Welcome...you are on the "Postcards" page of the Africa Alive! website!
"Postcards from Africa" is a way for young people in Africa to share with concerned people around the world their experiences, their stories, their hopes and fears about living with the reality of AIDS. Africa Alive! is encouraging young people as individuals or as members of youth groups, church groups, schools or AIDS prevention organizations to send us their stories. We will then put them on the Africa Alive! website at www.africaalive.org.
"Postcards" showcases postcards, letters, emails, photographs, artwork, and poems received from young people sharing their experiences living in a world heavily affected by AIDS. Young people from all over the globe can log on and read these personal stories. Many people outside Africa have heard the horrendous statistics about AIDS in Africa but few of them have heard the personal stories, the day-to-day reality of life as a young person living in Africa. Africa Alive! believes that people around the world want to be able to relate on a person-to-person level. They want to know how life in Africa is similar to or different from their own lives.
In contrast to the negative, faceless statistics about AIDS seen in the mass media, Africa Alive! wants people to know about all the positive things being done in Africa to combat AIDS. We hope that "Postcards from Africa" will open up the dialogue among young people in Africa and with the rest of the world, because dialogue and discussion are the beginning of understanding, and understanding can eventually lead to change for the better.
Africa Alive! also wants to help the young people of Africa communicate directly with other young people. So we are starting a "Penpals" program on the website, encouraging young people in Africa to request to be linked up with youth in other countries. Whether it is as part of a youth group, school or as an individual, we encourage young people get the dialogue going!
Here’s how it all works:
Africa Alive! will provide local addresses for people to write to, and "postcards" can be collected onsite at local Africa Alive! events, at offices of partner groups, and at other select locations. Young people can then send their stories to these addresses or, if they have access to the Internet, they can send their information directly to postcards@africaalive.org. PLEASE include photos or hand drawings if you can. Selected "postcards" will be posted on the Africa Alive! website. We will also try to get these stories and letters published in the local media if they originate in Africa Alive! participating countries (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe).
What we are looking for:
Africa Alive! is looking for brief personal stories, opinions and anecdotes about living in a world affected by AIDS. We want to hear about people’s real experiences and how AIDS has affected their lives. But we also want to hear about the positive stories of young people doing good work in their communities in the areas of: AIDS prevention; peer education, helping others understand HIV/AIDS; caring for those living with AIDS (in the family or in the community at large); and raising awareness of AIDS in the community. We are especially interested in hearing from young Africans who are living with HIV/AIDS.
Short "postcards" consisting of a few sentences are welcome. But, if young people have longer stories to tell and like to write, we strongly encourage them to write more and would love to hear what they have to say.
Penpals: If writers, or youth groups are interested in having a penpal or in matching up with a youth group or school in the USA, Africa Alive! encourages them to indicate this at the top of their "postcards". Africa Alive! will also encourage young people who visit the website and youth groups here in the United States to become penpals and write back. We will create a section on our website on "postcards" for penpals, youth groups and school/classroom exchanges.
We are in the beginning stages of the project and hope that you will share your stories, photos, drawings, poems ,etc. with us, and if you are in the US please tell us if you would like to be linked up with a Penpal in Africa. Correspondence can be sent via email to postcards@africaalive.org or via post:
Suite 11a/16 Chartwell Drive
Granada Centre/Umhlanga Drive
Kawzulu Natal, South Africa 4320
Africa Alive!/U.S. Office
Johns Hopkins University
Center for Communication Programs
111 Market Place - Suite 310
Baltimore, Maryland 21202-4012 USA
info@africaalive.org