FLN Newsletter 15

Sharing knowledge enriches the receiver but costs the provider nothing.

FutureLife-Now! is a Southern African Development Community (SADC) initiative currently being implemented in six Member States. Now in Phase 2, its overall goal is to promote the development of empowered young people to lead responses to pressing 21st century development challenges, in particular those related to sexual reproductive health and rights, gender and climate change. One of the key strategies it adopts is “knowledge development”, whereby all Member States can share and exchange best practices and lessons learnt, thereby strengthening regional cooperation and coordination.

The annual Care and Support for Teaching and Learning (CSTL) and FutureLife-Now! sharing meeting has become a key activity where knowledge is exchanged, and this year was no different. From 26 to 29 February, 112 delegates—including government officials from all SADC Member States, representatives from UN agencies and other partners—gathered at the Premier Hotel in Umhlanga in Durban,

FutureLife-Now! contributes to the development of healthy and empowered young people who can lead responses to 21st century challenges, including those related to health and education. The programme achieves this through innovative—and sometimes fun—activities, such as competitions and quizzes. In February and March this year, FutureLife-Now! Malawi ran three interschool health quizzes in six of the programme schools: Likuni Girls Secondary vs Lilongwe Girls Secondary, Bzyanzi Secondary vs Madisi Secondary, and Katsekaminga Community Day vs Mchisu Community Day.

While the focus was on promoting sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), HIV&AIDS information and mental health—crucial for preventing new HIV infections and for addressing life challenges—another purpose was to promote interactions among students, allowing them to engage and share SRHR and HIV information in a familiar and fun setting. During the quizzes, members of the competing teams and students in the audience engaged in thought-provoking discussions on wide-ranging topics such as antiretroviral treatment and adherence,

HIV&AIDS—together with issues such as poverty, early and unintended pregnancies and even natural disasters—continues to be a serious threat to young people (especially girls and young women) attaining their full potential, and negatively impacts their mental health and wellbeing. Closely interconnected challenges such as these are exacerbated by the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV), and even more so when it is perpetrated in schools, which are supposed to be places where children’s fundamental rights, including the right to education and safety, are protected. School-related GBV comes in different forms—physical, sexual and psychological—and is rooted in harmful gender norms and stereotypes that are present, to some extent, in all societies around the world. With this in mind, in 2023 FutureLife-Now! in Lesotho partnered with UNESCO to support the Ministry of Education and Training to train teachers in pilot schools on UNESCO’s Connect with Respect: Preventing gender-based violence in schools Project.

The use of “peer educators” to implement FutureLife-Now! is an important feature of the programme in Zimbabwe, Phase 2 of which is now full steam ahead. To ensure that they are fully equipped to maximize programme impact, in May this year the country team organized two dynamic training sessions for nearly 100 educators from 37 schools—the first at the Nashville High School in the Southern Region, and the second at the Ambassador Hotel in the Northern Region.

Going beyond typical training, the sessions aimed to empower the educators and to foster connection between them. Discussions included a diverse range of topics, from HIV&AIDS prevention, healthy relationships, and the prevention of substance abuse by adolescents, to programme delivery. A shared sense of purpose among the participants, and a desire to make a lasting difference in their communities, energized the collaborative exchange of ideas and best practices.

Chewe Shonga (22) has grappled with cerebral palsy for most of his life, yet he refuses to let his condition define him. As a learner at the Kabulonga Boys Secondary School in Lusaka, Zambia, he came into contact with FutureLife-Now!, which has allowed him to showcase his extraordinary talents in arts and crafts, particularly in bracelet-making. His journey epitomizes resilience and determination, fuelled by the empowering support he receives from the programme.

Before Kabulonga High joined the FutureLife-Now! Programme, Chewe faced significant barriers, partly due to a lack of peer support. But through the programme, he discovered a welcoming community that embraced his creativity and provided him with a platform to express himself freely. Through the programme’s promotion of youth-friendly spaces and the personalized support he received from the youth facilitator, Chewe has been empowered to share his art confidently, while also becoming an advocate for disability rights.