Concept:

Giving high school students education and exposure to the realities of specific global issues such as poverty, inequity, consumerism and aid while challenging them to view their world as a place where their lives and faith can contribute to the betterment of humanity.

The PLANET YOUTH EXPERIENCE is not a mission trip. It is a year-long endeavor that explores tough issues and asks tough questions regarding poverty in our world. While the high-point of the experience is a three-week experience in an impoverished community, the totality of the year will ideally give the student not only an experience in another country, but an education that will have a life-impact on the student and the world.

Here is how it works:

• January – A trip around the world. The who, where and what of Planet Earth.
• February – The geography of stuff. Coffee, flowers, chocolate, diamonds, clothes. Where does it all come from?
• March – Defining poverty and what it means to be poor.
• April – Is there enough food? The realities of distribution. (GLOBAL INEQUITY DINNER EVENT).
• May – Blood and water. An overview of disease, medicine and access to care on Planet Earth.
• June – Packing up. Final trip preparations.
• July – In country experience
• August – Back home. Debrief trip
• September – What’s being done to address global poverty? A look at governments, the UN, NGO’s, churches, corporations, etc...
• October – 1 + 1. Advocating for those who need a neighbor.
• November – Living in America in a world of need. An appropriate way of living with resource.
• December – What’s next? How to keep it going...

In-Country Experience:

As mentioned, this is not merely a ‘mission trip’, but an experience that ideally will produce significant relationships between people cultures and continents apart. Relationship is at the heart of the 10/10 idea, believing that relationships bring change to all involved.

The duration of the experience will last approximately 3 weeks, including travel. Getting to Kenya requires going through a European city, most likely London. It is an 8 hour plane trip to London, and another 8 hour plane trip to Nairobi, with possibly a 10 hour layover in between.

Students will for most of the trip stay together at host homes in either Nairobi or Kisumu. A typical day might see students serving at an orphanage, participating in the daily life of children and their caretakers. There will be days spent going to various schools and interacting with other students. Other days will be spent volunteering with organizations like the Hope House who care for abandoned babies and find adoptive families. A hospital visit might be included, as well as time spent with HIV/AIDS support groups. There will be interaction with people in the city, in the slums and in rural areas. Students will have the opportunity to see first-hand what an organization like 10/10 does on the ground in an impoverished community.

Most evenings, students will come together with their leaders and 10/10 leadership to talk about the day, the various experiences that are being shared and a time of questions will be engaged with. 10/10 wants students to come to a basic level understanding of what ‘development’ is, the how and why people are poor, and why it is imperative that the church be the leader in this type of work. Again, this is not intended to be merely a trip, but an interactive, educational, relational and transforming experience.

In addition, no trip to Africa is complete without a day or two on safari.

Finally, it is always asked of us, “What will I ‘do’ if I go with 10/10 to Africa?” The bottom line is this: You will LEARN, and you will have the opportunity to BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. While there might be specific work projects to engage in, we will never deviate from our primary purpose of learning about culture, poverty, NGO work and building friendships with the greatest people in the world.

Planet Youth Impact

• Sarah Evans: Sarah went with 10/10 in 2006 and is now a sophomore at Calvin College in Michigan. She is studying chemistry with the hopes of entering into the pharmaceutical industry to conduct research into disease prevention, specifically the diseases of the developing world.
• Jordan Dally: Jordan is a Senior in high school who participated with 10/10 in 2006. He is planning on studying international relations or some related political science field in hopes of learning more about global politics and issues in order to contribute in this field.
• Nick Barnes: Nick participated with 10/10 during his sophomore year in high school and now is working with 10/10 to speak to high school groups in order to motivate them to engage in these issues as well.

Some popular questions: