I just returned from a three-week trip to Kenya and Rwanda. I had planned to blog throughout, but its not easy getting an internet connection. I visited Lutheran churches in Kenya, went to the YWCA International Women’s Summit in Nairobi, and helped the Lutheran Church of Rwanda plan a youth conference. All throughout, I talked with African youth about what they do in their churches and communities, and what issues they care about.

I met Fred, a social worker with the KELC (Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church), who is passionate about educating young people about HIV and AIDS. He organizes groups that go into the slums and rural areas talk to youth about HIV testing. Sometimes they bring mobile VCT centers. He says if he had more resources to pay for transportation he could go more often and bring more youth with him, and he could pass out educational materials. I am always advocating for youth empowerment and participation and here was a young person doing great work, Fred has so much energy and capability. I wondered, how can we get the church to help him do more to help his fellow youth?

I was impressed by the range of income generating projects youth are part of. Two groups of youth I talked with in Rwanda have made CDs of their choirs (their choirs are amazing!) and used the money to start other projects, like a salon in Kigali. I was amazed that both the groups I talked to (one Presbyterian and one Lutheran) have the same problem /goal. They each visit people in hospitals or who are bedridden, and sometimes they find that they have no money to buy medicine or food or clothes. So then the youth go back to their church and ask for money to help them. But they are tired of always asking the church for help and they want their own fund.

In Rwanda and Kenya the church pews are filled with youth, they are the majority, it is a very young country.

Every four years the YWCA has an International Women’s Summit, where they share information and vote. I recently returned from this meeting in Nairobi, where I met many young women. The YWCA has a commitment to 25% of its delegations under 30 years old, and they have recently amended their constitution to require that 50% of voting delegations be under 30! This is not going to be easy for an organization that is old and has many older members.

At the conference there was a special young women’s pre-meeting. Though there was this high commitment to youth participation, I think there still could have been more young women as the speakers and leaders of workshops, as well as more time for young women to meet each other share experiences. Like what often happens, the youth meeting was “over-programmed” – it served as a space for the key note people deliver separate speeches to the youth audience. It is so much work to bring young people together; when we finally get together we need to talk directly!

But the summit overall was an exciting convergence of ecumenical organizations, and it was nice to be in a faith-based majority at a meeting about women’s rights. The theme “Women and HIV” is crucially important – it cuts across many issues facing women, reproductive rights and access to care and information, poverty, sexual violence and discrimination. As we know young women ages 15-24 are the fastest growing population to be infected with the virus. Good for the YWCA for bringing us together on this theme, I hope the faith communities keep addressing it head on.