Educate 1 child educate the world

Growing up in household with a single mother not knowing where the next meal will come from echoes the importance of educating oneself and the nation. Shortly after matriculating my goal was to go and study Biology at Stellenbosch University however this dream was nothing more than that - a dream. Upon receiving my acceptance letter, l was thrilled. This excitement however was short lived because I knew that there is nothing l would do with that acceptance letter as l could not afford the tuition fees and was not eligible for any bursaries or scholarships due to my citizenship. The acceptance letter became the only constant reminder of an unfulfilled dream. And thus my journey of being part of the so many unemployed youths within this country and the world doing odd jobs to sustain not only themselves but their families as well began. Throughout the period from my matriculation to this day l have been working in restaurants and tutoring in order to take care of my mother and save up money for University. It's been three years now and l haven't been able to save enough money for that.

My heart cries when l see so many people my age not being able to realize their dreams of attaining a better future for themselves due to financial constraints. The future of our world rests in our hands but how is that future going to look like when more than half of the youth remains uneducated, when the youth become victims of poverty, drug abuse and violence. There is so much wrong with our respective countries and the only hope of resolving the issues that beg for our attention everywhere we go lies in the hands of today's youth.

My predicament has become so common, so cliched that most of you will read this and claim it to be another sad story from another young African child. Most of you will not even reach this part of my writing. Those of you who have read this far l want to thank you for your time.

The future of this world rests in the your hands. It rests in the hands of our fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles. grandmothers and grandfathers.

Education knows no color, no religion or ethnicity however it knows your background. Our disadvantaged backgrounds have a ripple effect into our tomorrow.