“Voices of the youth”: a learner presenting at the launch

South Africa’s Department of Basic Education (DBE), in partnership with MIET AFRICA, UNICEF South Africa and the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT), recently launched two youth empowerment initiatives in Pretoria. These two programmes—the Southern African Development Community (SADC) FutureLife-Now! Programme and the Ubuntu Youth Leaders Movement—contribute to the Department’s Care and Support for Teaching and Learning (CSTL) Framework and the SADC Child and Youth Agency Framework (CYAF).

Following a successful first phase (2019–23) implemented in Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, South Africa now joins the second phase of FutureLife-Now! (2023–26), which sees a scale-up of FutureLife-Now! to additional Member States in the SADC Region. For South Africa, FutureLife-Now! contributes to building the human capital of the country’s approximately 22 million young people by empowering them to be responsible, actively engaged citizens who lead responses to 21st century development challenges, specifically those related to health, gender inequality and climate change.

Initially, the DBE will pilot a contextualised FutureLife-Now! package of support in 10 secondary schools, commencing in June this year. Following the pilot, the Department will roll out the tested package across the country.

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Trainees and trainers taking a selfie!

The first phase of FutureLife-Now! is drawing to an end. Phase 2, which will commence in July this year, will build on the youth agency and leadership work commenced in Phase 1. Phase 2 will introduce new and innovative interventions in the 10 schools in Zimbabwe; these will be scaled up over time to the additional 30 schools to be added to the programme. One of the new elements that aims to develop youth leadership for service among young people in our communities is the Ubuntu Youth Leaders’ Programme, run in partnership with Instituto Padre António Vieira (IPAV).

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In Zambia, sexual and reproductive health topics are seldom discussed in family settings. Speaking openly about sexuality and sexual relationships is considered taboo in most Zambian communities. As a result, family members and teachers rarely have conversations on these topics, leading to low levels of knowledge about HIV and certain aspects of sexuality.

With this in mind, the FutureLife-Now! Programme in Zambia held a comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) workshop in April 2023 at David Ramushu Secondary School. The event was attended by 37 stakeholders, ranging from teachers, parents, councillors, nurses and district officials to youth facilitators. Recognising its importance, Ntinga Remnant, the District Education Guidance Coordinator noted that “our culture considers sexual and reproductive health as a taboo and this training should equip teachers and parents with skills and knowledge to solve this conflict between CSE and tradition.”

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Three School Health and Nutrition days are scheduled annually on the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) school calendar (in 2023, these are 3 March, 19 May and 22 September). They are intended to highlight the collaboration and linkages needed between the MoET and MoH as directed by Lesotho’s School Health and Nutrition Policy of 2018, because the promotion of the health of learners in schools is a critical step towards quality achievement in education.

On 3 March, to celebrate this relationship, a School Health and Nutrition Day was conducted by the MoET, in collaboration with Ministry of Health (MoH), and with the support of the FutureLife-Now! Programme. A total of 13 high schools in the Mafeteng district participated, where the FutureLife-Now! Programme is supporting schools.

The district education manager, Mahlompho Shaabe, delivered a word of appreciation, noting that she is indeed thankful to FutureLife-Now! for the support provided. It was her firm belief, she said, that learners would benefit from the health services to be provided that day.

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The following is a departure from our usual news stories. It’s a moving account of inspiration and transformation, written by Lumba Mwale (not her real name), a learner in one of the Zambia FutureLife-Now! schools.

It is often said that your past doesn’t have to determine your future, and this is very true for me. I have transformed from an ugly caterpillar to being a wonderful butterfly that is soaring above the ground. Here is my story.

I am now an 18-year-old girl. I come from a broken home.  My parents divorced when I was 10; after that, everything started going bad. My mother was a pastor and travelled a lot, but after she had a stroke she couldn’t do much anymore.  After she stopped work and my father left, my elder siblings started smoking and drinking, and things deteriorated in our family. Watching my family falling apart and we becoming a dysfunctional family tore me apart: it was something I had never anticipated.

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FutureLife-Now! schools in Zambia are greening their future, and it shows. The 10 schools have embarked on youth-led, climate change projects that include developing the necessary skills learners need to engage in tree-planting and vegetable gardens projects.

One of these schools, Mwembeshi Secondary, has set itself the target of planting 2 500 trees by the year 2025. The FutureLife-Now! Programme is helping to make this a reality by providing materials such as fertilizer, and implements like spades and hoes, irrigation pipes, shade-netting and seedlings. It also provided the school with 250 trees.

Learners at Mwembeshi Secondary School receiving awards for best food gardens and tree-planting.

In 2022, each of the approximately 300 learners in Grades 8, 9 and 10 was given a tree seedling to take care of. The learners pot the trees until they are ready to be transplanted in the ground, provide water and check them for pests. When necessary, they also re-pot the trees if they show signs of stress.

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Agriculture is the most important sector in Malawi’s economy. It employs over 80% of the population and contributes approximately 70% of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. This means that the current price increase of chemical fertilizers has adversely affected a large part of Malawi’s population and has resulted in dire food shortages due to the poor harvests of many subsistence farmers.

Recognising this gap in the economy, and with the support from the FutureLife-Now! Programme, learners from Mbinzi Community Day Secondary School in the Lilongwe District have started producing low-cost and environmentally-friendly composted manure.

Mbinzi Community Day Secondary School learners mixing eco-friendly composted manure

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Lesotho’s Ministries of Education and Training and of Health have long recognized the importance of the linkages between them for aiding young people to access youth-friendly health services. Both have used the former’s Extracurricular Risk Reduction and Avoidance Handbook for Youth to assist learners and out-of-school youth to cope with the challenges they face growing up—such as developing positive relationships and protecting their sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR)—and to improve the situation they find themselves in their communities.

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