Teen pregnancy, violence and HIV/AIDS are some of the life-threatening problems that face young South Africans.
A non-profit organisation called Dance4Life has been working in 20 schools in KwaZulu-Natal and 10 in the Western Cape to help learners themselves to solve these problems.
‘We target poor and rural schools that don’t have many resources,’ says Dance4life’s Marlijn van Berne. ‘We meet with the school principals and governing bodies and get a commitment from the school to support the programme, and sometimes we even run the programme as part of the school’s life orientation.’
Learners are taken through a 10-week programme where they learn life skills, particularly about sexual health, and advocacy skills.
Learners who take part in the programme commit themselves to taking what they have learnt back into their schools through an advocacy campaign.
But unlike run-of-the-mill life skills programmes, the learners are also coached in dance, drama and singing so that they are able to use entertainment to get their point across when they campaign in their schools.
Ncamsile Sithole and Xolani Manci, Grade Nine students from JG Zuma School in KwaMashu, have completed the course and are now preparing to run a campaign against teen pregnancy at their school.
‘It is a problem at our school. One girl in our grade is already pregnant,’ says 14-year-old Sithole.
‘We are saying that if you are going to be sexually active, use condoms or else abstain.’
Manci says that the best thing about the Dance4life programme is that it has helped him to solve problems.
‘I didn’t know before how to change things that are wrong. They have taught us about negotiation skills and communication and have also helped me to set goals for myself,’ says Manci.
Programme facilitator Sphetho Mkhize says Dance4life gives every learner the space to participate, and that the starting point is self-knowledge.
‘The most important thing is to give the learners the chance to express themselves and to make them aware of the consequences of what they do,’ says Mkhize. ‘We ask why they do the same things when they know they are going to hurt themselves.’
Zigi Mnqayi, also a facilitator, says many young people ‘are lazy to think about the future’.
‘They know about HIV and AIDS, for example, but they think it is not going to happen to them. They just don’t want to think about it.’
Mkhize says peer pressure is ‘dominating young people and killing them’.
‘They comply with what other people do instead of what is according to their own values. We encourage them to develop their own values for a healthy life.’
Dance4life, which operates in 23 countries, is expanding to the Eastern Cape next year. ‘ Health-e News Service.
