UNICEF: Youth leaders in Soweto greet Queen Rania

SOWETO, South Africa, 30 March 2009 UNICEFs Eminent Advocate for Children, Her Majesty Queen Rania al Abdullah of Jordan, recently spent time with members of the GEM/BEM club at the Phefeni Senior Secondary school in South Africas sprawling Soweto township.

Part of the girls and boys education movement, the club offers a safe place where young people can share problems, learn leadership skills, promote gender equity and girls empowerment, and build confidence to withstand peer-group pressure.

Life for teenagers growing up in Soweto can be challenging. Home to almost half of the population of the city of Johannesburg, the area suffers from high unemployment and poverty. Like their contemporaries in other parts of the world, adolescents here face the dangers of drug abuse, HIV, violence and teenage pregnancy.

I think the best way to tackle violence is for you guys to be aware of it, and especially for boys to be aware of it, so you can tell your friends that this is the wrong practice, Queen Rania told the students. Working together as GEM/BEM means that you will gain more respect for the role of women and girls, she added.

To read the full story, visit http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/southafrica_48980.html

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• UNICEF
• Queen
• Rania
• Jordan
• South
• Africa
• Soweto
• GEM/BEM
• boys
• girls
• education

[journalistarina]

i wish to be like her

[PTphones]

Uma Rainha sem paralelo. A Rainha mais Bonita do Mundo e a que mais trabalha em prol dos desfavorecidos. Uma GRANDE RAINHA, UMA GRANDE MULHER.

[Azzaiel]

u mean contemporaries, like everyone everywhere on the planet?