Alex learning about human rights & having opportunities to put these lessons into practice

Last weekend we all attended Africa Unite’s Human Rights Weekend. Africa Unite is an organization that’s main goal is to build communities that are conflict free, tolerant, and conducive by empowering youth. In particular, the organization is working with Nyanga, Europe Township and Philippi in the Gugulethu District. Members engage conflict-affected communities in dialogues in order to reduce community violence and promote respect for

diversity, equality, and tolerance.

Though the location and logistics of this event were unknown, it turned out to be a great weekend. We arrived on the Goedgedacht Olive Farm which was an absolutely gorgeous and quiet retreat area with many housing complexes sprinkled throughout as well as a church, a pond, a kitchen and dining area, and a large meeting room.

Alex sharing conversation while helping self to delicious food

This year our group of seventeen girls joined a group of activists from countries throughout the African continent. I roomed with a 22-year-old woman originally from one of the largest townships in Johannesburg and now lives on the campus of her university, UCT. Her mother remains in Johannesburg, unable to financially visit her and her twin sister. This was my first time personally interacting with someone from a township (on my own terms) where I’ve shared in an honest discussion where we shared our struggles. I thoroughly enjoyed conversing with a young, knowledgeable and open-minded South African female as she helped to balance out some of the overpowering males.  I became so interested to know her story that we spent our two nights conversing until the early mornings.

I learned so much this weekend! Having never taken a human rights course, I did not know what to expect. I was able to learn the basics surrounding what human rights are and how I can implement what I have learned into the community in order to make a change. From this weekend I was able to learn more about the refugees and asylum seekers as well. Though I have always known that entry or citizenship into another country is hard, I did not realize how for these people it was virtually impossible. I cannot imagine how frustrated and scared I would be if I was unsafe in my own country but couldn’t understand the paperwork to move to a safer location. One of our big activities was to break into groups and research the history and current human rights struggles in an African country. We spent the day researching, putting together a poem, learning a song and creating musical instruments. This was a lot of fun and allowed us to learn about a culture I would have never before spent time learning. It was surprising to see the number of similarities between the U.S and countries that were much farther away and that I knew nothing about. Countries really do learn from one another and history can be seen repeating itself in so many different facets across the world. After analyzing our actions during each exercise we were able to learn each valuable lesson which I thought was a clever technique. Over time we began to realize the reason why there is still so much injustice around us… we are often too worried about the repercussions on ourselves to step in and help.

One piece that was definitely eye opening and concerning to me was the number of times that I experienced people stereotyping, using cultural appropriation, and witnessing such blatant patriarchal views and actions by many of the males. Though these were hurtful experiences for many of the UConn students, what did come out of this was that we were always together and would stand together in solidarity, support, and help explain why their actions were so inappropriate. In my normal life, I often shrug off offensive actions like these but after making it a goal to be more vocal and the fact that we were on a human rights trip I had to speak up. I also met people who shared views similar to Trump which was a new experience as well since back home my network of friends and family are all hard core democrats. These situations were definitely learning moments where I practiced some of the skills I had learned that weekend.