BSC STUDENT DESTINED FOR INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CAMP IN GERMANY

The Nelson Mandela Museum in the Eastern Cape has recognised a UKZN student, Ms Esinako Hintsa, as an ideal participant for an international youth camp in Germany in April.

The first year Bachelor of Science student at the Pietermaritzburg campus is among five students from universities around South Africa who will spend three weeks at Berg-Belsem, a former Nazi concentration camp in the Lower Saxony region of Germany, where they will share information on their cultural heritage with youth around the globe.

Berg-Belsem, now a centre aimed at promoting human rights and instilling civic duties among the youth, works in conjunction with the Nelson Mandela Museum to provide South African youth with the opportunity to take part in annual cultural exchange programmes.

Ms Hintsa, who has participated in youth leadership programmes since Grade 11, plans to use the medium of art to portray South Africa’s cultural diversity and its transformation since democracy. She has been a group leader for the annual Nelson Mandela Museum Youth Camps since high school.

“South Africa is often portrayed as a country struggling both economically and socially. I want them (youth abroad) to know South Africa is a country which is moving forward,” said Ms Hintsa.

All five students participated in a preparatory workshop in March where they formulated plans to promote South Africa abroad. Ms Hintsa, who has an avid interest in poetry, said through dance, poetry and story-telling the team planned to inform the youth abroad of the South Africa’s diverse culture and the prevailing unity despite differences.

Aware of the struggles between the Jews and the Germans in the past, Ms Hintsa believes her three-week participation in a programme based at a former concentration camp would offer her a better understanding of Germany’s history and transformation.