Alex continues to spread hope in Wentworth
Alexandra is just 21 years old and has already done so much to help those in need and still hopes to do so much more for the youth everywhere she goes.
INSPIRED to make a change in a society incredulous with a multitude of social ills, is Alexandra Wilkie from the United Kingdom (UK) recently visited the community of Wentworth to continue her mission to uplift young girls.
Alexandra first came to South Africa in 2017 as part of the Tearfund which is a UK Christian relief and development organisation. As part of the visit, she worked with different organisations on various outreach projects at the Blue Roof Life Space in Wentworth. Through her work, she met Patricia Dove, founder of the Wentworth Organisation of Women (WOW) Centre who introduced her to the youth and more specifically the girls living in Hime Street, which is an area that is notorious for negative influences that tends to deter the youth from pursuing a prosperous future.
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“A lot of the young children there didn’t go to school or have any good role models to look up to. This encouraged me to start an initiative that affords positive moments of exposure and empowerment to these young girls. Even though we come from different worlds, I still saw so much of myself in these girls and related to most of the things and issues they were going through as well as the behaviours that were manifesting through them,” she said.
It was this connection and burning desire to help these girls that inspired Alexandra to come back to Wentworth independently this year to revisit the girls. “I was so drawn to this community and I’ve always wanted to come back and just do something to positively impact these girls even though I had a vague outline idea of what it is exactly that I wanted to do. But I believe that it worked in my favour because this time around there is so many other issues that are prevalent in the community now that weren’t as prevalent before. The girls had also grown up a lot more because it had been two years since I had seen them. I came back to the same place but the environment is quite different.”
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Through effective communication and engaging the girls in activities and projects that sought to address their personal, social, familial and community issues, Alexandra was able to gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges the girls face daily. “What I realised is that these girls really just want a space to be able to talk and have their voices, struggles and opinions heard so that their struggles may be identified while also gaining validation. A lot of these girls have ambitions that are way bigger than the boundaries of Wentworth. They just need people that they can trust, who will believe in them and provide them with the tools they need to overcome their circumstances and further realise their dreams,” she said.
Alexandra is just 21 years old and has already done so much to help those in need and still hopes to do so much more for the youth everywhere she goes. Her advice to any young girl who may be faced with any form of difficulty that seeks to break her down, especially at the pinnacle of a concerning rise of women and child abuse in the country: “I’ve been where she’s been. Everything that she has been through isn’t because she is or wasn’t good nor is it a reflection of her. It is a reflection of the patterns of her abuser or the dark side of society which have therefore inflicted their or its brokenness on her. There is beauty in pain and there is still beauty in brokenness. You can and will heal.”
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