15andcounting.org - I can't call this work

International Planned Parenthood Federation has an office on an alley in the Bermondsey section of London. I stopped by there and heard a bit about their 15andcounting campaign. It was great talking social media strategy and potential with Matthew Lindley, Development, Nuzhat Jabinh, Web Officer, Paul Bell, Senior Communications Officer and Chris Wells, Creative Design Officer. (You can follow on Twitter – @djwesto and @t­_box, and of course @15andcounting) We exchanged resources and opinions at a furious and fun pace.

At one point Matthew said “You can’t make partnerships if someone has to buy into your brand”. This comment struck me as well aligned with some made by Vikki Spruill from the Ocean Conservancy. She got me started thinking along this line at a networks meeting where she was encouraging the branding of issues, instead of specific organizations.

15andCounting is a campaign to demand better access to sexual health services and education for everyone, regardless of your age, gender or where you live. The 15 refers to both the fiscal promises made by governments in 1994 at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the age of the young people who need these services, who were born that year. The site includes a petition and a resource kits with tools, like stakeholders letters, so people can launch campaigns in their country. The site is in English, Español , Français and Arabic. Its fun to look at the petition and see people signed up from Djibouti to Brazil There is a cell phone component to the campaign that has caused it to really take off in South Africa. Check it out, http://www.15andcounting.org/.

Lucky Day in Johannesburg

I had the good fortune to tour Johannesburg and Soweto with Mrs. Franky Toussaint. She loves her town and its people. She's old enough to have lived the history and is open about her experiences. She led me through town explaining and showing that Jo'Burg exists because of gold and diamonds.

She interwove history and her pride in progress. As we walked around in the developing arts district near the Market Theatre she attends she explained how everyone- mixed ethnicities, lived there together peacefully until the government decided that the races needed to be separated and pulled everyone apart and tore the housing down. These heads represent the different people who lived there.

In Soweto we were guided through a settlement by one of two young men she has supported to attend tourist guide school and first aid training. We visited this creche.

This settlement felt less chaotic than where we work in India and the Philippines but it is amazing to think that the World Cup is going to be played in 2010 in the newly built stadium in view of metal shacks with no electricity in the homes, or sewage system, and clean water at communal taps only.

What I love about travel is how it pierces little holes through the layers of my ignorance. We visited the Hector Pieterson Museum where I learned about the events of June 16, 1976, a watershed moment that focused the world on apartheid. Franky views it as the beginning of the end, and for her it was the beginning of her involvement as the Secretary of the Women's Leadership Committee and the start of her Soweto visits.

I also got to see Regina Mundie Catholic Church which still has a shattered corner on the alter and bullet holes from government's efforts to break up the organizing that happened behind the scenes there. It was also the scene of Truth and Reconciliation sessions in the late 90's.

We had lunch at Wandie's where I enjoyed the good food. I think it was mielie, samp, and pumpkin, at any rate it was delicious.