Here’s To The Kids

Before I begin, I would love to wish all the daddies who stuck around, single mothers and father’s no longer with us a Happy Father’s Day! Lord knows where I’d be without my daddy – he is caring and so selfless and always pushing me to be the best I can be. I haven’t a clue where I’d be without him and I love him so much!

In South Africa, June 16 is one of the most important days in our history. Known as Youth Day, it’s dedicated to the brave school goers who felt so strongly about their cause that they took a stand and protested for the right not to learn in a language of their oppressors. About 20 000 students took part, and after the police violently reacted to their peaceful protest, 176 died that day.

To me, Youth Day is a constant reminder of the power my peers and I, as youths, possess. The people who partook in the protests were my age and younger – yet they didn’t let their age be an excuse for their rights to be taken from them or their voices to be silenced (or in their case, forced to be taught in Afrikaans). They believed strongly in what they aimed to achieve and that is what I take from that day. We are powerful. We can make our voices heard if we so wish to speak. A quote from Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2:

It is the quality of ones convictions that determines success, not the number of followers.

In commemoration of that, I took part of the Johannesburg Junior Council‘s Youth March in Newtown, Johannesburg to march for equal education and norms for basic educational infrastructure. There are so many schools all over my country that lack basic resources, such as textbooks, toilets, concrete school environments, libraries, laboratories, etc. The aim of this march was to raise awareness and support of the Minimum Norms and Standards for Basic School Infrastructure by signing a petition to ensure that this incredibly important bill can be put into law and enforced/supported by government.