Katrina wondering how to make the world a better place for all

Looking up in wonder at the uninterrupted sky so filled with stars, a sight more awesome than I’ve ever seen, I wondered how in the world life brought me here to this moment. Sleeping outside under the stars on the middle of a stone pathway on a remote Olive Farm in South Africa piled together under blankets with students from UConn, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Tanzania, laughing together with the excitement of little kids. And what lead each of these new friends to this same spot, at a human rights training weekend with an organization called Africa Unite.

Katrina introducing herself to the group

I find myself thinking about this often here, how my past experiences, all the people I’ve met and all the decisions I’ve made have shaped where I am today and who I have become, and how different all of those experiences would be for each person I’ve been meeting, especially ones who’ve grown up in cultures completely different from my own. I’ve spend most of my life with people just like me, living in the white majority, a place of privilege and a place of comfort, never having to deal with the day to day issues that plague the majority of the world I live in: food, shelter, education, safety were always there for me. I’ve always assumed having access to these basic needs were my right as a human being, and after spending time this weekend defining human rights, I learned that many of these are, however much of the world is not awarded these rights. We characterized human rights as being universal, unalienable, indivisible and interdependent, yet each one of these principles has been violated time and time again throughout history, and more shockingly in each and every one of our cultures today. Human beings have such a high capacity for good and such a high capacity for evil, and we’ve learned as a society to fight each other before we work together, sometimes out of hate or anger but more often out of fear.

We did many activities split up into groups that each represented countries, and were given different situations where we had to work with other countries to solve a problem while advocating and fighting for the survival of our own. While everything started peacefully, it was crazy how quickly people got defensive and turned to solutions such as war, alliances and other dividing strategies simply because that’s what we know.

Katrina presenting for her group

Working together in a group with students from all over Africa was incredible, as well as just the entire weekend everyone getting to spend time together. The first night one of the kids suggested we each sing our national anthems, and my first reaction was please no, don’t make me awkwardly mumble the tune I’ve sang a million times yet still mess up. But when the other kids went, they sang their anthem with great pride and enthusiasm, and it was so incredible to have so many different countries represented in one place. In our small groups it was especially special, because each of us looked at each situation from SUCH different perspectives, not even just in solving the problem but how we interpreted the problem in the first place. In fact we had a lot of challenges organizing our ideas, especially in a limited amount of time, because we all approached it from different angles. But the final product from each group was always fun to watch, and each group was so unique.

Another of my favorite activities was simply going around and telling of a time each of us were in a situation where we were either a bystander, prosecutor, ally or a victim. Hearing people’s different struggles broke my heart. My friend from Tanzania spoke of how the time she was a bystander was a time she heard a women being beaten and eventually killed on the street outside her house, and how despite the woman’s cries for help she did nothing out of fear for her own life. This was completely mind blowing to me. There were many stories similar. Things so outside my world of comfort and safety. The violence, especially against women, was so striking to me, and you could tell each of the people here on this weekend were passionate about stopping it, as well as mobilizing and inspiring young people to break the cycle.  This weekend was so incredibly inspiring to me, and reminded me that young people are powerful, and put a bunch of us together in a room away from the world’s distractions and we can actually do big things.

As I slowly fall asleep under the stars that night, I am still trying to figure out how I can bring all this back to the states with me. And finding out what issues I am most passionate about changing.  But I know the other 15 young people falling asleep next to me are looking up to the stars as well, wondering how we can make the world they shine down on a better place. 

Katrina receiving her Africa Unite Human Rights Training Weekend Certificate