The 007 Experience

Thursday, 20 December 2007 | posted by asania
General, Greenwich 2007

Hi everyone! My name is Asania (pronounce like Lasagna without the L) and I’m from South Africa – that’s exactly where it is; the South of Africa. I would also like to tell you a bit about my experiences at the 007 conference. If I were to use one word to describe it, it’d be: incredible! This is because, like you’re gonna have the opportunity in 008, I got to meet dynamic young people from all over the world who shared, sometimes challenged  my views and who are willing to work together with me to make the world a better place.

The question I’d like to ask you all is why are you doing this (being involved in the attempts and hopefully the success to make the world a better place)? – Something to think about because the answer to that will inform how you use the experience gained in this project.

 My country has a hectic history of oppression, particularly against Black South Africans, who were oppressed for approximately 300 years – first colonized then followed by segregation through the Afrikaans government; a system called apartheid which means they were treated as sub-humans.  I feel that it is more than my responsibility to my country and my people (both black and white South Africans) to make sure our country moves forward and never backwards, hence I’m doing this. Plus, I just love the feeling you get when you help someone else change their life for the better.

To cut to the chase, the 007 conference made the ‘global village’ real and tangible for me as a got to meet like minded individuals from all over the world and a learned a lot from them. After the conference I wrote my report, like any other ‘good delegate’ would do and submitted it to the BC in my country and got carried away with work. This is where I got my biggest lesson; if you’re serious about really doing something all the way, always check what structures are available to assist you; I submitted my report with a lot of recommendations and none of them have been implemented, partly because I also didn’t push hard enough and also because our BC office does not have someone making sure that things like these get implemented. So, as you prepare or are at the conference, start working with your BC office on how you can actually get the great ideas from the conference implemented in your projects. This is partly why I’ve agreed to be part of the alumni coming to the conference – to make sure the baton of experience gets passed on. The good news is that I have plans for 008 to do other things in my community and the experience has proven to be of incredible importance in this respect.

Another big question that I feel that we all need to answer in order to make sure that conferences like these are not a big waste of money, is that whenever you think of a challenge facing your country/continent/the world is to think what innovative and effective thing can You, as a young person do to deal with it?

 Looking forward to meeting you all!      

Regards, 

Asania