Latest news with #youthvoices
Mail & Guardian
7 days ago
- Health
- Mail & Guardian
Dreaming in Color, speaking in truth: Africans are speaking up and this podcast is listening
South Africa is a country where silence often wraps itself around pain like a second skin. Whether because of our past or our present struggles, we've grown up hearing the word gqina , 'be strong,' and soldiering on quietly. At least we used to. In 2025, podcasts have emerged as spaces where South Africans can speak their truths out loud. Local listenership is booming: more than who's listening—female-hosted shows have seen a Among the growing constellation of podcasts showcasing African voices, 'There's something profoundly powerful about hearing young African voices speak their truth with clarity and courage. Africa's youth aren't waiting to lead someday. They're already leading. And the world would do well to listen,' Makumbi says. The fifth season of Dreaming in Color , the next episode of which airs on 24 July 2025, journeys through six African countries, from South Africa to Tunisia, threading together voices that are powerful in their differences and united in purpose. Each episode doesn't just try to tell a single story but rather lead a chorus of lived experience. Mental health is one of the central threads tying these stories together. Across the continent, the stigma around depression and trauma still lingers. Vulnerability is often mistaken for weakness, and naming your pain can feel like an act of rebellion. The podcast creates space for those stories to be shared without shame. In South Africa, where youth depression and suicide rates remain alarmingly high, mental health has become an urgent conversation. A recent episode featuring Kenyan social entrepreneur Tom Osborn, helps move this conversation forward by highlighting the different ways that young Africans approaching the problem. Osborn is leading one of Kenya's most promising mental health interventions, one designed by young people, for young people, and rooted firmly in African ways of thinking. Bridging diasporas and dialects From the heart of the continent to the hustle of the diaspora, the podcast travels far and wide. Conversations move between Johannesburg and London, Dakar and New York, carrying accents, anecdotes and ancestral wisdom across time zones. Among the guests is Farah Mami, a Tunisian impact investor and community builder who's creating spaces where women and artists lead from purpose, not pressure. Raised between Paris and Tunis, she speaks to the tension, and the beauty, of living between cultures. Ore Disu, a Nigerian cultural strategist and museum leader, is reimagining restitution at the Museum of West African Art. She's not just asking what should be returned, but what must be rebuilt, supporting young creatives, reviving artisan practices and using art as a bridge between fragmented histories. In South Africa, visual storyteller and arts leader Lekgetho Makola poses other deep questions: Who gets to frame the African story? And who benefits when it's told a certain way? Through institutions like the Market Photo Workshop and Javett Art Centre, he has created platforms where new narratives are possible. His fellow South African, Nwabisa Mayema advocate for women-led, regenerative business models. Raised in the Eastern Cape, her leadership is deeply grounded in matriarchal wisdom and what she calls 'wild womanhood', not the absence of fear, but the courage to act in spite of it. In her Dreaming in Color episode, she challenges Silicon Valley's obsession with unicorns, advocating instead for 'zebra' businesses: collaborative, community-rooted ventures that prioritise sustainability over scale. Every episode echoes what's already happening on the ground. These conversations honour oral traditions, local languages and the beauty of everyday life. They push back against erasure and remind us that storytelling is alive and very well. Dreaming in Color offers stories that challenge, affirm and inspire. In a world that too often flattens African voices into stereotypes or silence, this series does the opposite: it listens with care and amplifies with respect. The series affirms that our stories, however complex, are worth hearing and worth holding onto. Listen to Dreaming in Color , available on and . Episode 1: Semhar Araia, Eritrean-American activist and CEO founder Episode 2: Leila Ben Gacem, social entrepreneur and general director, Episode 3: Legketho Makola, chief operations officer, Episode 4: Tom Osborn, co-founder and CEO, Episode 5: Nwabisa Mayema, social entrepreneur (South Africa) Episode 6: Ore Disu, founding director, the Institute of the Episode 7: Madji Sock, co-founder and president, Episode 8: Feven Teshaye, founder, Episode 9: Farah Mami, president, Tunisia Chapter of the Episode 10: Tijan Watt, co-founder and managing partner,
BBC News
01-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
'Radical changes to prisons needed to cut reoffending'
A bishop is calling for radical changes to the criminal justice system to reduce reoffending. The Church of England Bishop for Prisons, the Right Reverend Rachel Treweek, believes more community sentences should be used for the "80% of people jailed for non-violent crimes".Bishop Treweek, who is also Bishop of Gloucester, is gathering teenagers' views on how the system should be reformed ahead of a meeting with MPs in December. She said: "I'm never condoning crime but we need to look at the big picture and live somethings radically differently and that's where the voices of young people are going to be so crucial." She is urging 13 to 18 year olds to share their views about the prison system in her online before Christmas, Bishop Treweek will then take a group of young people to Houses of Parliament to speak and present the survey findings to MPs and peers. "We have the highest prison population in western Europe, we have to ask ourselves why," she said."Everything seems to be geared towards the fact our prisons are overcrowded, therefore, the logic goes: 'We need to build more prisons', 'we need to punish people harder'."Yet, when people come out of these very overcrowded prisons, the rate of reoffending is really high."She added that if you can keep people, who are not a danger to the public, in the community, connected with family and friends, their place to live and their job, that is "going to transform our communities".Being "obsessed with punishment" does not change things, and we need a "big holistic look" at the system, she added. "If we want to change people and transform our communities we have to think far more creatively. "If you lock someone up for five, 10, 15 years, but actually you don't have anyway of helping people transform their lives, when they come out, they won't be changed," she said. Bishop Treweek said "creative ideas are coming from young people"."I'm really hopeful that, as they get older and take up positions in society, they will be the ones shaping the future of our criminal justice system," she added.
BBC News
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Teenagers in North West tell filmmaker, 18, of social media pressures
An 18-year-old filmmaker who spoke to teenagers across the north west of England has said many feel they cannot be themselves and have to "put up a front" due to the influence of social Okunola from Moston, Greater Manchester has made a short film filled with the voices of young people across the region, on what it is like to grow up in documentary called On the Brink: Everything All at Once was put together after young people submitted more than sixty video tapes to Mr Okunola reflecting on their lives. He told BBC Radio Manchester there are times he "wishes social media didn't exist", but that he recognises it creates "a lot of opportunities". Read more stories from Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC North West on X.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Youth in Springfield showcase mental health in photo exhibit
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Local youth with the Gandara Center in Springfield use photography to spark conversations about mental health. Why is this attraction billboard on I-91 in Springfield blank? Called 'Rooted in Change, United in Growth,' the youth-led photo exhibit took place at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Springfield. The center invited the public to see powerful visual stories connecting underage gambling, health struggles, and peer pressure. Organizers told 22News that it's more than just an art exhibition, it's a call to action. 'And they are given the opportunity to take photos and captions about messaging in their community, so this is the showcase of the change they want to see in their community, what's happening in their community. It's all about youth voices and they matter,' said Priscilla Martinez-Munoz of the Gandara Center. if you missed the exhibit, you can continue to follow the work of these local young artists on Gandara's Instagram account. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
BBC News
24-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Medway Council surveys children and young people
The views of children and young people living in Medway, Kent, are being sought in a bid to find out what it is like growing up in the Council has opened its latest child friendly survey, which runs until 27 October and is open to anyone aged up to authority said it will use the feedback to help shape its decisions in the first survey, which ran in 2021, received 3,000 responses. The council hopes to reach a higher number in the latest survey, with details on how to take part on its website.
