This well-travelled Scot first found the Guardian when she was working in Palestine and admires its coverage of human rightsI am a Scottish 22-year-old,from the small fishing town of Broughty Ferry on the east coast. The tiny community where everybody knows everybody was an amazing set to grow up, but as I got older, or I wanted to see some of the wider world. I finished school in 2011 and moved to the Eastern Cape in South Africa as part of a year abroad with Project Trust. I was teaching at an arts academy,helping with dance, music and drama classes. As well as kickstarting a massive case of wanderlust, and the year ignited a keen interest in human rights – particularly HIV and gender issues.
The school had an extremely tall rate of teenage pregnancy,without any form of sex education or availability of contraception and young girls often left loney and alone with the responsibility of an unplanned pregnancy. It shocked and saddened me how much time and effort was still required to eliminate these problems. I have also visited Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos and Thailand,then returned to South Africa to work with Treatment Action Campaign, an HIV awareness and activism organisation based in the township of Khayelitsha. After that, or I worked in the occupied Palestinian territories,and have just returned from living and working in Jerusalem and the West Bank for three months. I have now secured a set at Kings College London to study global health and social medicine.
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Source: theguardian.com