On Tuesday 10 July, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Eric Bost and U.S. Consul General in Cape Town Helen La Lime paid a visit to Life Choices at their annual camp for peer educators, in the mountains above Llandudno and Hout Bay. The organization is funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Life Choices works with the Western Cape Education Department, going into provincial high schools, identifying and training potential peer educators, who then become resources within these schools. Although the over-arching goal of Life Choices is to reduce rates of HIV infection within the schools, the skills that Life Choices and the peer educators impart go well beyond the strictly medical.
These peers seek to sensitize young people about why and how choices are made, how individuals can take or surrender control of their lives, how and why actions have both causes and consequences, and more. In short, they seek to impart life skills that will empower young people for the rest of their lives.
Ambassador Bost listened to Sofia Neves, the Program Director, and her colleagues, about the nature and goals of Life Choices, took a tour of the camp facilities (located on an old police training ground overlooking the Atlantic Ocean), and answered questions from the peer educators, most of whom had never before seen an ambassador or been to the USA. The Ambassador closed his session with them by urging the youngsters not to “make a mistake that will be with you for the rest of your life.”
