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Hi everyone :), I'm an honors student from a small town called Upington in South Africa. I did my honors degree in Psychology at Cornerstone. I really have a passion for helping people and just finished my degree so I will be doing medicine next year.

I wish we could've been in Mexico to learn about how the other side of the world lives. Hopefully, I get to visit soon

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I actually did not know about the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals until this week. I did read about it and I definitely support a few of them including, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. I do personally feel as a woman that this lies close to the heart as we all have seen how high salaries and positions of authority only being given to males has affected our role as women in the workplace. We still have a long way to go in this area but it's important that young girls know that they are powerful, they can be CEOs, doctors, lawyers, anything they want and should be paid based on their experience and expertise, not gender or connections.

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Secondly, I support the ending of poverty in all its forms and this includes the other goal of water and sanitation because I do believe it goes hand in hand. This is one of the biggest problems we have and it seems impossible to solve, but it's not. I think, and it's my personal opinion that society has reinforced poverty. People have this idea that poor people are lazy and do not want to work or get an education and that's so far from the truth. The problem we need to solve is creating more opportunities for people who do not have money to get an education or to buy nice clothes for interviews. It's extremely sad how these people are treated. Because even working lower-class individuals get robbed when it comes to receiving salaries. They receive the bare minimum and it's ridiculous. When they do come home to these awful work conditions, they come home to a family who they have to feed, where the water is dirty or not available at all. No one should live like this because food, water and clothes are basic needs for any person to survive. Covid-19 has definitely worsened it with millions of people losing their sources of income and their lives. Yet, I do believe we can recover, we as humans are extremely resilient but it's time we look out for each other.

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Lastly, global warming is a problem that has its own complications that not a lot of us have noticed because it seemingly does not affect us in our everyday lives. People tend to overlook this issue and it's hard to tell why. The moment we realize something is seriously wrong on our planet, it will be too late. As a Christian, I do believe that this world was handmade for us and we should be taking care of it. The biggest issue here is because we as humans are growing, businesses and towns/cities. A lot of deforestation happens because people want to create more space for businesses. This world is run by money and the people at the top are getting greedy. Researchers have told us multiple times about how the ice is melting and getting thinner in places like Alaska. We've ignored it. They've told us that the animals in the ocean are dying because of our trash and chemicals that corporations dispose of there. At the end of the day, it's everybody's problem and we need to give more attention to our planet's cries for help. We have days like Arbor day and Earth day, but is it enough?

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I had an idea of self-care before this week and I think this course has definitely changed that for me. Sometimes self-care is taking care of your mind, body and soul. Or sometimes it could be taking care of your planet by watering your plants today or planting a seed in your garden.

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I think the goal target that mean the most to me is 3.7 2where by 2030 they want to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, including family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes. I think that this is one of the most important issues in my country, South Africa. Our youth is not fully informed about the risks and of sex. Women should have safe access to health care services like contraceptives and voluntary sterilization. Most people do not have access to it because of the high unemployment en poverty rate. Family planning is also not prioritized and it's crucial in allowing people to really plan and think about when they would like to have children. This reduces anxiety and the health risks for the mother and child. It was actually proven that planned pregnancies spaced two or more years apart result in healthier babies and fewer medical problems for the woman.

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This target is something close to the heart because I have seen firsthand what a lack of sexual education can do in poor communities. I have a cousin that got pregnant at 17 and it has influenced her life extremely because now she's studying but still has to balance being a mother to her daughter too. I am lucky enough to have that kind of education, on how to practice safe sex and the contraceptive methods that are available to me but seeing other girls my age struggling and not feeling comfortable talking about the risks they are exposed to when not practicing safe sex and the fear of going on contraceptives because it causes weight gain etc. It's a problem and we had a subject called Life Orientation in high school that was supposed to tackle these issues but these days all they do in those subjects is go out and play sports or do exercises and that is not enough.