’Peer pressure, drugs and dropping out of school is never an end’ - Naidoo says it all

Cape Town - What was once seen as an end of life phase for 24-year-old Ashwin Naidoo actually opened up room for transformation and change in his life.

Born and raised in Mitchells Plain, Naidoo explained his challenging journey as a young person who was once full of dreams and couldn’t wait to fulfil them, but that changed once he made the wrong friends and made wrong life choices.

After he matriculated he went to university to study teaching but after a year, he realised he did not want to become a teacher, then out of stress and peer pressure started smoking cigarettes and weed, and ended up not going to class until he decided to drop out.

“If you ever feel like giving up, that's totally fine. We usually suffer because we think about what others might say. When you go more inward and find out who you really are, you won’t need to subscribe to others’ expectation of you. There is light after giving up one of your goals, as long as you dig into why you feel like dropping out and being honest with it.

“Growing up, I moved around a lot as a child that was hard to deal with. My parents divorced when I was a kid and my mother became involved in an abusive relationship with my step-dad. I had to flee from them to stay with my biological father. At some point that past caught up with me and also contributed in me becoming involved with drugs,’’ he said.

Despite all the challenges he’s been through, he finally decided to follow his passion for photography and also became more involved in community-based projects as a way of lending a helping hand.

Naidoo became an active member of his community and volunteered in organisations such as the Jehovah Jireh Community Outreach, Laeeq Toffar Foundation, MES Safe Space, Old Apostolic Church, Kenji Productions and many more.

Laeeq Toffar, the founder of the Laeeq Toffar Foundation based in Delft, which provides children with fundamentals to thrive at home, said that Naidoo joined them in 2021 as a creative volunteer.

‘’Naidoo followed our organisation on social media and he had reached out to volunteer his photography skills to our organisation, as we were recruiting creative volunteers at the time. He volunteered his services to us on multiple occasions by capturing pictures at events and assisting with our outreach projects,’’ Toffar said.

Denzil Lottering, an elder from Old Apostolic Church where Naidoo serves as one of the leaders helping kids with tutoring and homework, said that Naidoo had been one of his youth leaders for the past six years and had helped them on numerous tasks.

‘’He has helped me by offering numerous tasks such as planning and organising functions. He also helps in the education department where he is the HOD of our education department and our singing etc. He loves to help others, especially children no matter your background,’’ he said.

A teacher from West End Primary school, Junaid Booysen, also shared his piece about Naidoo and his YearBeyond programme which gave him a meaningful experience, boosted his self-esteem and gave him more hope for life.

‘’He assisted me with his guitar skills to be able to teach performing arts learners. After his contract with YearBeyond, the school employed him as an assistance to work with me to continue with the performing arts. Luckily he’s also a photographer and that benefits learners for visual arts,’’ Booysen said.

‘’If our thoughts become our reality, then we should never undermine our ability to think clearly. If we truly know who we are, we will be of better use for ourselves and society as a whole. The more successful people you encounter, the more you realise they are not much different from yourself. I see a future where people are open to learning more about their true selves, and using their potential to love an intentional life,’’ said Naidoo.

Weekend Argus