16 June 2023
The 16th of June is a day we commemorate in South Africa, it is “Youth Day”. Youth Day celebrates the contribution that young people made to the struggle for freedom in South Africa on June 16, 1976. On this day schoolchildren marched in a protest against the apartheid South African government insisting that black schools teach some subjects in the Afrikaans language (Bantu education). As most black students and teachers did not speak Afrikaans this was very oppressive.
Thousands of children began to march to a stadium for a rally. As the police tried to stop them, they started shooting at the students. Twelve-year-old Hector Pieterson was among those shot. A photograph of the wounded child was printed in newspapers throughout the world. It became a symbol of the uprising against apartheid.
The violence lasted for days and spread to more than 80 other cities and towns. The event helped bring attention to the efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. When apartheid finally came to an end in the early 1990s, the new government established Youth Day as one of the country’s official holidays.
47 years later the children we help support within the struggling townships and disadvantaged communities of South Africa continue to experience a substandard education. 47 years later, many of South Africa’s children are still being oppressed when it comes to educational opportunities. Most of our Hlanganani high schoolers are failing the majority of their subjects. When trying to figure out why they are all failing Math, we heard that the teacher speaks in her home African language, which they cannot understand (SA has 9 official African languages); there are over 40-50 children in the classes, ranging in 16-21 years of age and they all have to share a handful of books, as they cannot afford to purchase textbooks themselves. (Upon purchasing their Math textbook it cost R350/$19).
Thus, we took Youth Day to encourage and empower the children of Hlanganani, tutor them, bless them with books, and help inspire them to help themselves have a brighter future. Across the city, Bokamoso met with a young group of youth, all of whom live in an impoverished community, one where the initial uprising took place all those years ago. Our team was able to bless the children with the message of hope that despite all the challenges in their lives, God is able to do the impossible.
As the gospel message was read, the children sat in rapt attention. They were each blessed with a bible comic book to take home. (These cost just R20/$1.10 and are an amazing way to share the message of God’s love & hope to wearily children). Our prayer is that this generation will see greater change and hope and a brighter future than the ones before them.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” (Chinese proverb)
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