Using my influence to affect positive change

When she arrived at the reserve crying uncontrollably one morning, I knew something was horribly wrong. She was not the kind of person to cry for no reason. I took her in my arm and led her to sit down and talk to me.

Where we worked was not in a fantastic area. It bordered on some fancy suburbs but it also bordered on one of the area's most dangerous ganglands known as the Cape Flats. Every so often gang warfare would break out and general chaos would ensue, often leading to countless innocent people including children dying in gang shootouts.

Volunteer accommodation was unfortunately often allocated to families close to or in these dangerous areas, something I personally never agreed with.

Ilme had for the past few days been absolutely traumatized and terrified by the sound of gunfire in the area accompanied by shouting, people running around and general unease. A person who has grown up in this kind of area probably becomes somewhat desensitized to this and knows how to respond. A person who comes from a first world country and grew up in an area where this kind of thing never happens would not only struggle with the obvious culture shock, but would be absolutely paralyzed with fear in a scenario like this and she described it as feeling like she was living in a war zone - because that's exactly what it was to her.

I felt absolutely terrible for her, the fact that this was her experience when all she wanted to do was come to my country and help a good cause. She never signed up for living next to gangland or being sleep deprived due to fear. I was enraged at the insensitivity of the company that put her in this position. I looked her straight in the eye and apologized to her, promising to fix it.

That morning I made a few phone calls. The first one to my line manager. While not the most compassionate person and a history in the army, he expected his staff to be exceptionally strong of character, will and tenacity. They were traits we all needed to get the job done. Volunteers however were a different kettle of fish.

The second phone call I made was to the manager of the volunteer placement company. While I am not one to throw my weight around without reason, in this instance I used my influence as a Peace Officer to highlight to her the possible ramifications of this scenario should Ilme's parents choose to lay charges against the volunteer organization of endangerment. How bad it would be for them if this traumatic experience got to the newspapers or the international news.

She tried very briefly to argue with me, but soon the ramifications dawned on her in their entirety. I made suggestions about how I could assist her with finding better accommodation options. I offered for Ilme to live with me, I owned my own house and lived alone about minutes away from the reserve in a safe suburb with security. There was a spare room and Ilme was more than welcome. I then suggested a second option - that she could move in with the conservation students in their accommodation - they were all more or less the same age group and Ilme would feel far more at home with these familiar people than a random new placement family through this placement company. Transport in both instances was already available to work and back each day.

Both of these options were rejected by the manager as the volunteer placement agency had a protocol that any volunteer had to be placed in a typical "family structured" household. To be honest I was a little bit irritated by this point because they were insisting on a typical family household but they had no qualms about placing a volunteer into some of the most dangerous gang territory in the area. Seemed a bit idiotic to me, but I bit my tongue and told her I would find a solution. Either way, I impressed upon her that Ilme would not spend one more night in that location.

After relaying this nonsensical protocol to my line manager who agreed it seemed ridiculous - he called his wife, had a discussion with her and then got back to me saying that they had a spare room and would be happy to help Ilme out for the rest of her stay as all the boxes were then ticked to placate the volunteer placement company.

By that afternoon the placement manager had made a plan on my insistance that the previous accommodation be cancelled with the family - I wasn't interested in what she needed to do to get it done. After work I drove Ilme to my managers house which was staff allocated accommodation on one of the other reserves not far from where we worked.

When my manager and his wife showed her around the house, where the kitchen was, where she could do her laundry, took her to her room and let her put down her bags on her bed, she burst into tears and gave us each a huge hug. I think she was so relieved to be in a safe space that it was a bit overwhelming for her. My heart broke seeing this poor girl who had such a big heart for conservation feeling so broken and traumatized by her first experience in South Africa. I was glad I could use my influence and a little bit of a threatening tone over the phone to rectify this situation. This particular issue never happened again and accommodation was far more strictly vetted by the placement company.

The rest of her time that Ilme worked with us, she was all smiles and laughter and I have very fond memories of her being a part of our team. She was an absolute delight to work alongside. I hope that the good memories she has of working with us outweighed her original experience in that awful situation.

Our team at the end of year braai (barbeque) - we worked hard but we also rewarded ourselves with spending time in beautiful places and laughing together. I am so proud to have been part of the most amazing team of people working tirelessly in unison towards a common goal. I hope that my people learned as much from me as I learned from them along the way.