Life changing
Lying in bed in a luxury apartment in Cape Town, I’m filled with a mix of confusing thoughts. It’s great to be down here after spending last week in Johannesburg, but at the same time I’m finding it hard to adjust having got to the end of a week working with some of the poorest young adults in the world.Last week was simply amazing. Me, Rachel, Helen, Byrney, Chantelle, Lynda, and Jo were working with a charity called Oasis South Africa. Specifically, we were running a camp for a group of 36 school leavers from several of the townships around Johannesburg, mostly from Diepsloot.
Trying to plan the week was so hard having no idea who the young people were, what their stories were, and not knowing at what level to pitch everything. But everything went really well.
Before the camp started Arnie, who heads up Oasis South Africa, showed us round the various townships and informal settlements that the young people would be coming from. This was so hard. Seeing their living conditions, realising their lack of opportunities, and the danger they live with every day was heartbreaking
On Monday when the camp was starting, there was a real sense of both expectation and apprehension. What were the young people going to be like? Would we be able to relate? Were we going to be able to offer anything meaningful? Thankfully, everything about the week almost immediately seemed to go beyond our best hopes.
Hearing all of the different stories the young people have has been both amazing and incredibly hard. I was always aware that I had grown up in an environment of great privilege, but this brought it home on a whole new level. I know that Rachel in particular has found this really hard as her empathy means she can’t help but feel every ounce of all their stories.
As to what we did on the camp, it was a mix of everything. We had lots of fun and games, A brilliant basketball tournament which my team sadly didn’t quite win. There were art, drama, and singing workshops. And we took them through a tool called the Character Matrix and helped them start to thinking about their talents and strengths.
These young people are at a critical stage in life. They’ve just finished school and are looking to get either jobs, places at university, or apprenticeships. Typically, the jump into these new environments is too big and many end up dropping out and joining the masses of people caught up in huge unemployment. This week we ran was the first part of a six month skills for life programme designed to help bridge the gap and prepare people to make good career choices and prepare them for this next stage in life.
The way the young people responded to everything was amazing. They are such beautiful people. Their talent and potential is incredible. Spending time with them has simply been wonderful. They have easily taught us as much as we’ve taught them. I’m still working through exactly how I’ve changed, but I can definitely feel there is something inside me changing. Experiencing their world first hand is changing my priorities without doubt.
Seeing all the young people leave on Thursday was so hard. Knowing the homes they’d be going back to whilst we were heading off to beautiful accommodation in Cape Town just didn’t seem fair.
Here’s a selection of pictures from the week:
