Cape Town - Not only is Sans Souci Girls’ High School Grade 12 pupil Chloe Jooste a skilled soccer player, budding artist, poet and short story writer, she has now also received her school’s first humanitarian award for the relief initiative she spearheaded to help earthquake survivors in Türkiye and Syria.
On February 6, two devastating earthquakes struck Türkiye, followed by several aftershocks, which left thousands of people dead and injured. These were reportedly the largest earthquakes in the region in more than a century.
Miles away from the devastation, but feeling the need to step in and assist in whatever way possible, Chloe approached her school to get a campaign going to collect food cans for the survivors. In March, the school handed over the cans to the Gift of the Givers (GOTG) – one of the first international rescue agencies to respond to the disaster – to deliver.
Principal Shirley Humphreys said this was the first humanitarian award the school had bestowed and it fell under the school’s larger star awards, which also included an academic award and an award for service to the school.
“Chloe was awarded because of the drive to give food to earthquake survivors in Türkiye and Syria. We saw this as a service to humanity … The purpose of the humanitarian award, and of all our star awards, is to inspire other learners to achieve in the same way, and so we are trying to inspire positive school spirit within San Souci Star Awards,” she said.
Jooste said: “The award took me completely by surprise. I feel honoured and it was a truly humbling moment.
“The decision to reach out and help was a spontaneous one. No one has a reward or an award in mind when there is a dire need, in this case death and destruction.”
Jooste said even if she did not make much of an impact, she believed that if nothing was ventured, nothing was gained.
“One never knows what you can accomplish until you have tried,” she said.