Education is key.

Last week we held a seminar on migrants and human rights in South Africa. The aim of the seminar was to discuss and attempt to come up with solutions to the xenophobic violence in the country. The seminar was well attended; I suspect this was because we had a panel of well known figures doing the presentations. The media people attended as well. I did not attend the seminar I had a lot of behind- the-scenes work to do. When the seminar came to an end, we ushered guests out to the refreshments area were they were served some light meals. One of the women who had come in late walked up to me and asked why I was not eating seeing as there was plenty of food. Before I could answer, she started talking about how angry she was at the seminar organisers. She felt that she had learnt a lot of things about the law and that this knowledge should be shared with the rest of the country rather than shared with the already enlightened. She said she was not aware that the constitution protected non South Africans as well. She admitted that she has supported the attacks because she thought the law itself was anti- outsider. At that point I realised the importance of education in solving social issues. Education empowers people with the necessary information to make decisions.I was happy that at least someone benefited from the seminar.