Priest: World Youth Day cross a sign of hope for South African youths

Published: 2007-01-26

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- The World Youth Day cross is a sign of hope for the many young people devastated by AIDS in the South African province of Eastern Cape, said a Catholic youth chaplain. The cross was recently carried through the largely rural province which has high unemployment, poverty and inadequate education in a country where more than 18 percent of adults are HIV positive, said Father Matthias Nsamba, the youth chaplain of the Aliwal North Diocese. Father Nsamba told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview Jan. 21 that few job opportunities for young people exist in Eastern Cape, which he called "a province of death, disaster and despair." The young people "go to big cities to look for jobs but struggle to find work without proper education and training, and many turn to prostitution, drugs and crime," Father Nsamba said. Nearly 1,000 youths turned out Jan. 7 at a farm near Queenstown in Eastern Cape to welcome the World Youth Day cross and icon of Mary being taken around the world before the 2008 World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia.

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