Medyouth update.

Medyouth Update!

Hi, my name is Gamu. I’m currently in my fourth year of study at King’s college London. I have been involved in Project Zimbabwe  (PZ) since I started uni. Last year (2011) I was Medyouth Coordinator and had the opportunity to travel with a team to Zimbabwe (details of this trip can be found on the previous blog posts). However I wanted to update the blog by giving an update of the Medyouth project and the progress we’ve made a year later.

For those who are new to the project:

Giving a brief overview of Medyouth, for those who are new to the project:

-          ‘Medyouth is a sub-project of Project Zimbabwe which involves a group of students travelling from the UK and meeting students in Zimbabwe to work on the PZ aims of supporting the education of students and benefiting the local community of the students.’

 Over the past few years, this has become more specifically the delivering of healthcare textbooks, and more excitingly, outreaching into schools. The Medyouth programme vision is to see role model young people go into Zimbabwean secondary schools and give life skills sessions, topics ranging from puberty, relationships, health awareness and career advice. We hope to have a part in positively influencing the young people of Zimbabwe. This programme also allows young adults in Zimbabwe to give back to the Zimbabwean community in hope to contribute to a great future for Zimbabwe.

In 2012 the UK team, along with Patty (Medyouth Coordinator Zimbabwe), was able to get permission from the Ministry of Education Bulawayo to get the programme up and running in Bulawayo Schools. The aim is to have junior doctors and university students throughout the year involved in regular end-of term outreach sessions in various schools around the city. Hopefully 2013, a UK team will be able to join this group of students and get a valuable cultural experience working with young people in Zimbabwe. Aims for 2013 involve getting the Bulawayo Programme more established with additional sessions and also getting the Medyouth programme into schools around Harare.

So this summer the UK team went into schools and interacted with schoolchildren, answering the many questions young people had about relationships, puberty and health. Exciting sessions where held and what I enjoyed best were the ice-breaker games! It was great to see everyone – volunteers and children – break out of their shell, and feel comfortable to be real around eachother and ask those burning questions. Of course being back Zimbabwe was awesome for me, the sunshine, landscape and happy familiar faces but what was best were the friendships built. (could put pictures here)

We were also able to deliver donated textbooks to the new Mpilo Hospital Library opening soon and we hope to deliver more throughout the year!

Whether you are reading this blogpost from Zimbabwe or UK please get in touch. If you are interested in getting involved in this exciting project, you can email Medyouth@googlemail.com to get in touch with me. Or if you would like to support the project please feel free to donate through our blog page: link can be found to the right of the page.