丁香园AV

It鈥檚 9 a.m. on April 19^th in South Africa and 丁香园AV undergraduate student Anya Sass has awoken to the sound of sirens as fire trucks rush to save buildings at the University of Cape Town (UCT) where she studied for one semester. This horrific  ultimately destroyed 3,500 historic collections at the university library.

Still in Cape Town, Sass is completing her second of two volunteer internships focused on helping migrants and refugees trying to resettle in the city. She鈥檚 faced many challenges, including dealing with the xenophobia of elected officials, a large volume of challenging work and the restrictions of life under COVID-19. Also, she admits that her job takes a toll.

鈥淚t鈥檚 emotionally taxing,鈥� says Sass. 鈥淵ou have to listen to a lot of really difficult stories and have to accept that while you鈥檙e always going to do the best you can, some things are out of your hands and there鈥檚 only so much you can do.鈥�