As we imagined evolving our South Africa Odyssey, we wanted to do more than simply volunteer in cancer hospitals and organizations. We wanted to also empower our participants to step into the community, not only as volunteers, but also as grassroots cancer awareness ambassadors. We wanted to experiment with building relationships first and then sharing our stories of cancer as part of a broader experience. We believe that when people can connect first as friends and fellow humans, a door is opened to a deeper, more impactful cancer awareness conversation. When I asked someone from our latest South Africa tribe to share her experience, Liz Ferguson immediately volunteered. It is not easy to explain the subtleties of an experience like this, but I hope you enjoy reading her thoughts on the impact our tribe made in South Africa as well as the impact our South African hosts made on us. -Terri

Trying to Explain Living Hope

On the rare occasions anyone is interested in hearing about the work I do – I fly high. It feels so validating to explain art therapy and reminds me that my work has value, even when my contributions seem very simple at times.

Upon returning from South Africa, one of my clients asked “so what did you do and did you do any good? How exactly did you help people?” Fair question – but I had trouble producing an easy answer.

When we worked with Living Hope, we did not move mountains. We did not give huge sums of money, or any money for that matter. We did not bring armfuls of gifts. Many of us did not actually “do” the work of the community health carers we were matched up with. So then, how helpful were we?

We watched. We listened. We heard the stories of the residents of Capricorn. Not only those of the designated “patients”, but also of the carers – because Capricorn is their home too. We showed interest. We cared. We were privileged enough to spend days alongside the caretakers learning about them and their communities first-hand.

We also shared stories about cancer and showed our hosts that cancer does not always equate catastrophe. You can thrive. I learned that cancer awareness is a big deal in a place where many people are cancer unaware and simply do not know what to look for. When cancer is found, it is often very late.

As part of this placement we also worked side-by-side with agriculture students from the Eastern Cape. For most of us, this was more “hands on,” (we were put to work in the hydroponic tunnels) – but thousands of tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers are not grown in a day. Again, we watched, we listened, we shared stories. I was even taught some words in Xhosa – one of South Africa’s official languages that uses clicks (I was not successful but we had lots of laughs). We cared.

A member of our tribe said that one of the agriculture students said our presence meant “South Africa is cared about.” Wow.

I’d love to think that we showed the wonderful South Africans we met that their work is important and valid. But the truth is that our week of being so welcomed into the Living Hope community did so much for my own soul. I can only hope that even a tiny bit of the feeling was mutual.

Liz Ferguson is an art therapist living in Branford, CT with her family. She is a member of the 2018 South Africa Tribe.

A Joint Community Event

After volunteering alongside the Living Hope staff in both Capricorn and Kommetijie from Monday to Thursday, we held a joint Community Storytelling and Awareness Event on Friday with Living Hope staff and representatives from organizations that are part of the Cancer Alliance of South Africa. Although A Fresh Chapter would never pretend to be the experts on cancer support and awareness in another country, through our participants and our programming, we have a unique opportunity to weave together experiences that create connection, awareness, and a community of support. 

Thank you Living Hope for partnering with us to bring this vision for week 2 of our program to life. Here’s to creating more side-by-side experiences where we can all learn, grow, and inspire each other.