This past
weekend the group traveled to Goedgedacht Farm for a human rights training
organized by the NGO Africa Unite. This training was the best possible way I
could have spent my weekend, and I am very grateful for the experience. We tend to think about human rights in terms
of how they have been violated and valuate them through human suffering. Even
though we widely addressing issues faced by people in Africa, this conference
to me was an example of how we can turn the study of human rights into
something of beauty instead of pain. We achieved this through a collective
atmosphere of cooperation and enthusiasm.
 |
| Patrick, Anna, & Elise on Human Rights Weekend |
The
conference provided for an effective mixture of receiving and creating
knowledge. For most of the workshops, we were responsible for discovering
‘answers’ together with a team of diverse people. Though collaborative and
creative methods, I believe information was put into context. At the same time,
our professor offered direct lectures about specific terms and the processes
through which human rights are implemented. He did an excellent job of
uncovering our misconceptions about the distinction between certain types of
rights and how they are outlined in the South African Constitution. I was
excited to be exposed to these different concepts and to build relationships
with South Africans at the same time. The most touching moment for me by far
was at the end when we evaluated the training. Almost everyone was happy and had
nothing but good things to say. However, one woman described her struggle with
the training. She explained that she came from an area dealing with a lot of
gang violence and a family where she was the only one to pass Matric. She
appreciated the things we learned, but felt it would be hard to pass it on to
her community. For her, moving forward was not going to be easy. As she broke
down in tears, the man next to me turned and said “that is our Africa.” Out of
everything that happened during those three days, that moment will stick with
me the most.
No comments:
Post a Comment