Meanwhile, in the Friendly City—aka Port Elizabeth, South Africa—N4 Master Practitioner Zukiswa "Zuki" Allah—led a two-day story exchange with young girls at ArtWorks for Youth (AWFY). AWFY provides free visual art instruction, academic support and mentoring while reinforcing the transformative power of creativity.
Zuki's original plan was to lead a co-ed activity, but she quickly recognized that the girls needed their own space to share their powerful stories of being young, black and female in South Africa. Zuki told us, "While these young women have spent over two years together in the program, this exchange was the first of its kind. They got to form deeper bonds and I'm sure will build better relations going forward." The session ended with laughter, hugs and singing, and the girls requested more opportunities to meet regularly and share. After the exchange, Zuki and her co-facilitators realized many of the girls' stories centered around menstruation and not having access to sanitary products. So Zuki and her team pooled their funds to buy supplies for the girls and are planning a drive to gather more resources in the near future.
This is what empathy into action looks like.
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