GoodThingsGuy have opened up our offices to young bloggers, authors and writers who want inspire, share their stories and opinions.
We’ll publish articles written by them, told in their own way, raw & unedited… this is a kids opinion!
I saw an awesome article about Kiara Nirghin, the 16 year old girl who won the Google Community Impact Award, and it made me realise that kids really have the power to change the world!
I thought I would share my top five, most amazing African kids and what they’ve done to inspire me and the kids around me:
Hector Pieterson
Hector Pieterson changed the entire course of South African history all because of one picture!
The incredible South African died at the age of 13 when the police opened fire on protesting students. The students started a protest in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium instruction in local schools. They called it, the Soweto riots but because of Hector, everyone in South Africa, can learn in any language we choose.
He will always be a hero to all of us.
Nkosi Johnson
Nkosi Johnson was a South African child born with HIV. He passed away at just 12 years old… but managed to change the world in his short time here.
He did not know his father and his mother died of HIV, but he was legally adopted by Gail Johnson. Nkosi first came to came to public attention in 1997, when a primary school refused to accept him as a pupil because of his HIV-positive status.
Nkosi was the keynote speaker of the International AIDS Conference, where he encouraged people with HIV to be open about the decease and to seek equal treatment. Nkosi finished his speech with these words.
“Care for us and accept us we are all human beings. We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else, don’t be afraid of us, we are all the same.”
He changed the way people saw the virus in South Africa and the world. And he will never be forgotten.
Ryan Hreljac
Ryan Hreljac might not be African but at the age of six helped thousands of Africans!
He learned that children in Africa have to walk many kilometres every day just to fetch water and decided he needed to build a well for a village.
So he did exactly that and built his first well in 1999. Ryan’s determination led to Ryan’s Well foundation which has completed 667 projects in 16 countries, bringing access to clean water and sanitation to more than 714 000 people.
Thandiwe Chama
Thandiwe Chama is a young educational rights activist in Zambia, most known for winning the International Childrens Peace Prize 2007 at the age of 16.
In 1999, when she was only eight-years-old, her school was closed because there were no teachers. Thandiwe refused to accept this and led 60 other children in walking to find another school.
Because of this, all the children were taken into the Jack Cecup School.
Thandiwe’s efforts in ensuring that every child can have access to education have earned her fame throughout the world and she still fights for this right today.
Greg Keal
Greg Keal founded and directed a non-profit organisation called RiseUp when he was still at school.
RiseUp, encourages young South Africa’s youth to stand against human rights violations through peaceful protests, community work and petitions.
He has collected textbooks for rural schools and protested against unconstitutional legislation.
He is also a recipient of a World Changers Entrepreneur Challenge first prize for his proposal for a profitable and sustainable feeding scheme in rural schools around the Western Cape.
Matthew Ross is a 13 year old from Kyalami Prep who loves the outdoors, photography, animals and books. He’s not sure what he’ll be when he grows up… but he knows that he’ll be good at it.
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