A Farewell to DC

On the 19th of July we bid DC farewell. We said our last speeches, goodbyes and thank you's to a wonderful group of people who had come to listen to us for one last time. Having been fortunate enough to deliver a speech that night and feeling overcome with gratitude this is some of what I shared.

" I wanted to spend these few minutes saying thank you, thank you, over and over again to each person who has essentially made this kind of experience possible since the inception of SAWIP in 2007. But time is jealous, so I hope this thank you to our management team, our host parents, our board members, our supervisors and the friends of SAWIP really expresses our absolute gratitude to you

I believe that South Africans, just like anyone else, each have many different stories. At any given time I believe that we identify strongly with any one set of our experiences and influences. Over the last six weeks my SAWIP experience had repeatedly lead me back to the influence of one 'story' in particular.

A few years ago someone very special to me left this world. When she did, she left behind a book with one 'story' written inside. According to this story, I was born in Cape Town and at the time my parents lived in a small town just outside of the city called Darling where my mother founded and ran the local SPCA (an animal shelter) which had originally been an abattoir.

I celebrated my second birthday on a small fruit farm even deeper into the countryside where I lived very happily in an old cottage with my mother who had founded another organization in that area. This time she gave her energy to raped and abused women and children from as far out in the countryside as she could reach. She once explained to me what motivated her work by saying the following :

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

This is a poem by Emily Dickenson, but it was retold and lived by mother so consistently that it provided me at a very young age with an understanding of the only kind of leadership that I would like to aspire to. Yet I dont think she would have ever called herself 'a leader'; her deeds are not recorded in any history books, nor is she revered in any museums and she she certainly never told any speeches on a platform like this. But, she experienced true empathy for the suffering of every being. She felt a responsibility towards humanity and she made this the focus of her life.

She left that book behind for me with many empty pages so that I could fill them myself. I have tried ever since to live a story that I would like to her to know. A very big part of that story, has been my SAWIP experience thus far and what I have learnt about my commitment to people.

So if I could, today I would have told her that the lessons that she started teaching me have been continued by the team of young people here with me tonight who have inspired me to demand more from myself and others for our country; who have taught me that you do not have to be the loudest person in the room for your voice to touch an entire congregation of people; who have reminded me of the value of asking questions, but also of listening (to everyone); who have taught me that you do not ever have to be confined to who other people understand you to be and who have inspired me to reach for a greater sense of selflessness, courage, humility, responsibility and kindness.

So what I hold true to at the closing of this SAWIP chapter, and what defines the work that I am so ready to do in South Africa, is my responsibility unto PEOPLE, individuals, before systems or institutions

Today South Africa matters to me because it is a collection of people, many of whom suffer for different reasons: conflict, inequality, resource scarcity, poverty, violence, discrimination, poor healthcare, poor education, poor leadership and of whom more will suffer if we do not do something about it, if I do not do something about it.

This team of young people matter, because we exist as a small representation of South Africans that are different, that are critical, that argue, but that essentially now have a united value system to which we hold each other accountable and to which we hold the rest of the world accountable. I grateful to SAWIP for all of this. I am exceptionally proud of my team-mates for everything that we are and so, it is to them who I owe my greatest thanks. "