For her International Baccalaureate (IB) personal project South African KIS student Devani-Shanese Gounden wrote a book about her life as a third culture child, entitled "A Battle to Blend". She sent the book to Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa and anti-apartheid activist, who, as seen from this picture, was very pleased to receive it. The full story is below:

I’d like to share the story behind this incredible picture. When Shanese wrote her autobiography “A Battle to Blend” in 2007, three years after the terrible Tsunami struck Thailand, she decided to print 100 copies of the book and sell it to the school community as a fund raiser.  She was keen to donate money to a little Thai boy she had befriended in Kao Lak.  She had become very fond of him while working on community service activities with young children at the children’s center who had been orphaned as a result of the tragedy.  KIS International School had asked for five volunteers to accompany a group of Washington International School students to Kao Lak.  Despite the huge interest among our students only five KIS volunteers were able to go.  As a result, students were asked to submit a proposal about why they felt they should be chosen.  Shanese was one of the lucky five to be selected.

During her short time there she closely bonded with one very lonely little boy.  When she came back home she told me how she wished that she could have brought him back with her.  I realized she was seriously asking me if it were possible to adopt the child.  It was obvious how deeply moved she had been by the experience.   She was sad because the only personal information she had about the boy was that his name was Gop and he was about 5 years old.  I shared this information with Ms. Oui, our friend and Thai teacher at KIS, who promised to try and find out more about him as she was scheduled to go to Kao Lak as part of the continuing Tsunami volunteer program. 

Ms.Oui made inquires at the Children’s shelter and was able to get more background information, as well as a photo of Gop, to bring back to Shanese.  We also learnt that he was not an orphan as both of his parents had survived the Tsunami and were now working full time.  Gop’s parents left him at the shelter during the day because there was no one at home to look after him.  When Shanese heard this she decided that she would donate the net profit from the sale of her first 100 books  towards Gop’s tuition fees for his schooling.  She wasn’t even sure that she could sell 100 books, but decided to make it her personal goal marketing the books to the KIS school community.  Everyone helped to make the sale of the book a success.  The TA’s in EY1, Ms. Chanda and Ms. Belle, assisted in putting up posters and fliers around the school to help promote the book.  Ms. June was quite excited and very proud of the project and bought several copies of Shanese’s autobiography for the school library collection.

Within a few weeks all 100 books were sold out.  This was great news as Shanese had achieved her personal goal.  However, there were still many requests from family and friends to get a copy of her autobiography as we had given priority for the sale of the book to the KIS community.  I encouraged Shanese to go ahead and print another 50 books and joked with her that perhaps we could begin her college educational fund from the sale of these books.  It sold out within a few days as we got requests to post copies to family members and friends in South Africa, the United States and England. 

Since Nelson Mandela is such a revered leader in South Africa we felt it would be an honor to send a signed copy of Shanese’s autobiography to him.  However, we were never certain if the book had in fact reached him.  Then, a few months ago I got an email from a friend in South Africa to say that they had a surprise for Shanese’s 18^th birthday.  They had managed to get a photo of the great Nelson Mandela reading her book!  Shanese was quite skeptical about it, and said she would believe it when she saw the evidence.  She could not imagine that the former President of South Africa, a world icon, would be holding her book in his hands.  She has just turned 18, and I know this photo will be an unforgettable memory for her.

We also met Brett Courtney (Bryce Courtney’s son) and passed a copy to him as he had strong connections in the publishing field and expressed a keen interest to read the book.  Brett was visiting Thailand and stopped over for a visit at my sister’s house.  A copy was also shared with the former South African Ambassador to Thailand (Nonvume) as well as our current South African Ambassador Gibson.  Both Ambassador Gibson and his wife told us how proud they were of Shanese and that they really enjoyed reading her autobiography.  I met Canadian Ambassador David Sproule at a South African function and talked to him at length about our school.  He had mentioned that he had two children and was looking for a school that could accommodate their needs.  During our conversation I mentioned that I had a daughter who was a student at KIS and how she was thriving in our program.  I told him about her personal project, and he was fascinated with her story.  He asked if he could get a copy of her book and after reading it emailed to say how fortunate Shanese was to have such an exciting story to share. 

To date, her book has made it to South Africa, England, USA, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Turkey.

We are proud and honored to share this memorable photo with everyone.  Enjoy!

April 29, 2010