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August 1, 2009
Vol. 51
No. 8

Youth Voices from Around the World

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Young people observe the world around them, asking questions and thinking of ways to make their communities healthier, safer, and stronger. If adults will listen to youth, support them, and provide them with the necessary tools for expressing themselves, young people can develop as leaders within their communities.
In the article "If It Takes a Village to Raise a Child, How Many Children Does It Take to Raise the Village?" in the Fall 2005 issue of CYD Journal, Harry Wilson says involving students in the life of their community helps them to be better citizens. "When youth are civically engaged they gain a sense that what they do matters, that they belong in their community, and their community belongs to them," he writes. "They see themselves in the everyday life of the village, and they feel that they can make a difference—that their actions matter to others."
Several innovative schools, community groups, nongovernmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations work with young people, especially the most disadvantaged youth in urban and rural areas around the world who previously have been silenced by their marginalized status in the global community. For these young people, who may have never used a computer or a digital camera or heard the sound of their recorded voices, youth engagement projects can be truly transformative.

What Kids Can Do

What Kids Can Do (WKCD), a Providence, R.I.-based nonprofit organization, celebrates young people's intelligence and abilities. In 2005, when Barbara Cervone, a founder of WKCD, went to Kambi ya Simba, a small village in Tanzania, she was so inspired by the students she met from Awet Secondary School that she returned to help them research and write the bookIn Our Village, Kambi ya Simba Through the Eyes of Its Youth.
For two intense weeks, Cervone collaborated with a group of 10 students ranging in age from 16 to 18, 3 teachers, and her teenage son. The students wrote down everything they knew about 20 topics relating to life in the village, social customs and traditions, agriculture, and more. Then, they enthusiastically conducted interviews with their peers, family members, and adults within the community. They also took lots of photographs—despite never having seen a picture before—to accompany their essays.
Sometimes, just learning to make meaning of traditions, social practices, and community challenges is the perfect place to start innovating. Once children begin thinking critically about things that have always gone unquestioned, they form new questions. In the book, the students discuss topics such as the cultural significance of their customary greetings and handshakes; the decline of prices for agricultural products such as wheat, maize, and papayas, which make up half of Tanzania's gross domestic product; the value of good friends; unity within the community, and the importance of familial ties.
Since the publication of In Our Village, WKCD notes that students around the world have developed similar documentary projects illustrating life in their local communities. The students in Kambi ya Simba did not realize the impact their words and photographs could have in the global classroom. "It astounds us—and we remain unconvinced—that anyone outside of our village would care about our stories and our challenges," they write. "In a sense that goes beyond this phrase, your interest means the world to us. To us, it means 'the world.'"

Documenting Globalization

In June 2006, WKCD collaborated with other youth media organizations to organizeAdobe Youth Voices (AYV), sponsored by Adobe Systems Incorporated. In a yearlong AYV project, WKCD worked with students in at the Noida Public Senior Secondary School in Noida, India (outside Delhi). The students learned how to use digital cameras and took, from which they selected several for a multimedia slide show including music and English narration.
For the accompanyinginterview project, Noida students spoke to adults with various occupations, ranging from a housewife to a corporate lawyer, about the effects of globalization on their lives, careers, customs, and families. They recorded all of their interviews, transcribed them in Hindi, and translated them into English.
"I have learned many things about globalisation, such as globalisation is a sharing of information across the borders," writes student Ashish Dhiman. "This project gave me a chance to interact with different types of people. It also gave me knowledge about how one can gather information about any topic."
In evaluating their process, the students said the project helped them to improve their communication skills, giving them confidence in their abilities as learners.

Pakistani Youth Voices

In partnership with the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN), AYV is also using itsonline Collaboration Centreto help youth in Pakistan make a series of short videos about the issues affecting young people in their communities.
In "Young Hopes," one video from the series, the young narrator explains, "The hopes within the hearts of our future generation are also their wills—their wills to generate substantial significance in their lives." The video shows young children exclaiming to the camera, "I want to learn!" and "I want to go to school!" The video addresses the challenges facing government-run schools, such as a lack of resources, poor student–teacher ratios (48 students to 1 teacher), and often-unfavorable social attitudes towards education.
Youth from the City School, PAF Chapter, in Karachi created another video, "Street Food—A Wake Up Call," which warns youth of the dangers of eating unhealthy, unsanitary junk food sold by street vendors. The students use their investigative journalism skills to document the loads of syrup and grease that go into the snacks and the filthy hands, utensils, water, and equipment used to prepare them. "There are kids who have no choice!" the captions say. "But, you do! It's time to give ourselves a wake up call! Remember, you are what you eat!"
These young people truly understand the importance of the whole child philosophy. For them, it's not just a theory. They want to be healthy; they desire to be educated, engaged, and challenged; they need to feel safe and supported.

Building Youth Pride

UNICEF's Voices of Youth also provides a platform for youth media projects. A recent installment of theVoices of Youth Digital Diariesseries includes excerpts of testimony given by indigenous children at the Seventh Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in April at the United Nations.
A young woman from Taiwan told the convention of her organization's efforts to instill pride in tribal youth. "The most important thing we're trying to do is have young [people] to be proud of themselves. It's a big problem if they cannot be proud of themselves because they won't understand they really have some rights," she says. "We have a group of youth, and we go back to the community. We have our tribal workshops. We gather the people, we tell them the traditional knowledge, the culture, the rituals, the legends, and also what is going on in the world."
In the most isolated provinces as well as the most connected cities, youth are screaming to be heard. They want to learn about how their communities work so that they can grow as effective leaders.

Willona M. Sloan is a freelance writer and former ASCD editor.

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