Cape Town, South Africa Day 4

Today I went to the Amy Biehl Foundation for a Service visit done by Semester at Sea. Amy Biehl was stoned to death in 1993 in South Africa during the time that the issues of Apartheid were going on. It was amazing of the transformation that her parents went through from not only forgiving her killers that they came face to face with but they also pushed to have the killers released from prison and gave them chances at the better life and these individuals currently work for the foundation as coaches and teachers. It was amazing to see the strength of her mother and father in the films that we watched. This was where she was stoned to death at and a memorial was erected in her honor

 It must've taken so much to be able to not just forgive someone for murdering a loved one but to also give them a second chance at making a better life for themselves. After learning of her story we went to some of the sites that the foundation focuses on.

 

The foundation helps students in the poorer regions of Cape Town which are called Townships, start going to school more by not only getting the students to go but to motivate the parents to play an active role in the student's lives. They have assisted especially in creating the afterschool programs that run during the week and on Saturdays.

The children can participate in all sorts of things such as dancing, musical instruments, sports, and other recreational/non recreational clubs. I have some amazing videos that I will put up at the end of the voyage of performances at two of the schools that we went to. I had a fantastic time with the children and learned about how much different it was to be in a welcoming school environment instead of being out in the streets wandering. The foundation also helps the students with vocational trading skills and job skills that will be useful to them as they enter the workforce to be successful further in life. The foundation is wonderful and the staff that work at the office are just amazing but I think the most important thing are the children that are being affected and changed by the work that is done by this foundation.