like a decision was being made that I was either going to hell or heaven. The lady kept asking me questions that  I had every answer  for and  the moment I told that lady that I am a virgin she looked at me and shook her head. She said, “You’re a virgin!” It’s like she didn’t believe me.  One of the questions  was;  “If you are a virgin, why are you here?”

I then told her it’s not about having unprotected sex. Then she said to me, “But then if you find out that you are HIV positive, and you say that you a virgin, what is it that that you are going to do?”  I told them that I would be shocked for that moment;  but will make sure that I will get treated  while I still have many and stronger soldiers in my body – it’s not like it’s the end of the world.

There are many people who are living with this disease and some of them live longer than those who are not HIV positive. People should accept the fact that this disease is out there, it’s a killer disease and it’s waiting for you to take that wrong step into having unprotected sex or any other kind of recklessness.  People should start taking this killer disease seriously and have one partner that loves them, a partner who will never kill you with this disease.

She then explained how the test goes and I got tested. I kept praying in my heart that I don’t have this disease in my blood. Yeah well, I tested and got the results back saying that I was healthy – just like a new born baby.

On the day I plan to take a step into breaking my virginity, I want to have safe sex with my partner; but first we should both know our status so we can protect each other.

Written by:  Amanda Nhlanhla Dlamini

Check Amanda’s video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8plyzRTmUA

Introducing Amanda – A Digital Native and Student for Humanity based in Joburg.

I am Amanda Nhlanhla Dlamini. I am 16 years old and am my mom’s first daughter and have two siblings – an older brother and a younger sister. I stay with my grandparents in Thembisa (a township on the East Rand of Johannesburg) at Mayibuye Section. I am a student at Boitumelong Secondary school, in grade 11f. This is my first year attending there. I am a teenager who likes exploring.  I started using a computer at the age of 13 when I was in grade eight. Then when I stayed with my mom, every penny I got I would save for internet. When I look at my future I see a good life ahead of me.  I’d like to study journalism, photography or music production.

When the studying seems too hard
And you don’t have the courage
nor the strength to continue
But you still keep on studying
though you can not see your success

And the stress is all over you
You can no longer concerntrate
But you keep on going straight ahead
Somehow you will make it through

When it feels like you are weak
And can not study no more,
And you feel like you are going to run out breathe
Stand up and say,”I believe!”

When your future is on your shoulders
And the walls are on way
You leap and make it over
Through all this you keep the faith

Now is the time to look ahead
And think of the future you can have
And walk your way towards it

And when pressure tries to keep you down
You keep up head
And never lose sight

And when your hope is dying
Stand up and say,”I believe!”

Written by: Sbuja

Umthombo kids with Razia Dawjee (Umthombo facilitator)

Sbuja tells us about his experience at the Umthombo Wesizwe Children’s Project graduation event….

Saturday, 23 October 2010 was a great day of learning. I learnt the power of unity does exist but it is only strong between children.

It is very easy for children to work together and ignore their difference and focus on their similarities. There were children from different backgrounds, and I promise you that you could not be able to tell that the children were so different because they had the innocent spirit of having fun.

I have learnt from this day that when you really want to fit into a group of people, you will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. For example: there was an German-English boy, called Luca; he was trying to do gum-boots dance. The other guys gave him a hard time by excluding him from the group initially but he kept on trying and trying. Finally he was accepted and at the end of the day he got most of the moves and it was a big success for him. This taught me that at first we may not like each other but in the end there are things that will bring us together.

I also learnt that children are quite strong spirited, they will always try to give all their best at what they do. Give them a task and they will gladly do it with ease, they will complain at first but that is only a child-like thing; they will always come around and after that they will still ask for more fun.

I learnt that when you want to engage with a group of people, you must have different levels of thinking (for example: speaking to an adult and a child require different ways of thinking). You must be able to switch between these levels of thinking and in this case a young mind was needed, talk on the level of the child. This is a lot of fun and you should try it sometime.

I learnt a lot and it would take a whole day to tell you all about it, thank you to all the Umthombo Wesizwe kids that allowed us to experience the spirit of cultural diversity with them!! Read more about this initiative here: http://www.uwfund.org

Sjuba

They took my personality
They took my hope and left me to despair
They took my strength and left me helpless
and powerless
They took everything and left me with nothing
They thought I was blind.

I went from hero to zero
without my power I really despaired
I was in the dark for a long time
I almost believed that I was blind
but something kept me going
Although they that I was blind.

God, my almighty Lord, brought light in my life
He raised me high above all odd
When the time is right I will take my revenge
I will bring back what is mine
It was then when I started to believe that
Life is a journey to the bright future
Life is a surprise and to live life like the is no tomorrow
I can forgive them all but it will take my life to forget what they did
They thought I was blind
to their surprise,

I was actually blinking.

by Mfundo Nomnabo

We promise we’ll be back during the holidays.

In the meantime, please see the work we did with the wonderful USC Annenberg School for Communications in Southern California. The project was called ”What does Democracy Mean to You?”, we had a lot to share.

Best thing of all is that we got some Flip handycams to use for future projects and got to learn how to use Soundslides software to create our wonderful projects. Look out for more soon.

Sphamandla from Students for Humanity with Samantha from USC

Thanks for your understanding.

Love,

Students for Humanity

Her sharing with such a beautiful story about her background was very inspiring to the group. We usually see the premier on T.V debating about social issues, often with ANC, and think “She’s fighting for power…”  And today we got the opportunity to see the leader through different eyes, and not through those of the media.

We learnt that being a leader takes enormous courage and perseverance. It was a very powerful message she delivered to the group.

It is unbelievable that an important figure like Premier Helen Zille would use up her time to come and visit a small group like Students for Humanity. Prioritising is an important characteristic of a leader and Premier Helen Zille surely knows how to. This was a once in a life time opportunity and we feel very privileged.

Written by: Busisiwe Mashele

She wins herself a laptop to write more stories! We wish her all the best in penning her journey to healing and being a voice of hope to her peers.

and YOU can decide who:

Leave a comment to this post  – with your name and the country you are from -  and let us know what you think which story should win!!

—–

STORY 01: How we became..

(Written by Bulana) >> Read it here

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STORY 02: Life is a journey to the bright future

(Written by Mfundo) >> Read it here

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STORY 03: The pleasure of Self-mutilation

(Written by Nanzi) >> Read it here

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STORY 04: Absence of fatherhood

(Written by Odwa) >> Read it here

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STORY 05: The feeling of being lonely

(Written by Kabelo) >> Read it here

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STORY 06: If life were a cartoon

(Written by Nelson) >> Read it here

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STORY 07: Robbed off..

(Written by Zikhona) >> Read it here

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STORY 08: No longer!

(Written by Sbuja) >> Read it here

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STORY 09: One of “them”

(Written by Themby) >> Read it here

I would prefer to commence with giving you all the positive factors that somehow developed the unique and courageous person I am. I would also like to outline the negative factors which I believe that have also played a major role in building my character. I will also mention the likes and dislike which you might find interesting.

Zoom in on your global map and you’ll find in Africa a well known sunny country called South Africa, further down you’ll find a big city called Cape Town. I live in a small region in Cape Town called Khayelitsha. Every month, week, or day is filled with entirely new experiences for mostly the young stars like me who love touring Khayelitsha.

Kindly allow me to take you on an imaginary tour around Khayelitsha. The first thing that forcefully grabs everyone‘s attention is the unity among the people of Khayelitsha. You’ll hear people screaming, laughing and some shouting for joy. Happiness is seen in every child’s face. Most parents may be single but I assure you they fully show their children love that even covers the role of an absent father. They are always helped by the whole community. A parent takes the neighbour‘s child as his or her own. The community churches also play a major role in sustaining the already existing unity. Sunday mornings are dedicated to teaching the children bible verses and the afternoons are for church that includes all ages. Schools, schools, schools, to me are just the most important places around, although I don’t really like school work, but true friends are made there. They keep you busy doing good things rather than sitting in the street planning some thinking about bad things.

The above are some things that keep us away from doing wrong things at a young age, but when we reach teenage stage there are huge changes taking place. The world appears as new and up for grabs. At that age you’ll see most of the teenagers starting to form small groups. In these groups they come up with all negative things that would make them more popular. Few of them join the groups because of being in need of money to sustain themselves. But most of the teenagers join because of peer pressure. Now you’ll find touring at night very different and scary. You’ll see big mobs running around trying to make the whole community small. But some of them do realise that this is just a waste of time although it is joyful because they become feared in the whole community and get a chance to even use guns, drive expensive cars and smoke all kinds of drugs just for them to feel high.

For some us who had managed or luckily escaped that kind of life, the new life is amazing every day. We live lives that the whole society prefers. We like playing soccer a lot and we often have little tournaments on Saturdays among our small local teams. We attend church every Sunday and go for bible studies on Thursdays. I personally like listening to African music and some hip-hop, but you’ll often find me listening to reggae because it some how connects me to a world which I do not know that is full of joy. Some of my friends like local music that they make themselves. They send good messages to the community and mostly to the lost youth. Every afternoon we attend a community group that bring good to the whole community. Our group is called DCYM (Delegate Children and Youth Movement). We help old people in our community with washing, groceries and painting. At school I attend good special projects like this Students for humanity project.

Believe it or not but life is really a journey to the bright future. That is my description of life from my experiences and with out them I would not be where I am today and I wouldn’t have made the decisions that I made during the process of living. Each and everyday is important in my life and I try by all means to make an effort to achieve something in my life. One wise man had once said to me, “Live life to the fullest and never put your problems aside for tomorrow because you will never know what the next day holds for you.. or something worse, what if tomorrow might never come for you? Would you like to live in regrets and sorrow for rest of your life? Or would you stand up for yourself and be a man? Think twice before you do anything”  Those words left me with something to think about for the rest of my life.

From my observation through out the years I found that people describe life according to their experiences in it. I have always believed that life is a journey nothing more, nothing less. We all have to walk through this path and we will meet obstacles, challenges and sometimes we have to climb up some mountains and get sweaty to achieve our goals and ambitions. Many give up in early stages of life because they are not so focused or they live under a polluted atmosphere, with negative people. To deal with death of a friend, classmate, boyfriend or girlfriend is not an easy task to live with in this universe we live in. Because those people are who we love and trust mostly in our childhood and teenage life because they understand us better than any adult.

Teenage life is very enjoyable, fun and the most risky stage of our lives. In our life-path I would compare it with a river. Many do not reach the other side of the river,  some drown on shore, without any action while others just choose to flow with it. This is a very crucial stage of our lives. Girls lose their virginity, get pregnant at a very early age while boys are involve in crime, drugs, violance and manymore. Both girls and boys get involved in relationships and that is the flow with a river. Just letting life flow with them. As I said many do not reach the other side of the river, that is, they do not get through thier teenage life clean, having goals in life or knowing what to do with their lives.

In life it is very challenging and difficult to get what one wants, but like I said before it is a journey to the bright future and we have to strive for our ambitions. As one author said, “Never give up. Never ever give up”. Let’s all go there and achieve those goals. With or without support we will succeed. This was meant to be and I have a strong belief that every one has a mission on Earth. Lets accomplish our missions. I believe in you. That you can.