Inspired to help developing solutions that can change the world
By Madeline
I have never been more certain that social impact and sustainability focuses are the most important thing to create a meaningful life for myself and others. Overall, this trip was incredibly impactful and motivating for me to continue travel, learn through experience and personal interaction, and help in developing solutions that can change the world.
My time in South Africa felt very conflicted between such a beautiful country and beautiful people and such a horrible past. The first half of the week was somewhat light, punctuated with glimpses at the torrid past that affected most of the population of the country. Monday’s visits to Secha Capital and Room to Read were very different. Secha Capital felt more familiar to me, working in the investment world, and being from the town next to co-founder, Brendan’s hometown. Room to read felt like a true nonprofit doing incredible work in the townships around Johannesburg. The second day was again familiar and business focused. Our site visit was to Eaton, as was our consulting project. Our group was hard at work to pick up any last-minute information from the tour and presentation on load shedding and microgrids. Load shedding was a subject that I had learned in theory while researching for Eaton, but in practice seemed to be a challenge to get used to. There are so many luxuries that power provides that I seem to have taken for granted: charging my phone, having a working stove, and working lights, to name a few. This is a serious problem that seems to have only been made worse by corruption. However, the people we met with and the work that we did with Eaton makes the situation seem hopeful and promising.
On Wednesday, the mood flipped for me. Our first visit to Mandate Molefi was inspirational and seemed to be very in line with other diversity and inclusion practices that I have seen in the United States. However, visiting the Apartheid museum and Soweto changed the business and opportunity focus of the trip thus far to South Africa’s darker past. While I knew who Nelson Mandela was and some of the history surrounding apartheid, I was not prepared for the overwhelming disappointment in humankind that I felt after these visits. Despite the encouraging Mandela exhibit at the museum, I left with a heavy heart. Something that I was most struck with was the recency of the change. This meant that a majority of the people we had met earlier in the day in Soweto and Johannesburg had lived through the horrific events detailed in the museum.
While the safari on Thursday flew by, Friday was back to serious and heart wrenching material with a visit to the UN and WITS HIV prevention center. Seeing the incredible work that the doctors, researchers, operations team, etc are doing to change lives on a daily basis made me feel both overwhelmed at the amount of work to be done and incredibly hopeful that such amazingly smart people are at work here. Thinking about my career going forward, I have never been more certain that social impact and sustainability focuses are the most important thing to create a meaningful life for myself and others. Overall, this trip was incredibly impactful and motivating for me to continue travel, learn through experience and personal interaction, and help in developing solutions that can change the world. I have developed memories and relationships that won’t be soon forgotten.
