Appels the apple of Province's eye

GEORGE NEWS - The head boy of Parkdene Secondary School, Gustaviano Appels (18), impressed the organisers of the 2021 election of the Western Cape Provincial Representative Council of Learners (RCL), which was held online recently. He was invited to be the keynote speaker at the event.

"His pleasant, sincere demeanour won me over," said one of the organisers, Kubeshini Govender.

Appels made the news last year when the media heard that he was digging graves during the Covid-19 waves to earn money to help pay his school fees. He also started a soup kitchen in Borcherds for the hungry during that time.

This is where he lives with his mother, Croné and grandmother, Hendrieka.

On Monday during a visit to his home, he told George Herald that the soup kitchen is still operating once a week and about 100 people receive a meal.

His message for other youngsters at the RCL election was to stand up despite their circumstances. "Don't give up on your dreams. Dream big and always pray and ask God to help you to achieve those dreams despite your circumstances."

Appels wants to be that guy who does what people say cannot be done. "To contribute financially to the household and help support my schooling career, I am compelled to work at a graveyard, which I know is a grave place for a teenager to find himself in. I realised that there is more than an image that I want to project - I want to be the person that is the first there and the last to leave," he said.

He has had to withstand teasing from his peers for working in a graveyard, but said he decided to adopt the attitude of the wise Mother Theresa who once said, 'Be thankful in small things, because it is in them that your strength lies'.

"That one small thing is my passion to work in my community with the young people to show them the possibility of bringing about change in our disadvantaged community that so yearns for us as teens to step up to the plate and bring about change."

Appels says he is considering a career as a traffic officer as it would suit his personality. He is working hard to achieve academically and says he is "100% satisfied" with how his studies are going and his results so far this year.