Humairah Jassat left school last year, lives in Gauteng, South Africa and is now studying journalism at Varsity college. She also happens to be one of the most inspiring young people I have ever met. She grew up in what she describes as a “nice, Muslim family”. She never lacked for anything, but began to realise,…
It is a beautiful sunny afternoon in Cape Town. This morning I was able to visit the top of Table Mountain. The views from there, on a clear day like today, are amazing. The city stretches out beneath you to the bay. The sea shimmers. And Robben Island sits in the middle of the water,…
I fell in love with Uganda about twenty years ago. It was the first country in Africa I visited. I was setting up a partnership between the Scouts of the UK, the Uganda Scouts and Unicef that was going to focus on peer education, child immunisation and HIV awareness. Visiting this country I knew almost…
If you are involved in Scouting, you may know of the team of Ugandan Scouts who decided to ride their bicycles from Kampala to Rinkaby in Sweden last summer, as their way of getting to the 22nd World Scout Jamboree. What you may not know is that the team undertook the challenge in order to…
There is much talk in the UK at the moment (and has been since the last election) about the creation of a National Citizenship Service for young people. Kenya got there first, nearly 50 years ago. Kenya’s National Youth Service was established on September 1st 1964, through an Act of Parliament. It was charged with…
I have driven past the gates of Kenyatta University on several occasions in the past few years, usually as I crawled along in a traffic jam on my way to Nyeri. Today, however, I got the opportunity to go through them to visit the campus and its students. I have to confess that, as…
The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award is known as the President’s Award in Kenya, or the PA for short. Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit two very different schools where the Award is being run. Both were girls schools; both were full of engaged and enthusiastic young women. But they were as different as…
Feeling fatter and rather less fit than I should be, I have allowed myself to be persuaded to take part in the Blenheim Triathlon in June. I’ll be competing as a member of the LeaderBoard – a team of Chief Executives from around the UK who have committed to support Sport Relief 2012. I have…
“I am from a rural township in South Africa and I have been playing cricket for 4 years. Here I am standing in front of you at Lords. It is an honour beyond my biggest dreams.” In 2007, a fourteen-year-old schoolboy was working for his Bronze Award. As part of his service to the…
I was speaking to a friend in Russia recently about youth work. “There’s something about you Westerners that puzzles me,” she said, “What is it with your fixation on volunteering? Why don’t you expect to receive proper payment for all the time you spend working with young people? ” It’s an interesting question. I can’t…