Article from our Technical Coordination Group Member, SAfAIDS
Many of the young people who take part in youth groups like the Youth for Gender Norms Transformation (Y4GT) are eloquent in speaking about to HIV and gender-based violence, but for 16 year-old Somvubu High School student Nomdumo Moyo, the this topic is very broad and she chooses to look at it from a different perspective.
Speaking to SAfAIDS on the sidelines of a meeting at the school, the teen said discrimination was one of the major issues fueling violence among young people in Bubi area.
“When we talk of discrimination, we do not limit it to issues of HIV alone. Discrimination comes in different forms and affects young people negatively. For example, before the Y4GT programme was introduced in Inyathi, some pupils used to discriminate against others based on their family and economic backgrounds and this resulted in the other pupils not performing well during exams,” she said.
Nomdumo explained that with the training that she got, she was able to counsel students so that they stop discriminating against others based on their HIV status or poverty. She also said that on a number of occasions she has referred pupils with major problems to the two teachers who head the programme for further counselling.