Empowering and Engaging Youth: A Story from Swaziland

Terry and Diana Hutter

We believe that our presence in Swaziland has promoted a sense of mutuality and community, especially among the youth of the church. Young people here face similar challenges to young people everywhere. They cannot always afford a good education and even those who get a good education cannot always find jobs after college. Young people here also face the challenge of trying to be independent while also trying to grow as Christians. We are trying to help these young people to realize that God has great plans for them, so they should never quit trying to set goals and work hard towards achieving them. Recently, we helped organize a weekend conference for young people all around the country to attend. About 250 young people attended and had the opportunity to hear from several guest speakers about how to set goals and how to share ideas about money-making projects, while also avoiding the pitfalls of drinking, abuse, and HIV. After Q/A sessions, participants had the opportunity to eat and play sports together, allowing them to develop friendships with young people from remote areas that they might not otherwise meet.

The theme of this Youth Conference was “Don’t Let the Fire Die.” The fire refers to the “burning” desire to be Christian adults as well as to get jobs that will support them. After being told that this Youth Conference was a great success, we are trying to help the local young people improve their networking capability. Of course, they know how to use social media for fun, so we are encouraging them to use it to create income-generating ideas and to share what has worked well and what has not worked so well. We are also hoping to offer in the near future some free computer training (computers are still very much a luxury here) and free internet use for young people to look for jobs online. For many, this would be an invaluable tool that they cannot afford themselves.

We are thankful for the relationship between the Kukhany’Okusha Zion Church and Global Ministries which allows for us to be a presence of support and love in Swaziland!

Download printable story

Terry and Diana Hutter serve as Long-term Volunteers with the Khukhan’Okusha Zion Church in Swaziland. They serve as coordinators of the development programs.