Miriam:

Let’s just talk a bit about the trades-offs between this idea of youth empowerment versus the sort of thing as a facilitator. How do you feel like you act as a lynchpin between your program objectives? Between what you want to do.

Jos:

Yeah, that was the challenge, I think, especially in a video that we made with the peer educators and just trying to gauge what they themselves wanted to do, and I think we had to be honest with ourselves and admit that we did have ulterior motives behind it. We wanted to have some kind of video that could be used as a tool that yes, we could put up in the internet, and could show and all this, and so I think we did push them in a way to take it in that direction. So I think it is challenging when you have funding say that’s dependent on showing that you are being productive and like proof that you are doing this activities with youth etc. and just the general expectation that like doing media training with youth is cool, and like it sounds really good.

So I think just some general hype around it, but at the same time, you really want to balance it in terms of what the youth actually want to do themselves and that’s so, so important. That’s the first thing, I think, and so that was a challenge for us this year. I would like to, in the future, just give them a camera and have no adults involved maybe, or maybe do the training with them on how to use the camera etc., and then send them off on their own and just see what they come up with. Is that what you meant?

Because we all have this idea in our heads, this concept of what youth empowerment is, and yes, we do have program objectives, and we sit down and hash them at meetings, and we plan out what this is, what’s it going to look like, and we have our own ideals and everything. But it never actually shapes up that way when you’re working with human beings, and youth are very self-directed, motivated people.

They’re going to do their own thing, and they’re going to have their own ideas. And so, I think it’s always important to remember that and keep that in mind that they might not really like the direction that you want to take it in, or they might not think that it’s realistic, these concepts or ideals that you’ve come up with for the project. So it’s so important to listen to them and their voice.