Alex L found her calling

I have finally found my calling, my passion, and what I will eventually be doing for my activist project this semester! After speaking with Marita one day about how I had no idea what I could personally do to contribute to a project or give back to the community, she told me “It’ll just come to you, something will pull on your heartstrings and then you’ll know what you might want to do.” Ironically, while walking home from that meeting with her, I passed a dog training session on the front lawn of a school and caught myself outwardly gushing over the dogs…it then hit me that I have such a strong love for animals and they must be incorporated with my project idea. I then immediately got on the internet searching for organizations with therapy dogs that traveled to different communities such as schools or hospitals and simply put smiles on people’s faces who needed them the most. Unfortunately, the organizations I found did not fit with my schedule, or were way too far away to access, so I kept persisting with my search. I then stumbled across a program called the Underdog Program which brought tears to my eyes while reading and watching videos about what they did, which then solidified that this is something I must get involved with. The Underdog Project is an after school program located in the township of Hout Bay, specifically for teenagers who have been suffering some kind of emotional distress, drug abuse, involvement in gang related violence, etc. As a part of the non invasive therapeutic process, these teens are paired up with a dog from a local kennel and are to spend an hour training them. Not only are these dogs getting the training, attention, and socialization they need, but these teenagers are gaining an unexplainable amount of positivity through these dogs as well. It teaches many different lessons of responsibility, but also they get the feeling of a companionship and bonding experience that comes with caring for an animal. After the training session, the teens then go to a “class”, mostly a discussion about important life skills and lessons that will hopefully give them insight to getting out of their situations and improving their lives in positive ways. It is a safe and comfortable environment for these teenagers to be in opposed to getting involved with other detrimental things/activities after school. I am ecstatic to be getting involved with this project because it incorporates so many things that are important to me. I’m sure it’ll be a life changing experience, and I will certainly want to incorporate what I’ve done here back home as well.