Against the odds.

12,000 black people live within the two square miles of the Chapeltown area of Leeds, representing the densest population of those of Afro-Caribbean descent anywhere in Europe, according to a European Community report.

The area faces problems of drugs, violence, crime and severe unemployment with little visible hope of improvement.

Many outsiders see the area as an alien lump, says Paul Auber. Born in Britain of a Sierra Leonian mother, Paul sees this area as home. He struggles with a restless inner urge and wants to see things change.

This restlessness in `the African', as he is known on Chapeltown's streets, has helped create and run the Ten to Two Club--10 pm to 2 am that is--for kids who would otherwise be out on the streets, and a succession of organizations like the Black Youth Forum.

Paul found the youngsters in these groups had already totally given up. To the question, `What do you want to do when you grow up?', their reply was not `engine driver or jet pilot' but `I've never thought of it'.

He decided to take a dozen 15- to 19-year-olds away for a week in the Welsh mountains and, with the help of three `trainers', to teach them how politics works, how to set up their own organizations and how to be responsible.

He avoided choosing `goody-two-shoes' types and chose instead those he regarded as potential role models: the disc jockeys, the intelligent, the good-looking. It was a risk. He and his colleagues factored into their budget a sum to cover things the youngsters might break--or take. They did not have to use one penny of it.

After a week away with lectures, walks, meals and discussions the young people could boast to their friends, `We've been away!' The result: they have already set up an organization on their own.

Denzil Nurse, a Barbadian from Huddersfield, was one of the `trainers'. At an international conference in Switzerland he met Kebba Seka from Oslo who worked with young black immigrants to Norway and set up a group called `The Non-Fighting Generation', funded by Oslo city council.

Seka's group has initiated a number of international exchange visits. Nurse envisioned a similar exchange with the Black Youth Forum from Leeds. It took eight months to find the funds and the right group to go. Last October four youngsters and three adults set off for 48 hours in Oslo, telling their stories and learning from others. It has already prompted a return visit.

What stirs men like this to take action, often against the odds, and the young to respond? `You have to recognize that people are people, not animals,' says Auber.

Nurse also sees the need to value people. `These youngsters need to meet others, to broaden their outlook, to be able to say "I can do it", not to be constrained by their elders. In Norway we found people who shared our vision. As individuals in our party shared their experiences with people very different from themselves, I knew we were on the right track and that we could do this on a `wider basis.'