Young people’s awareness of
poverty in Africa: Getting off the
starting block!
Deano Bentley and Leanne
Gamble
Why we wanted to do this research
We feel really strongly about the situation
in Africa
We had a hypothesis that most young
people of our age don’t have a clue about
what is really going on in Africa
Especially about the situation with third
world debt
It was coming up to Comic Relief time so
we thought the timing was very
appropriate
Our research plan
We wanted to find out whether our hypothesis
was right
We did a focus group interview and then 5 further
individual interviews with people aged between
15 and 18 from our youth centre. We got data
from 11 people altogether
This was only a small study but we felt that a
youth group in a youth centre is very
representative of average young people so a
good place to test our theory
There were 3 parts to our research method
Interviews Part One
We asked some basic questions first
to find out views and opinions: e.g.
What do you think about Comic
Relief?
Do you know what it’s all about?
We have Comic Relief every 2 years
– what do you think about this?
What this told us….
From these first questions we found
out that:
Young people of our age knew ‘a bit’
about poverty in Africa
BUT they knew very little about the
extent of this
Or the
mass of the debt!
Interviews Part Two
Then we paused the interviews and
explained to them what third world debt
was and read to them some facts we had
searched on the Internet such as:
Africa pays £7,790,386,663 per year in
debt repayments!!
32 of the most debt-distressed countries
in the world are in Africa
Aids is devastating the country but there
is no money for medical help
How it all started
In the 1970s America raised the price of
oil and poorer countries couldn’t pay the
higher prices
So, countries like America and Europe lent
them money to buy the oil they needed to
develop their countries
Africa is still struggling to pay the
interest
from these loans from 30 years ago!!!
Comic Relief
Despite everybody’s efforts at Comic
Relief every other year and the large
amounts of money raised – it is a
drop in the ocean compared to over
7 billion debt repayment that is due
!
year on year !!!
Interviews Part Three
Once they had this new information we asked them a new set of
questions:
What do you think about poverty in africa now?
What do you think young people can do about this?
Do you think most young people of your age understand about african
debt?
Do you think banks should wipe out these debts?
Do you think governments should intervene?
Would you be prepared to pay an extra 3p on a bar of chocolate if you
knew that a fair price had been paid for the african cocoa beans?
What this told us
When young people were given the information –
their views changed about poverty in Africa …
there was
Surprise: ‘I’d no idea the debt was so big’
Shock: ‘young people just think it’s a small problem that will
get sorted quick, like getting them water, I don’t think they
understand about the debt’
Anger:
‘we’re told about the aids problem in Africa so why
aren’t we told about this debt thing’
Distress: ‘I don’t think young people realise how bad the debt is’
THEY WANTED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS AND COMIC RELIEF
!!!
WASN’T ENOUGH!!
Measuring feelings
We measured this feeling by asking
them how far they agreed with these
2 statements on a scale of 0-10:
‘All African debt should be wiped out’
Banks should not be able to charge
interest on the loans
Young people’s views about African
debt
Strength of opinion
100
80
%
All African debt
should be wiped
out
60
40
20
0
0
2
4
6
8
0=disagree …
10=agree
10
Banks should not
be allowed to
charge interest
Young people really want to help
Would you pay an extra 3p on a bar of chocolate
for African cocoa beans?
100
80
Would you pay an
extra 3p on a bar
of chocolate for
African cocoa
beans?
60
%
40
20
0
Yes
No
Running the race
This research has got us started on the
race
It has helped us learn more about the real
situation in Africa
It has helped us show other young people
about the real situation in Africa
Even though young people don’t have a
vote they still want to have some influence
over what the Government does about
Africa.
Young people want the
Government to intervene
Do you think the Government should do more to
wipe out third world debt?
100
80
Do you think the
Government
should do more to
wipe out third
world debt?
60
%
40
20
0
Yes
No
Thanks for…
Listening
Showing an interest
AND
!!!
We hope you’ll join the race too!!!