A young world ambassador shares her views

19 September 2013

Candice has demonstrated good qualities of responsible leadership and was chosen as a One Young World Ambassador to join a global network of young leaders who are creating a positive change internationally. One Young World is a London-based charity that gathers together young people from around the world, helping them make lasting connections to create positive change.

“I believe it is necessary that each and every individual in this country gets access to acceptable and hygienic sanitary facilities”, says Candice. As an active citizen of Alexandra, she realised the critical need for basic sanitation for the local community, as the dense population of bucket toilets are poorly maintained with no privacy. According to her, the lack of sanitation and hygiene is a public disaster that deserves the highest priority.

As a result, the Building Blocks Foundation, of which Ms Sehoma is the founder, was initiated and aims to replace all bucket toilets with flush toilets, supported by a proper sewage system, in Alexandra. Community participation is a key factor. Ms Sehoma personally visited community members around her home and proposed that they share the cost of constructing two new flush toilets, which were built entirely with local skills and expertise. The recently completed toilets are used – and owned – by some 50 families in her local community, each of whom has their own key. She aims to make Alexandra a bucket toilet-free zone by 2015.

Sharing her leadership views with staff members of the ALCRL, she mentioned that responsible leaders are accountable for influencing followers to act, to demonstrate integrity at all times, to perform any task without consideration of any personal gain and to effect change where needed.

The ALCRL supports young responsible leaders like Candice and will look at ways of collaborating with her in a quest to bring about positive change, not only within a community, but also globally.