Don’t allow your circumstances to define you, says Bonteheuwel youth leader Nurjehaan Schroeder who scored a Bachelor’s matric pass and now wants to help other pupils do the same.
Nurjehaan lives in Swartysterhoud Street, Bonteheuwel. Frequent gang violence in her neighbourhood made it hard for Nurjehaan to get to school, but she persevered and scored distinctions in history and life orientation when she matriculated from Modderdam High School last year.
Nurjehaan is the leader of a Bonteheuwel youth group that fights unemployment, visits old-age homes and takes part in various volunteer programmes helping the community.
She now plans to tutor pupils in the area as part of the Year Beyond (YeBo) Programme, which sees university students, working as interns at the Premier’s Office, giving academic support to those who need it.
She wants to help other young people in her community do well academically so they can study further after school.
“My results were very overwhelming, but I expected great marks because I worked hard. Sometimes I slept in the day and studied at night, but I summarised all my work and studied from there,” she said.
But there had been a time at school, she said, that she had made the wrong friends and her marks had suffered.
“It was easy to give into peer pressure, and I got involved in some wrong things, but I realised that it was not for me, and I changed my situation completely because most of my friends were dating gangsters and had children, and I didn’t see myself doing that.
“I wanted to be able to take care of myself in a few years time and my parents in the future.
“I wanted to be able to go into a shop and buy what I want to for myself and not be at home and stand on the corner and get pregnant at an early age because I am not ready for that,” she said.
She said her parents had supported her throughout.
“When I got involved with the wrong friends, I disobeyed my parents and I came in late and didn’t listen, and I gave them a lot of problems, but they were there for me.
“Our ward councillor, Angus Mckenzie, also helped me a lot and gave me lots of great opportunities,” she said.
“Your situation does not define you. It’s your choice to change
your future; it starts with you. You can’t wait on other people to change things for you. Be determined and stay focused because there is a better life other than the Cape Flats.”
Nurjehaan has applied to two institutions to study public administration and is waiting to hear back from them.
If she doesn’t get in this year, she hopes to start an internship at the Premier’s Advancement of Youth Programme, which will provide 700 matriculants of 2018 with work and training experience from March 2019 to March 2020 to help them decide on a career choice.
Her father, Mogamat Shaheed Schroeder, said he was very proud of his daughter’s achievement.
“We always motivated her to study and not to take things for granted. We always told her to get off that phone, but she always said that her work was on the phone. But we said that all the other stuff is also on the phone.
“Everyone has been wishing us well, and we really appreciate that. This is our only daughter and she did us proud,” he said.
“My advice to other parents is to sit with their children and support them and listen to them. Sometimes there are challenges, and they need their parents to listen instead of them discussing it with other people because that is where the problem comes in. Take note of your children’s whereabouts and what they need, and help them,” he said.