Human Rights in Cape Town

Hi, guys! I'm a 21 years old Student from Romania currently doing an Erasmus Semester in Germany and i need 2500 EUR to pay for a volunteering programme in Cape Town, South Africa. Here I will be doing an unpaid internship, providing free legal advice to people in need who don't know their rights.

What I will do exactly:

• teach people how to make use of their rights in case of discrimination or violence.
• make people aware of what decent work conditions mean and how to make use of them. 
• help immigrants apply for Asylum.
• provide these people info-materials on Human and Civil rights.
• conduct interviews with victims of Human Rights violation.
• help organise workshops on Human Rights.

Whom I will help:

• sexually or physically abused women.
• immigrants being discriminated at work.
• immigrants falling victims to xenophobic attacks. 
• refugees. 
• everybody in need!

Why is this important?

Knowing your human rights is the first step on your way to a better, more counscios life. It does not only empower you to take matters into your own hands and fight for your rights, but it also keeps you from violating them. Mainly it makes you realize you are not alone in your problem and that if you're asking for help, you'll find it. Knowing your fundamental rights makes you aware of your important role as a global citizen. You're not only a victim, but a man or a woman with rights and with obligations, a person whose life and opinions matter. As Nelson Mandela said: "To deny people their human rights is to challange their very humanity".

Why South Africa? 

• Altough many social and economic progress has been made since the Apartheid, most of the South Africans are often victims of various kinds of discrimination, of physical abuse, of rape, of xenophobia, etc. South Africa has one of the highest criminality rates in the world with more then 500.000 rapes a year. Against the background of severe poverty and famine the increasing number of immigrants from Somalia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe has been the target of violent xenophobic reactions coming from the locals. 
• This year I am honoured to represent the Delegation of South Africa at the Regensburg Model United Nations. The research I did on my behalf helped me to understand South Africa and to realise that I might be useful to its people. So PLEASE, help me do it!

Why me?

• I have the physical strength, the will and the knowledge. I study Political Sciences and International Relationships and I have already dealt with European Law, International Law and Human Rights Law. I am always engaged in such projects, where I can bring my knowledge into praxis. I am convinced that only education and morality can lead to a better life! 
• I am compassionate and willing to help others! I too come from a country with a complicated social and political background, that is no stranger to Human Rights abuses and a fragile education system. 
• I interact very well with people of various social and cultural backgrounds thanks to my various international experience.
• I am well organised and serious! 

What are you paying for? 

• my flight to Cape Town (The programm will start in the summer of 2014 so I will probably have to depart from Bucharest, not from Germany, but that's not a problem!). 
• full accommodation.
• 3 meals a day. 
• complete insurance. 
• workshops and teambuilding programms. 

Please help me to help the people of South Africa! 

Sincerely yours, 

Laura Lungu