Four pupils from schools around Durban have been chosen to travel to Berlin in Germany to take part in the Sustainable Development Goals( SDGs) 2030 conference on how to make cities safer.
The conference brings together educators and youth groups to discuss various issues affecting the youth.
The four attend schools in KwaMashu, Ntuzuma and other areas of Durban. Among their input at the conference is the plight of homeless people and rising levels of violence against school teachers by learners.
The pupils have been handpicked by the Christian-based NGO Youth for Christ. This is a bid to enhance their understanding of the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. They set the target of making cities safer for children amongst others.
“We all know of teachers being abused by learners so that’s what we will be discussing and coming with a way forward as to how they can prevent such. It’s actually an agenda for 2030. they will be discussing about the challenges they are having at the moment so that they can come up with a plan of action in terms of making their cities safer,” says Director of Youth For Christ in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpho Ngidi.
Two of the youths traveling to the conference are Makhosi Ngoma and Khulekani Ndlovu. Ndlovu hopes to learn about fund raising.
“As a peer educator the first thing that I want to learn in Germany is how to help people in need living in the street people who do not have homes to live in. I want to learn how to help them in many ways. One of the other ways is that we as South Africans citizens donate money to help them so they can improve their living situation,” says Ngoma.
Ngoma also wants to come back with a better understanding of how to lift homeless people out of poverty.
“I want to learn how they talk or how they approach young peer leaders like me and also want to learn about the strategies that they use to approach and also solve problems that they face there. I also want to learn how they fund -raise for projects because as you know South Africa is a developing country and we are facing many problems which need to be solved financially.”
The youths are expected to return with proposals on how to campaign for safe schools and create trading opportunities for them where they live.
