Sharielle hoping to bring home what she is learning and admiring here

Amanda, Ashley, Sharielle

I learned a lot at the Human Rights Training Weekend that my internship, Africa Unite, put on. During this weekend there were 24 youth participants from: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Somalia and Democratic Republic of Congo. We were all there, at a beautiful farm, to be trained on being Human Rights Peer Educators. A Human Rights Peer Educator, is someone who goes into their community and hold workshops, informing people on human rights and how it relates to their lives. The goal is to start a snowball effect where people affect change within their community through knowledge and action. In order to start the process of being Peer Educators, we were taught at this weekend about basic human rights, respect of other people, and how different perspectives play into how people view human rights.

One aspect that impacted me the most was the level of commitment that the South Africans and foreign nationals had. Seeing this level of commitment was hopeful especially as someone who is interested in community development. It is easy for us to see a problem in another country and help, however, I believe it is just as important to work with the social problems that plague our own countries. Their motivation is contagious and I am ready to go back to America and work in my own community. However, I do have trepidation about doing this. For me, I have really enjoyed my time at Africa Unite. I have enjoyed the working style and my supervisors. As I mentioned in a previous post, there is no sense of hierarchy or condescending attitude from anyone. I am scared that once I go back to America I will not have an experience or work dynamic like this.

Another thing that I saw at the Human Rights Weekend that I will miss is the spirit of South Africans. It reminded me of the Sunday that we went to the baptist church in Guguletu. Before we would start a session people would break out into singing (mostly Christian songs) and dance. I could not help but think that if we were in America that this would ever happen in a human rights forum or public meeting. However, here it was quite alright. I later found out that it was normal at the beginning of meetings in South Africa to start with singing. Of course since this was South Africa, the singing also meant that there would be some sort of movement involved. It was a contagious rhythm that would get everyone moving. It was hard to stand there and not move, no matter if you're as shy as I am when it comes to dancing. I was once again reminded as to how singing was a bond that tied a lot of people in the community together- in both South Africa during Apartheid and in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement. It was nice to have this cultural exchange were we all shared different aspects of where we were from. I hope to have experiences like this when I come home, because America has so much to offer in terms of diversity.