Make That Change

Inajame Colleen Ndwana

It all begins with one person, look inside yourself and at what you can do. I believe God brought all of us into this world to make a difference. What are you good at? What change can you bring to your country?

I have realized that as the youth most of just want to take, take and take but never give. Then at the end of the day we complain that the world is not being fair on us. We should consider ourselves as the light bearers, the holders of the torch and at the end of our term we should look back and be proud of ourselves as we hand over the torch to the next generation.


Our continent is ridiculed by poverty, HIV/Aids and lack of employment to name a few. We as the youth unlike the older generation we have a lot of exposure as we travel a lot, we still have fresh minds to think out of the box, we have access to the internet which we can set as the platform to share ideas with the rest of the world. With that kind of exposure we can get ideas from all over and form businesses in our countries where we can create employment for others. Instead all we say is, “well there is no employment in my country, I will go look for greener pastures elsewhere”. Why can’t we form groups, form businesses which will be the source of our income and create employment to our fellow country mates? Because the more we try to escape those kind of problems and find  better lives elsewhere, we still leave our countries in extreme poverty and this might result in bigger companies or wealthy countries not investing in our countries and therefore Africa will remain poor.

Lack of employment also leads the youth into risky activities trying to make money, theft which will end them in jail. Prostitution which leads to unplanned pregnancies and the risk of contracting HIV/Aids. Losing our torch holders will only result in our continent being stuck in the same situation forever and the cycle will continue forever. We can form groups to support those already infected and affected, to educate the others and help them know that being infected is not the end of the world. More so, they can also help others living with the disease to live a normal life and those who haven’t contracted it yet on the dangers of HIV/AIDS. According to UNICEF some 2.7 million people aged 15 to 24 years live with HIV in the eastern and southern part of Africa and in my country 1 in 10 young people are infected. Sometimes we have the thought that as the youth it’s our time to have fun, we ignore the advice that we are given, we party a lot, we have multiple partners, and this is the wasted time that we could be using to make a change to our continent.

Those hours and weeks we spend voting for our favorite music and movies we can just dedicate a day to vote and make that change we have always wanted. I had a chat with one of my colleagues some time back and he said to me, "I do not care about politics, I am fine , I am content so what else do I need?" I told him, "you might be fine and content ,but what about your neighbor, your cousin or your brother? Are they also content? Isn't anyone you know infected or affected by HIV/Aids or unemployment?" We should learn to be selfless, do things for others and not just us. If we do that, we will see our countries prospering and eventually our continent will be free and happy, it might not happen today but eventually it will.’
Now take that mirror, look at yourself and what you can bring to your country to make that change, FREE AFRICA.!!!

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