Saturday August 11th marked the beginning of the Belongings Journey for 15 young Cameroonians – who were out for a trip they had little knowledge about, after going through a competitive selection process to be part of the Belongings team. Belongings is one of British Council’s project which aims at developing leadership skills in young people through exploring culture and identity to promote intercultural dialogue, generating shared understanding between individuals and communities in Africa and UK.
The journey which consists of Pre-exchange, Exchange and Post-exchange programmes in Africa and the UK brings together about 400 young people to share ideas on leadership, culture/ identity and intercultural dialogue.
The pre-exchange which took place incountry – Cameroon, gave the young people who were drawn from diverse youth organisations the opportunity to start packing their bags of ideas and objects on culture and leadership to share with young people from other countries through the profound exchanges. As such it oriented the youths towards participating in Belongings, practice skills that will help maximise the experience of participating in Belongings and above all establish the group. During the pre-exchange, it was amazing how these young people through reflections explored values, beliefs, assumptions and leadership characteristics. They played with tools designed for the exchange like; My favourite things and Inspirations, The Youth of today, Leadership, Divided past and shared future, Personal learning journals and lastly Packing my belongings.
Talking of the most spectacular exercise during the pre-exchange was the ‘handbag’ which was identified as the woman’s closest neighbour and friend. With the permission of the ladies, some handbags were dissected by the guys and the contents shown to the group. It was noted that all the girls carried handbags with similar contents which were valuable to them, thus potraying how people own and respect values that makes life worth the salt.
At the end of this activity, the dynamic 15 were set for the journey to the UK with their bags full of objects and ideas collected from their communities. The journey of exploration and leadership has begun; from Cameroon to the UK and back to Africa.
Watch-out! for more stories and personal experiences from the young participants as they move through this exciting expedition.
