Jill Gurr

I’ll be digesting and processing my time in South Africa and Northern Ireland for some time to come. I’ve met some remarkable people, made some great new friends, and received a lot of self-knowledge through this phenomenal experience. I’ve grown tremendously and what I’ve learned will be incorporated into my work for Create Now and the community, here and worldwide.

I’m so grateful to the British Council and Volunteer Service Organization for giving me, and Create Now, this exceptional opportunity.

I can’t wait to provide this experience to a deserving youth. We have already formed a GX Youth Committee, composed of social workers, probation officers and others in the community who have volunteered to filter through the hundreds of applications that we’ll be receiving when we enter into the final phase of this program. We will all work together to pick the perfect youth to take this experience to the next step.

I’ll keep you updated as we make more progress. I’ll be posting information about Create Now programs, activities and updates on my personal blog. Please feel free to post your responses, or to contact me at jill@createnow.org if you want to share insights, experiences or have questions related to anything that I’ve discussed.

As we learned in South Africa, “Ubuntu” is the essence of being human. It means, “I am because you are because we are.” The concept is that we can’t exist as human beings in isolation. We are all interconnected, and through the spirit of “Ubuntu,” we can all work together to make this a better world. So for now, I leave you with “Ubuntu.”