JUSTINE'S REPORT

During my three months of gap year community service I have been involved in quite a number of organizations and ideas; the Unite for Climate Zambia as a Youth Climate Ambassador, Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia have also introduced to the Chongololo and Chipembele Society to help initiate Environmental Conservation Clubs in schools, and I have also worked under a Swedish group with fellow youths to create a youth magazine in Zambia. I find all the three programs very interesting and skill developing in different ways.

I enjoyed the Swedish program the most and it taught me a lot of new skills. Unlike the other two programs it was totally a new experience, which made it challenging, and therefore very fun.I joined the group late and my first attendance was actually their second meeting as a group, therefore, I had missed out on the highlights and the planning. However, it did not make me any less active compared to the other members.

I joined the group with the intention of assisting in the technical duties of the group but i was shocked to hear my task was to produce a story for the magazine. I was even more shocked when I realized that by produce they meant I had to write an article by myself.I had a thousand reasons why I should hate the task and not do it, including the fact that i was surrounded by good writers and not only good writers but good writers who love writing. On the other hand I only had one reason why I should go ahead with the task; I don’t quit, quitting is for losers. I find it funny that one out-weighed a thousand.

My first challenge was to suggest a possible story for the magazine that was in line with the theme; work. The challenge wasn’t to suggest a story; instead, it was suggesting a story that would be put in the magazine. I managed to suggest a story and it turned out to be one of the stories we would put in the magazine.

My suggestion was “Voluntary Unemployment”; it was a human interest story relating to the fact that not all unemployed youths have no job opportunities instead they are unemployed because they have high job preferences. This story required me to find a young person who has a good academic reputation, graduated high school with good grades, either has worked before or was offered a job and refused because of the conditions, is still unemployed but really wants a job. A week later, the second meeting came without me making any progress with my story and this led to the facilitators thinking the task was too hard for me.

It was then suggested that I should do a story focusing on a prostitute, the story should be able to bring out the fact that circumstances led to the lady doing that job. I was also expected include the dreams she had before she found herself in that situation and find out from her if at all she plans on changing her career. I attempted twice to carry out this task but it is very hard to talk to these ladies if you don’t plan on offering them any money. Two days before submission of the stories I decided to go back on my first story, I had lost hope but I was not willing to be called a failure and so I put my all into it, and I started searching for the perfect person. Fortunately, I was introduced to a person who marched all the criteria we set. The following morning I went to interview her and by the next day I had a full story to present to the group.

Peder, the magazine’sphotographer, remembered that I had mentioned my passion for photography during my first meeting when I was trying to escape from writing the story and he offered me to help him take the magazine cover photo. That immediate Monday we drove through Lusaka hunting for the best photo that could illustrate the theme of the magazine.  By lunch we managed to capture a lot of good shots of which two were selected to be used; one as the cover photo and the other as the full page photo.

I had a lot of fun being a journalist and even more fun learning how to use a professional camera. The experience taught made me realize that a lot of thing can be considered before a photo is called good.