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Young people’s awareness of poverty in Africa: Getting off the starting block!

Young people’s awareness of poverty in Africa: Getting off the starting block!. Deano Bentley and Leanne Gamble. Why we wanted to do this research. We feel really strongly about the situation in Africa

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Young people’s awareness of poverty in Africa: Getting off the starting block!

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  1. Young people’s awareness of poverty in Africa: Getting off the starting block! Deano Bentley and Leanne Gamble

  2. Why we wanted to do this research • We feel really strongly about the situation in Africa • We had a hypothesis that most young people of our age don’t have a clue about what is really going on in Africa • Especially about the situation with third world debt • It was coming up to Comic Relief time so we thought the timing was very appropriate

  3. Our research plan • We wanted to find out whether our hypothesis was right • We did a focus group interview and then 5 further individual interviews with people aged between 15 and 18 from our youth centre. We got data from 11 people altogether • This was only a small study but we felt that a youth group in a youth centre is very representative of average young people so a good place to test our theory • There were 3 parts to our research method

  4. Interviews Part One • We asked some basic questions first to find out views and opinions: e.g. • What do you think about Comic Relief? • Do you know what it’s all about? • We have Comic Relief every 2 years – what do you think about this?

  5. What this told us…. • From these first questions we found out that: • Young people of our age knew ‘a bit’ about poverty in Africa • BUT they knew very little about the extent of this • Or the mass of the debt!

  6. Interviews Part Two • Then we paused the interviews and explained to them what third world debt was and read to them some facts we had searched on the Internet such as: • Africa pays £7,790,386,663 per year in debt repayments!! • 32 of the most debt-distressed countries in the world are in Africa • Aids is devastating the country but there is no money for medical help

  7. How it all started • In the 1970s America raised the price of oil and poorer countries couldn’t pay the higher prices • So, countries like America and Europe lent them money to buy the oil they needed to develop their countries • Africa is still struggling to pay the interestfrom these loans from 30 years ago!!!

  8. Comic Relief • Despite everybody’s efforts at Comic Relief every other year and the large amounts of money raised – it is a drop in the ocean compared to over 7 billion debt repayment that is due year on year !!!!

  9. Interviews Part Three • Once they had this new information we asked them a new set of questions: • What do you think about poverty in africa now? • What do you think young people can do about this? • Do you think most young people of your age understand about african debt? • Do you think banks should wipe out these debts? • Do you think governments should intervene? • Would you be prepared to pay an extra 3p on a bar of chocolate if you knew that a fair price had been paid for the african cocoa beans?

  10. What this told us • When young people were given the information – their views changed about poverty in Africa … there was • Surprise: ‘I’d no idea the debt was so big’ • Shock: ‘young people just think it’s a small problem that will get sorted quick, like getting them water, I don’t think they understand about the debt’ • Anger: ‘we’re told about the aids problem in Africa so why aren’t we told about this debt thing’ • Distress:‘I don’t think young people realise how bad the debt is’ • THEY WANTED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS AND COMIC RELIEF WASN’T ENOUGH!!!!!

  11. Measuring feelings • We measured this feeling by asking them how far they agreed with these 2 statements on a scale of 0-10: • ‘All African debt should be wiped out’ • Banks should not be able to charge interest on the loans

  12. Young people’s views about African debt

  13. Young people really want to help

  14. Running the race • This research has got us started on the race • It has helped us learn more about the real situation in Africa • It has helped us show other young people about the real situation in Africa • Even though young people don’t have a vote they still want to have some influence over what the Government does about Africa.

  15. Young people want the Government to intervene

  16. Thanks for… • Listening • Showing an interest • AND • We hope you’ll join the race too!!!!!!

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