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South African youths visited
Pueblo's Keating Education Center.
By PETER ROPER
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
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CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/JOHN
JAQUES
Salatiso Gunguluzi, 18, a student at Kensington
High School, in Cape Town, South Africa, visits
with Keating Learning Center students on Tuesday. |
Bring together 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates and
thousands of teenagers from around the world and
it is hard to resist the idea that the world could
become a more peaceful and just place.
"The strongest message to me was that one
person can make a difference," said Bathanda
Memela, a 19-year-old University of Western Cape
student from South Africa. "Change starts
with yourself."
Memela was one of 14 South African students and
adult mentors who visited Pueblo on Tuesday after
an inspiring weekend at the 10th annual PeaceJam
in Denver - an international gathering of students
from 31 countries who came to hear, and be inspired,
by 10 Nobel laureates including South African
Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
In Denver, the South African group met a five-student
delegation from the Keating Learning Center and
friendship broke out. As a result, the South Africans
came to Pueblo for a quick overnight visit - including
a tour of Keating - before they head home on Thursday.
PeaceJam, based in Colorado, has the hugely ambitious
goal of motivating young people around the world
to work for better understanding, social justice,
clean food and water and the other essentials
of a decent life - the sort of work that brings
Nobel laureates to their side.
"It was a little overwhelming," said
Ali Divelbiss, a sophomore at Keating. "To
get a chance to ask questions and talk with people
like Desmond Tutu? That was amazing."
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| Akhona Mali, 15, also
of Cape Town, South Africa, visited Pueblo
youths who his group met at the PeaceJam gathering
in Denver this past weekend. |
Ed Montour, a local PeaceJam coordinator for the
past 10 years, said the students come to the conference
to learn about activism from people who have faced
adversity in their home countries. The students
bring project ideas to work sessions with the laureates,
meet like-minded young people from around the world
and return home energized for the work ahead.
Standford Jarvis, a high school teacher in Capetown,
said the South African students are going back
to their schools to focus on "gangsterism"
and illegal drugs - issues that most Americans
would recognize as well.
"Right now, the biggest drug problem we
have is something called ‘tik,’ ”
explained Patience Lunika, one of the adult mentors.
"It's a methamphetamine that is very bad."
The Keating students last year worked with Rudy
Balles, a former Puebloan who is now a national
trainer for PeaceJam out of its Denver office.
Their focus was on confronting racism and discrimination.
Balles led by example, the students agreed, having
been a former gang member who decided to focus
his energy into activism instead.
"The best part of the conference was seeing
Rudy's reaction when we were at the conference,"
said Emilio Giroux, an 11th-grader at Keating.
"Some of us used to be in gangs too, but
he got us started in PeaceJam."
Shannara Johnson, a 10th-grader, said the weekend
in Denver was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
"Where else are you going to be around so
many famous people like the Dalai Lama?"
she said frankly. "At first you wonder what
you're doing there, and then you realize it's
people like us who will make the changes in the
world."
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