From South Africa to Canada, no person is an island

By Jessica Williams, Grade 11 exchange student

South Africa is a land that has had to negotiate historical events and change within the last 10 to 15 years. Apartheid has left my country in many distinguished parts; some very wealthy and others in utter poverty. Nelson Mandela chose to overcome and embrace diversity and humanity. As a South African youth I feel that it is within my power to turn to those in poverty and give them something that without devotion and compassion they would struggle to achieve.

Through my school back at home, St Stithians College (I am an exchange student for three months) I have been given the opportunity to have hands-on interaction rather than simply donating money. Because of the country’s economic state I am able to build a house through an organized project knowing that this house will be occupied by a family that in the past has been living in a shack made of plastic bags and wire. It’s difficult to change the world as a 16-year-old girl, but there are opportunities to change the worlds of others.

For me, exchange is not a holiday or a school-devoted experience but an opportunity to understand the lifestyle of a place that is so very far away from the one I know. Each person I meet has a story, one that if I weren’t in Canada would be foreign to my ears. The greater amount of people I expose myself to the more stories I hear and the more people I can educate about a place they may only think has lions and tigers and bears. Oh my!

I have done several hours of community service and I have realized that the hours you sacrifice are not ones that are devoted to advantage oneself but rather hours set aside to advantage one’s fellow human being. Whether in Africa or Canada, no person is an island and people need people and I wish to be an example of compassion to one’s fellow man – “child kind.”