Pupil’s inspiring entry brings peace
Centane boy’s essay wins national contest and lifts villagers
WHAT started out as a simple essay for a school competition has changed the lives of the Ngcizela community in Centane.
This is thanks to Grade 11 pupil Lukhona Butshingi, from Isolomzi Senior Secondary School, who chose faction fighting as the topic for his entry into the 2014 Youth Citizens Action Programme school competition run by Johannesburg-based NGO Heartlines.
A requirement of the competition was to write an essay detailing the daily challenges pupils face at their schools and a plan to solve this.
Lukhona said faction fighting, which affected boys and young men from the area, was also detrimental to the community and its schools.
As part of Butshingi’s project, community involvement was sought and chiefs and local businesses were also involved. After hotspots were identified, T-shirts, car stickers and fliers were printed and distributed to the Butterworth community.
This culminated in a community meeting at the chief’s homestead.
While his essay won fourth place at the national round in September last year, Lukhona went on to take first place in Heartlines’ sixth Youth Citizens Action Programme Birthday Essay Competition this year with a reflective essay, titled “Faction Fighting Finds Fame”, on his village’s journey to find peace.
“We tackled the problem successfully and as a result the school’s matric pass rate has improved drastically because now we can come to school every day,” Lukhona said.
“My essay details our journey from my first essay to where we are now. I didn’t think that we would come this far.”
Principal Sizo Butshingi said faction fights “became a real problem when it started affecting their [the boys’] education.” But after Lukhona's article, Sizo said local authorities sat up and took notice.
Lukhona jets off to Johannesburg today to attend the awards ceremony in Sandton. He said: “Don’t ever let anyone make you think just because you’re from the rural areas you can’t make it in life.” —