A grade 10 Stirling High School pupil spearheaded a successful campaign to fight xenophobia by collecting relief items for some of the victims.
Erin van der Merwe, 16, said she felt it was not enough to just talk about the attacks but wanted to provide tangible support for victims.
“There were a lot of campaigns at the time about saying no to xenophobia but when I thought about it there were many people who had lost their homes and their belongings.
“Then I read an article about the refugee camps and that they urgently needed food and clothing so it made more sense to collect those things because I thought this way we could really make a difference,” said Erin.
She was helped by two friends, Kiara Schultz and Shannon Branfield, other Stirling pupils and humanitarian group Gift of the Givers, who guided her on what was needed.
Gift of the Givers will also assist with the distribution of the goods collected.
Erin said they ran the campaign for a month and were surprised by the response.
“It was a crazy month of motivating others and collecting through various activities such as a bake sale to raise funds, announcements, posters and a slide show during a weekly assembly.”
In the end they managed to collect 120 cans of food, another box of various food items, a black bag filled with shoes and 14 black bags filled with clothes.
The goods have already been sent to Johannesburg last week through the generosity of FedEx, a courier company.
Erin said she was proud of their achievements and wanted to set a positive example to her peers.
“The feeling of this accomplishment is unreal. All I wanted was to assist those who needed the help and that was biggest motivation, knowing that I was doing something for the benefit of someone else,” she said, adding the whole experience was “such a rush”.
Kiara said the project had taken a lot of commitment and she decided to joined Erin because she had been “horrified” by the attacks.
“I jumped at the chance to help Erin because I thought it was a great idea to do something to ease the suffering and to give back because I had heard about the horrible things happening to foreigners,” she said.
Stirling High principal Charles Foster said he was impressed by the example set by the pupils as it reinforced the school’s ethos of values and caring.
Stirling girl, 16, leads anti-xenophobia drive
Erin van der Merwe, 16, said she felt it was not enough to just talk about the attacks but wanted to provide tangible support for victims.
“There were a lot of campaigns at the time about saying no to xenophobia but when I thought about it there were many people who had lost their homes and their belongings.
“Then I read an article about the refugee camps and that they urgently needed food and clothing so it made more sense to collect those things because I thought this way we could really make a difference,” said Erin.
She was helped by two friends, Kiara Schultz and Shannon Branfield, other Stirling pupils and humanitarian group Gift of the Givers, who guided her on what was needed.
Gift of the Givers will also assist with the distribution of the goods collected.
Erin said they ran the campaign for a month and were surprised by the response.
“It was a crazy month of motivating others and collecting through various activities such as a bake sale to raise funds, announcements, posters and a slide show during a weekly assembly.”
In the end they managed to collect 120 cans of food, another box of various food items, a black bag filled with shoes and 14 black bags filled with clothes.
The goods have already been sent to Johannesburg last week through the generosity of FedEx, a courier company.
Erin said she was proud of their achievements and wanted to set a positive example to her peers.
“The feeling of this accomplishment is unreal. All I wanted was to assist those who needed the help and that was biggest motivation, knowing that I was doing something for the benefit of someone else,” she said, adding the whole experience was “such a rush”.
Kiara said the project had taken a lot of commitment and she decided to joined Erin because she had been “horrified” by the attacks.
“I jumped at the chance to help Erin because I thought it was a great idea to do something to ease the suffering and to give back because I had heard about the horrible things happening to foreigners,” she said.
Stirling High principal Charles Foster said he was impressed by the example set by the pupils as it reinforced the school’s ethos of values and caring.
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