When I was six years old, my mother died of HIV but I was never told what happened to her. Even today, talking about safe sex and HIV in my country, Botswana, remains taboo. As a young female activist at university, I was desperate to change the way young people view, and talk about, HIV/AIDS. During one of my courses, I read a research paper about a class on “sugar daddies” in Kenya that had reduced teenage pregnancy by 28%! This resonated with me as it shows that openly discussing issues a...

I almost couldn't find anything to say, because we are in a place where it feels like there is nothing one can say. It feels like we are almost at the end of our humanity.But I have to say something, we have to say something. Being human is all we have, and we cannot let it end. We cannot let it die.So here it goes...On 4th April 2017, the Syrian City of Idlib was targeted by a 'chemical attack', 58 people were killed according to BBC. Later the number was given as "more than 80", according to A...

I’ve always wondered how it would feel to be surrounded by complete silence. Not the kind that you would find on earth. But the kind of silence that is so real and solid that it feels like an actual place, and not just a lack of sound. The kind of place where you wouldn’t even hear the sound of your own breath or of your own heartbeat. The kind where your voice, or the loudest of your screams, would be engulfed by the darkness, and lost in the shadows. The kind of silence that would show you...

When my eyes grow old I hope they don't see the same world.I hope I only have memories of how this world is today.And I hope to change my life before it's too late.I know I'm young now, but I won't be forever, and time is everything.Maybe I'll care less what people think of me.I wish to have more knowledge then I have ever had before.Being upset for not being able to love myself and be happy.Not trying so hard to please everyone.I'll wish I would have followed my heart instead of my mind and gon...

Farmers in India look at the sky, and wonder why the monsoon has grown weaker and weaker over the years, now getting 14% less of the once bountiful rainfall. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) names climate change as the key suspect in the country’s vanishing underground water.The Great Barrier Reef is bleaching, losing its biodiversity, and slowly disappearing. Scientists from the Australian Research Council even said that the world’s largest coral reef system is already in the termin...

I'm an extremely introverted person. I just can't imagine myself talking openly to others about myself and my problems. I'm shy and those situations make me uncomfortable. Yes, I should work on it. Yes, I should start counting on others so that I don't face problems alone. Yes, I know what I should do. But I need time to start changing a little bit who I am. I can't force it.Hard times arrived and I couldn't talk to anyone about what was happening inside my head. Also, no one asked. Thoughts sta...

U-Report is a SMS mobile technology tool developed by UNICEF to empower youth to have a voice on the social and economic issues affecting their communities. Through free SMS participants, called U-Reporters, are able to respond to weekly polls and report issues, amplifying their voices at the local, regional and national levels of government.Through working in partnership with Zimbabwe Youth Council our lead implementing partner, U-Report expands young people’s representation in social and pol...

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. -Albert Einstein On the early morning of Tuesday April 4 2017, several attacks with chemical weapons occurred in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria. A chemical weapon is any toxic chemical, or a precursor, that is used to cause death, injury, temporal incapacitation or irritation. This was followed by the bombing of a hospital where persons were being treated. These actions took away 72 lives, many of them being children. Doctor...