Global Poverty Monitor

What about the emotional struggle, it must have been heartbreaking for you. What sort of things affected you emotionally or
metaphorically made your heart break?

The things that I saw at the Chitima Health Centre broke my heart. As you could imagine, when I returned home I really had a hard time adjusting to life as normal. Some of the things that once were important to me, like uni, my dance classes, and my boyfriend, now held no meaning. Initially, the only thing that concerned me was raising money for the Health Centre. I became very unhappy, and broke up with my boyfriend, stopped going to my dance classes, and started failing things at uni. It took a long time to recover from this state, which was largely because I felt that World Vision did not live up to its part of the deal once I returned. I understood that once I returned from the study tour my work had only just begun. I was to visit schools all over the state and speak of my experiences and encourage everyone to participate in the 40 Hour Famine and other youth activities. However, since being home for over a year I have spoken in only two schools and two youth conferences, and was denied permission to fundraise for the Health Centre. This really affected me because I had no outlet for all of the things that I had learned and experienced while I was away. My Mum and Dad were excellent, and I don’t know where I would be without their support through the difficult times. I now don’t have anything to do with World Vision apart from my continued support for
my sponsored children, and my participation in a local volunteer group which raises money for World Vision projects. I realised that I had to find my own way of doing what I know I have to do, and the only way to do that was to give up the Ambassadorship, which I did around six months ago.