Empowering youth with tools to avoid risk behaviors was the goal of "Youth Alive," a youth drug prevention program held in Hong Kong July 5 to 11 for the church's Northern Asia-Pacific region (see ANN Nov. 24, 2003: http://news.adventist.org/data/2003/10/
Empowering youth with tools to avoid risk behaviors was the goal of “Youth Alive,” a youth drug prevention program held in Hong Kong July 5 to 11 for the church’s Northern Asia-Pacific region (see ANN Nov. 24, 2003: http://news.adventist.org/data/2003/10/1069709415/index.html.en).
About 350 youth speaking five languages met at Hong Kong Adventist College. Programs were conducted in English or Cantonese and translated into Mandrin, Korean and Japanese.
Drugs are a symptom that something painful is happening with that person, says Kathleen Kuntaraf, associate health ministries director for the Adventist world church. Youth Alive is a positive prevention program, encouraging youth to get connected with God and get connected with each other.
Youth Alive leaders split the kids up randomly into “friendship groups” of 12. In just three days the youth are bonded with each other. Many who were quiet and shy begin to come out of their shell during friendship group activities.
“When you connect you feel good,” says Kuntaraf. “If you feel good you won’t use drugs to feel good.”
The program also served as leadership training for youth facilitators. “We want the youngest to lead out, not the oldest,” Kuntaraf says. “In three days you can see the youth facilitator become a real leader.”
“They will go back and do this in their area,” says John McGhee, health ministries director for the church in the Northern Asia-Pacific region. “The more we can reproduce these groups, the more leadership opportunities we’ll have.”
Many of the facilitators are working as leaders at their local church. Some are pastoral interns—27-, 25-, some 20-year-olds. They came from Hong Kong, China and Korea.
“We need to rethink what we call adults,” says McGhee. “We need to stop putting this cap of adults as 30. If they’re out of high school, they’re an adult.”
Church leaders expected 60 facilitators and ended up with 90, who were trained for two days. About 60 percent of the youth attending were not Seventh-day Adventists.
An area-wide Youth Alive club is a big event, but local clubs can meet regularly. “They’re training these people to be leaders,” says Kuntaraf. The program can be advertised in the community and work with other community youth groups.
Many of the kids come from a Buddhist background, explains McGhee. The moment they become a Christian, the parents are angry because there will be no one to pray for the parents after they die. “We need to make an impact on the Buddhist community,” McGhee says.
Ten church leaders from Kenya, Korea and Japan observed the event, learning how to implement Youth Alive in their countries. Youth Alive has its roots in a Youth-to-Youth program designed by the Presbyterian Church more than 15 years ago.
