A young changemaker’s Ubuntu film
I am 15 years old, I am a writer, and I am madly in love with the world around me.
That is how I have always answered the question "Who are you?" But it was not until this past summer when I learned how to answer a much more important question: "Who do you want to become?"
Last July, I was given the opportunity to travel to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to make a promotional film for Ubuntu Education Fund. When one thinks about Africa, images of poverty and sickness often come to mind. But the side of Africa that I saw was so much more than that: it was based on bravery and friendship, laughter and survival, beauty and the amazing ability of individuals to just be happy. Ubuntu is not just a non-profit organization or a "charity." Ubuntu is a family. They focus specifically on the Ibhayi township of Port Elizabeth and are determined to ensure that unbelievably motivated and intelligent kids there are given the opportunity to get a college education and succeed in life. They define success not as money or an Ivy League education as many American teenagers do, but as being able to provide for those that they love and find even one moment of happiness in a new day. Ubuntu acts as a set of second "parents" to the kids in the township, and leads them through an incredible window of opportunity that they had never even known was there.
The Ubuntu kids are inspired: they have dreams and plans, and brush away any notion that they might not come true. They give themselves a voice by simply taking the first step and speaking out. They write poetry and speak of being "sex slaves" and "abandoned dogs" and coping with HIV and poverty-related crimes in the townships. But after they are finished, there are no tears or silence. There is applause, there is strength, and there is happiness. These young people are going after their passions, and are not willing to let the life they have been born into determine the life that they want to live.
Their voices and passion gave me a gift of my own: it inspired me to establish The Do Write Campaign (www.dowritecampaign.com), an on-line literary magazine designed to promote understanding among teens around the world by encouraging them to share their creative writing, photography, artwork, and videography. As a way of developing additional support for Ubuntu and girls all around the world, I am organizing The Do Write Conference, which will take place in Port Elizabeth in July 2012. The conference is based on the idea of bringing together ambitious young women who, despite being from very different walks of life, share a common passion for determining the future of female empowerment by sharing their life experiences with others through writing and artistic media.
If
there is anything at all that I have learned from my summer with Ubuntu, it is
that the world will tell you who you are, until you tell the world. Who do I
want to become? The answer is clear: I seek to be a better writer, a better
person, and to make the world stop and listen. I seek to be a part of something
so much bigger and more important than myself and the small town in which I
live. I seek to be a product of those whom I encounter in each step of life. I
seek to embody Ubuntu.
Ubuntu was honored to recently host young change-agent and film-maker Madeleine Lippey at the Ubuntu Centre. This impressive young woman embodies the spirit of ubuntu as she finds ways to engage herself and her peers in the world. Madeleine is a 15-year-old high school student in the USA. She has written and directed two documentary films about children and teens in India and South Africa. In 2011, she established The Do Write Campaign as a way to promote understanding among teens around the world through creative writing and other artistic media.
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