Sometimes changing the world starts with one seemingly insignificant step; in this case a handful of school friends and a joke.

Back in 2018, as part of a Hoërskool Noordheuwel market day, Deacon Nortman and his Grade 9 friends named their biltong stall Freedom Fighters as a play on satire. The name soon changed, but Freedom Fighters stuck with them; the friends referring to themselves as such from there on out.

They elected ‘leaders’ as part of this joke and unintentionally became involved in community outreach work. And so, the Freedom Fighters organisation was formed to help people in need, clean up the environment and inspire the country’s future leaders to be better and do more than those who came before by >giving instead of talking.

But, the words Freedom Fighters will, for most, conjure up the image of red berets. Knowing they were nothing like the group with which they shared a name, it was time for a change. Today, Youth United is a growing symbol of what today’s young people can do if they find a way to stand together.

Their emblem says it all: yellow represents youth, green embodies their focus on nature, the light blue is for world peace, white is for order, the wheat shows unity and a person holding up the Earth represents the young ones doing all they can to save the world.

Deacon proudly announced that within the West Rand Youth United is now 122 members strong. Through word of mouth, and by employing social media, they’ve extended their reach and formed groups in parts of Johannesburg, Nelspruit and Durban. The Eastern and Western Cape are in their crosshairs next as they look to become nationally and, hopefully soon, internationally known.

“I love how we unite people,” Deacon started.

Our membership comprises the popular children, the unpopular children, the sport children, test kids and children who do nothing. Children from all backgrounds come to help, volunteer and serve the community.”

It’s as simple as putting the word out to their members, telling them to bring all their friends, and soon they’ve brought quite the impressive group together to work on conservation areas, pick up trash and clean the rivers, or to go into poorer or rural areas to help those in need.

In the end, Deacon’s goal is to inspire leadership, and to help the next generation save the world. “We want to make this an entire global movement for the youth to start taking matters into their own hands. The older generation has failed us. The world is in turmoil. Our climate is in turmoil. Politically, socially and economically, the world is on a bad path and we can’t wait anymore. If we don’t start now preparing for the future or building the future that we want, what’s going to happen?”