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Youth With A Vision, Dennilton:
Youth with a Vision is a non-profit organization that runs various programs to engage community members of all ages in changing the problems that affect their community. The program coordinator, Jabo, explained to us the various problems in the community which included, extreme poverty, family abuse, teenagers as young as twelve having children, and teenagers soliciting sexual offers for petty cash. As this is an area that is seriously infected by poverty and AIDS, I’m glad there was a community resource center built to provide a beacon of hope. -Eric
Dennilton was one of the most memorable experiences from this trip. Helping this small but growing group was awesome. Learning about how a couple who lived in Pretoria decided to leave everything to set up place for children to learn about art and be safe shows that there are still good people in this world. Leaving Rehoboth, I felt that they really cared for us because they wished us well in our future. Likewise, Dennilton was a place where we made instant but productive friendships, which made us feel so good that most of the girls in my van said they would skip a day of safari just to come back and work here. It was just a great experience to end this trip. Hopefully, most of us can come back and work there when we have time. -Sarah M
As we were driving to Dennilton I noticed various billboards along the roadside. Although, until this point I had rarely seen any direct indication of the AIDS pandemic within the community, surprisingly out here in what is seemingly the middle of nowhere, there was sign after sign referring to AIDS awareness. The first sign I saw stated, “If you are positive, don’t be negative [about it]”. -Tammy
Then we got to work: planting trees. We split up into two groups, one was to plant orange, the other to plant palm trees. I planted orange trees. We clumsily got to work in our small groups with their often rickety tools, but soon found ourselves surrounded by many of the children, who were eager to help. Within about an hour and a half, we had planted quite a few trees, and worked up quite an appetite. -Kate
I met a girl named ________ who had been taken out of her home due to her grandmother abusing her. She had burn marks on her face and arm, but I was in no position to ask how these came about. I got to watch her sing/dance on stage and I could see how much she was enjoying her day. She thanked Jody and I multiple times for being there and kept asking when we would be back. -Alison
He didn’t speak any English so he and I didn’t talk much, but as I have found, it isn’t hard to communicate with anyone in South Africa… -Nicky
I took my sunglasses off at one point and put them on one of the girls who then pranced around as if she were a movie star. At that point I lost my sunglasses for the first time; I believe almost every young girl in the area had taken their turn wearing my sunglasses. Something as mundane as a pair of $10 sunglasses became the entertainment of the afternoon. -Tammy
I took a step back at that moment and looked around me. We – us Long Beachers – were so immersed in this group so unlike us in so many ways. We were all outside of our element, so far from home, in a world so unlike ours, but you could still feel the happiness and appreciation just emanating from the group. I was very proud at that moment to see, in my classmates and in the people we were working with, such a display of community and compassion. -Kate