“To care for anyone else enough to make their problems one's own, is ever the beginning of one's real ethical development.” Felix Adler

It’s the general consensus that Rhodes students don’t care about the poverty in Grahamstown and aren’t bothered about what happens in Joza. As long as their tragedies don’t infere with our fashion-obsessed, drinking and partying lifestyle they’re of no real consequence. I strongly disagree with this consensus. Just because we’re born out of privileged circumstances, this doesn’t mean that our humanity disappears just as fast as a bar tab at the rat.

I could be mistaken for the generalised version of the Rhodes student; I’m blonde, love clothes and I’m from a privileged background that has enabled me to come to university to study. But just because I embody the generalised characteristics doesn’t mean that I don’t care. Yes, I can’t give all of my spare change to every beggar that I see outside of Pick n’ Pay but that doesn’t mean that I don’t care or that I’m heartless.

For the last six months I’ve been volunteering at St Mary’s day care centre working with children from the township. But I’m not the only one. The Student Volunteer Programme has 300 programmes currently running in Grahamstown. Each of these programmes runs from Monday to Friday, with some even operating on Saturdays. This fact alone shows that there is a large support of students who work alongside with the Centre for Social Development (CSD) to benefit Grahamstown. Yes, not every single student volunteers but there is still a strong group who break the mould.

Varsity is a time for us to change how we perceive certain things. And developing a sense of social justice is part of what makes us human. My upbringing has given me an advantage over others. But it’s how I choose to practice this advantage that counts at the end of the day. What I look like or my upbringing doesn’t define who I am. Instead, it’s a challenge to venture out and make some type of difference. Yes, when I first came here I was into the partying and found the beggars on the street an annoyance. But the more I began to ignore the problem, the more it reared its head. The sense of guilt was overwhelming. But these feelings found direction through Rhodes’ a stellar volunteer programme catering to every type of volunteering. They provide an opportunity to use the skills that we develop in university outside of the lecture hall. It’s a chance to move outside the comfort of the Rhodes bubble and to engage with people from the ‘other’ side of Grahamstown.

The answer to the problems in Grahamstown isn’t in the occasional donation to a beggar outside of the shop. It’s in supporting NGO’s, CBO’s and schools who are slowly making a difference in the township. It’s like the Chinese proverb says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” In this same way, through teaching sustainable skills to the community change is possible. But this can only be done through student volunteering. So when students are ready to move beyond their constant complaining and are ready to do something constructive for the community, then we will be able to move beyond the generalisation that we don’t care about the outside community.