Opening my curtains from my bed and seeing the most beautiful sunrise you can see. Last February, I traveled 24 hours to what proved to be the most welcoming and wonderfully interesting country I have ever been – South Africa.
Currently, I am in my last weeks of my travel. It has been an amazing journey, which I would extend with a lifetime if I could. I worked for five months at Izizwe Projects, one of the projects at Khaya Volunteer Projects.
Izizwe Projects is a non-profit company that is working in Walmer Township for over ten years and its aim is to close the gap for the marginalized community by providing different programs.
As a volunteer or intern you are able to help with all these projects. Teaching the children about oral health and showing them how to brush their teeth is one of these projects. Besides that, I gave sport lessons to the primary school children and literacy classes to the children in the creches. Helping those children building their future is one of the most valuable things you can do in this world.
One of my main projects during my time in South Africa was organizing Ulutsha Festival. This festival is organized on the 16th of June, also known as Soweto Uprising. On the 16th of June 1976 a series of protests happened in the Soweto Township in Johannesburg. Students of numerous Sowetan schools protested against the Afrikaans Medium Degree from 1974, which forced all African students to use Afrikaans and English in a 50-50 mix as languages of instruction. Europeans already learned these languages, so the Africans were obligated to learn them as well. Many people were killed in these protests. The 16th of June is now a public holiday, in remembrance of the protests happened back then. With organizing Ulutsha Festival on this day, we want the youth to feel it is their day and especially in impoverished communities as the Walmer Township.
On the day there were three different sports tournaments; soccer, basketball and netball. The little ones could get some face paint and different acts were performing during the day. We had some dance groups preforming, a magician, a pop-up debate and many more. In the end there were no words left to describe how beautiful this day was and how much the community enjoyed it.
One of the most important things to remember when you are considering volunteering in South Africa, is that you can really make a big difference in the lives of the people in the community. I did that by starting my own project. I noticed that a lot of children have a skin disease, called ringworm. Because the people in the community don’t have the money to cure the disease, it keeps spreading. Together with the other volunteers, we are now working to cure this disease among the children and to educate the community about it.
The past months has been amazing. I met the most amazing people, traveled to the most beautiful places and helped the marginalized community as much as I could. I left my footprint in South Africa. Going to South Africa and doing my internship at Khaya Volunteer Projects has been the best choice in my life. I hope many more people take the same decision, because trust me; you will not regret it. South Africa – Baie Dankie.
