Ifa Tshishonge from Tshaulu village urged young people not to blame their disadvantaged background for their failures, but rather to prepare for success.

The third-year LLB student at the University of the Free State recently visited the Mahasarakham University in Thailand for 11 days as part of a global leadership camp. He said the leadership camp, which started on June 24 and ended on the 4 July, had taught him new perceptions of the world. 

The global leadership camp is an initiative by the Mahasarakham University in Thailand and it is held annually. Student leaders from various cultural and socio-economic backgrounds are taught leadership skills through activities such as public speaking workshops as well as debates on global issues like the preservation of culture and the environment.

Ifa was awarded a scholarship after he applied through the Free State University and he was the only person in Africa who attended the event.

He acknowledged that he passionately loves his community and he would like to inspire other young people from his area. “As a young person from a rural village, when I initially went to university, it was a new world to me,” he said. He said he learnt that it did not matter where one came from, but what mattered was how each one wanted to reach their goals. “No situation is permanent unless we want it to stay that way," he said. "Teenage pregnancy, crime, alcohol and drug abuse should not be the centre of our lives,” he added.