UNITED AGAINST HUNGER

Every six seconds, a child dies from hunger-related causes and more than 200 million children suffer from undernutrition, according to the latest United Nations figures. Hunger and poverty is everyone’s problem and needs everyone’s help. Responding properly to the hunger problem requires urgent, resolute and concerted action by all relevant actors and at all levels. It calls for the need for all of us to be united against hunger.

This Friday, 29 October 2010 the Youth of Choice Organization will be reaching out to an impoverished community of France to feed vulnerable children and orphans as part our campaign to contribute towards poverty alleviation as contained in the Millennium Development Goals 2015.

Nelson Mandela had a dream, Martin Luther King had a dream, and Mahatma Gandhi had a dream," she said. Now it is time for all of us to dream big and mobilize an unstoppable movement of humanity to act against the hunger that continues to condemn hundreds of millions of children to unfulfilled lives simply because they have not had access to nutritious food.

Show your support for this worthy cause and your contribution will go a long way towards combating poverty. Get in touch with us at info@youthofchoice.org or 079 5396131

YOC TEAM
"Driving Social Change"

PASSION FOR CHANGE

YOC Change Agents are international and local volunteers who share YOC values, serve as role models for children and youth around the communities we work with, and choose to participate in YOC activities without compensation. YOC team of Change Agents from all sectors of society support our organization. As role models, these volunteers inspire the youth and raise awareness about the Youth of Choice locally and internationally.

Our Change Agents are credible role models, and must have the ability to build essential life skills such as goal setting, leadership, discipline, respect and teamwork. Our Change Agents may speak to the media on behalf of YOC, attend events and fundraisers. Many Change Agents have visited YOC field locations to generate awareness and fundraising opportunities, and to see the effectiveness of our programs first-hand. These visit hopes to generate significant media attention and opportunities to deliver our message to the general public.

More than 30 Change Agents currently represent YOC in programme activities and they volunteer their time for free.

Be inspired and join our Team of Change Agents. Drop us an email at info@youthofchoice.org

YOC TEAM
"Driving Social Change"

GET BUCK ON AIDS - Behaviour Change Initiative

In case you missed it, the local dance crew Predators won the GET BUCK ON AIDS krump competition recently hosted by the Youth of Choice Organization (YOC). They unseated the Spartans dance crew who wer...e the previous winners of this competition. This is a youth to youth led HIV/AIDS awareness related contest which is the project of YOC that uses krump (new form of hip hop dance) to accomplish HIV education, prevention and encouraging testing with an urban flair.

With the continued high rates of HIV infection amongst youth, YOC has found a new and innovative way to reach youth with prevention messages. The project targets young people with a cool X factor from previously disadvantage backgrounds. The project allows young people to be the voice for HIV/AIDS awareness and give them an exciting platform to exercise their creative dance energy and build their self esteem. The project has been themed “ GET BUCK ON AIDS” giving young people a creative, nonviolent outlet to be entertained and educated.

Krump (new form of hip hop dance) is gaining a lot of popularity across the youth and this is heavily influenced by television shows such as Do You Think You Can Dance and movies such as Step Up. The benefit for the project is that the young audiences identifies with the contestant, appreciate the creative approach, and are responsive to the prevention messages, and YOC hopes that young people will 'own' and promote the HIV/AIDS positive messages throughout their social circles.

When asked about the project, Jabulani Myeza the founder of the Youth of Choice Organization he said, “We see this as an effective model of communication and top of mind prevention strategy to encourage behavior change. Our research has indicated that linking popular youth culture and prevention messages will result in the adoption or maintenance of sexually healthy behaviors, the young people who are the creators and the consumers of these nontraditional interventions attest to hip hop power to reach and teach”.

Youth of Choice Organization is a new dynamic youth movement of choice for nurturing young minds, driving social change and building future leaders. Registered as a non profit and anyone wish to support their good causes can contact Mr. Sbonelo Mashimane on 082 6786309 or email info@youthofchoice.org. The next show will be at the Winston Churchill Thearte on 6 November starting at 10 and all interested groups to wishing to participate must contact Cecil Khumalo on 078 7734513 before the closing date, 29 October.