Students look back on life-changing visit
Vic students look back on life-changing Mandela visit
Nelson Mandela often said children are our future, and his generosity helped change the lives of a group of young students with a visit to Melbourne in 2000.
A group of Trinity Year 8 students dreamed of meeting Mr Mandela 13 years ago, and wrote to him asking for a visit.
“Looking back now as a 29-year-old at what we did as 15, 14 year olds… I don't think we thought he'd even read the letter,” said Justin, one of the lucky students to meet Mandela.
And the letter that got him there?
“Dear Mr Mandela, we have been learning about your life and seek inspiration from you,” the letter read.
“We are writing to you hoping that you will inspire leaders of tomorrow, today.”
It was enough to convince Nelson Mandela to travel across the world and visit Melbourne.
More than a decade on, Piers Mitcham still holds the memory high.
“He was just so warm,” he said.
“Every person that he came across, he looked them in the eye, and he had an amazing ability to make you feel like you were the only person in the room when he spoke to you.”
The students’ history teacher John Carnegies was one of the few who had faith Mandela would respond.
“He walked in, there were former prime ministers and all sorts of dignitaries there he walked straight past them and up to the youngest kid in the room, an Indigenous Australian boy, must have been four or five years old, and he picked him up, and turned to the press gallery, and the room lit up,” Mr Carnegies said.
Mr Mandela’s visit inspired Mr Carnegies to start his own school for students who don't fit the mould of the mainstream classroom, much like Nelson Mandela himself.
“The Mandela story is the back bone of the curriculum and I think it's because at his heart, he was a champion of the human spirit,” Mr Carnegies added.
