A conflicted past & a promising future
By Naly
In order to move forward, we have to first acknowledge what we’ve been through and use it as a motivating source.
When first learning about the South Africa Social Impact Seminar course, I remember thinking how amazing of an experience it would be! What a great opportunity to possibly affect development in a country rich with history, with complicated roots, but yet still striving to move forward and grow in equality and diversity. Throughout my life, I’ve always been passionate about counseling people through their journey of personal and professional development. A recurring conversation that I have is that in order to move forward, we have to first acknowledge what we’ve been through and use it as a motivating source. I saw this field seminar as a chance to help an organization do the same within a country that has overcome so many challenges and is still striving to move forward.
While researching South Africa’s evolving democracy and growing diversity, I was often curious about how much of an effect apartheid has had on their current business culture and development. I went about digging into research with a ‘this is how it happens in the U.S.’ mentality and wondered if the residue of their history would be as obvious as ours. Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) is now such a large part of today’s business climate in the US that’s it’s become normal to have D&I conversations regularly. I’ve thought, well these types of initiatives/conversations might be what is needed in South Africa. I had to remind myself though that having pre-conceived notions about what the diversity and inclusion efforts should look in SA wouldn’t be fair. It’s taken a fair amount of time for the US to give D&I the attention it requires. Although, South Africa is a strong and confident country, it is still healing from a not so distant painful past.
I’m looking forward to experiencing cultural differences by actively listening, watching, and learning while visiting these organizations. Observing what they’ve been through & having an understanding of where they are looking to go is the best practice in creating social impact within their organizations.