??YOUTH MONTH
This Youth Month, we're celebrating students who are driving positive change on campus, in their communities and beyond. Through their leadership, compassion and commitment, they are helping to build a better future for South Africa. These profiles highlight the impact and energy of a new generation of changemakers at Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票 (SU).
For Caroline Wallington, the link between ecology and justice is not theoretical. As a PhD candidate at SU's Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST), her academic work focuses on social-ecological regime shifts, but her interests stretch far beyond research. From wetlands to waste, from education to community upliftment, Wallington has made it her mission to live out her values in both public and private ways.
“I've become extremely connected to and passionate about sustainability and social-ecological systems, including all their inherent complexity," she says. Her work explores how abrupt changes in ecosystems – called regime shifts – impact biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human wellbeing. “I'm also particularly interested in wetlands and seemingly small things that make a big impact on the wellbeing of people's livelihoods."
Wallington holds degrees from the 中国体育彩票 of Cape Town and the 中国体育彩票 of the Witwatersrand, and is a registered professional natural scientist in ecological science. Before returning to academia, she worked in environmental impact assessments, where she specialised in wetland ecology, biodiversity management and land rehabilitation. This practical experience sharpened her systems-thinking perspective, something she now applies in activism as well.
Advocacy in action
Wallington is currently involved as an expert in a Water Tribunal case challenging a proposed water use license by Keysource Minerals (previously CONSOL Glass) in the Philippi Horticultural Area. Volunteering her expertise, she supports the Department of Water and Sanitation's rejection of the license, which has already been turned down twice. The case has been ongoing for nearly two years.
“This has been tiresome work," she admits. “It requires me to review various resources and write legally binding reports detailing my expert opinion, as well as join specialist meetings to try and reach some common ground and agreement." The process is still underway, and Wallington is expected to testify at the next round of hearings. She hopes her contribution to the Water Tribunal process will help clarify this complex case. She strives to build on the insights she gained and use them to support others in similar contexts in future.
Wallington also supports community upliftment initiatives in the Lowveld. Together with her close friend Mashau Praising Mabunda, who is a Tsonga food activist, she is helping to grow an NGO, Xigugu Royalty, around a traditional product called Xigugu, a peanut butter-style blend of roasted peanuts and corn. “While this is built around a simple product, the idea is to grow it into a diverse community upliftment NGO based in Cork, which is on the way to the Kruger National Park."
Her most personal project is the educational support she has given to Dudu Lubisi, who she has known since she was 2 years old. The teenager is the grandniece of Sesi Maria Sando, the woman who helped raise Wallington and her three brothers in Mpumalanga. “Maria was truly far more than a domestic worker to all of us, but especially me. I referred to her as my Zulu mom. We had a uniquely special friendship and I spent time in her home in Kabokweni many times."
Wallington made a commitment to ensure Dudu received a good high school education. Despite financial constraints, Wallington ensured Dudu completed matric, even receiving help from family to help Dudu finish school. She now continues to mentor the young girl through the next chapter of her life, especially since the very sad and sudden loss of Maria a few years ago. Wallington hopes Dudu will be the first of many young people she helps access education, honouring Maria's legacy and her own lifelong belief in education as a tool for empowerment.
Staying the course
Wallington says her passion for helping others is partly due to her personality type as an “adaptive peacemaker", but also due to gratitude. “I have been privileged to have a very strong, stable upbringing with a good education and good mentors, despite also experiencing normal hardships that come with childhood and big families."
The biggest reward for Wallington is knowing that she is living according to her values, beliefs and core ethics, even if it is sometimes challenging. “I think it also comes from the knowledge that no matter how hard things are for me, the people I am trying to help have it way worse. At times when I have considered stopping or quitting, I have imagined myself in the future looking back on that decision, and I have known in my heart I would regret it and feel very disappointed in myself."
While people have sometimes urged her to scale back her generosity, Wallington holds firm. Despite ongoing financial challenges, she stays dedicated to making a difference, believing she can – and will – do even more in future. She draws strength from her family and mentors, especially her mother and her late “Zulu mom", Maria. “I miss her dearly, as I was hoping to do much more with her in the future when she retired."
Wallington believes that even the smallest actions can make a meaningful difference. “It can be overwhelming once you open yourself up to the enormity of help that is needed all around us, so a certain resilience is needed to withstand that emotional trauma and pressure.
“Some days that feeling is extremely overwhelming, and most other days it is manageable. Even something as simple as rinsing out your recyclables so that the person collecting your rubbish does not have to deal with dirty plastics is worth doing. Just smiling and acknowledging the existence of beggars on the side of the road when you have nothing to give them is worth doing. Even giving people lifts when it is slightly out of your way is worth doing in a country with poor public transport."
PHOTO: Stefan Els
GRAPHIC: Geola Bergman
?
