Student's Perspective

Laura and I had a meeting this afternoon with a girl named Rifiloe. She's a student at Progress High School in Soweto - the location of our last Youth United event. She's an incredibly sharp girl who wants to figure out a way to get involved with what we're doing and she took some time this afternoon to sit down with us and let us know what the event was like from a student's perspective. She had a lot of great things to say, but two of the points she made really jumped out at me. First of all, she said that around half of the kids didn't understand what was being said. Despite the fact that all classes are taught in English and all textbooks are in English, some students feel that learning English makes them "snobby". Others are not strong in English despite their efforts, so it's hard for them to keep up with a message in real time. So, for the next event, we're looking to find a translator so that kids can hear the message in either Zulu or Sotho (the two main languages around Joburg). The second point she made was about having music and giveaways at the beginning of the event. For us, it makes sense to put that stuff at the beginning because it's designed to be attention-getting and to allow kids to get involved in the program. However, Rifiloe said that once the kids get all riled up or after they receive a giveaway, their attention is actually lost. So, we were trying to get their attention with games, music and giveaways, but she's saying that we're actually setting ourselves up for failure by doing that. We're planning to switch things up for the next event and see if what she's saying will put us on the right track. The next event in Wednesday the 12th, so I'll let you know then.