Africa has been referred to in the past as the “forgotten continent,” as if the world has grown weary of Africa’s suffering.

As we battled the scourge of apartheid, millions of people across the globe, especially in the United States, were encouraging and supporting us, the oppressed people of South Africa. You helped make it happen and we are free at last.

But as the fanfare of President Nelson Mandela’s victory began to slip off the international media’s radar screen, the immense reality of rebuilding began for us, the citizens ofSouth Africa.

Much has been achieved since the fall of apartheid in 1994, socially and politically. However many families remain so poor they can barely feed their own, let alone take on the task of redeveloping their community.

If this new, fragile democracy is going to survive, we again need help from our friends across the world.

There still remains a great division among class and race throughout the country. A unified South Africa will only happen if the children know they have the power to carry things forward; that the future holds promise and possibility.

      

Sam Zakay must be commended for his dedication and efforts in the rebuilding of the new South Africa.

                  – Sharon Bond, Publisher, Bayside News Inc, St. Petersburg, Florida