Photo: Norman and his host parents, Roger Hochstetler and Sydney Finan, at his university graduation.

By Sydney Finan, host mother to Norman Vezi, YES 2010-2011, South Africa, hosted in Ballwin, MO with AFS

My husband and I just returned from South Africa and the college graduation of our AFS YES son, Norman Vezi. Norman, a Muslim student and an orphan from a rural community with no running water and no electricity, was a 2010-2011 Kennedy Lugar YES Scholar. Norman became such a close part of our family we decided to help fund his college education. Emotionally we have been re-payed 100 times over!  Norman graduated Valedictorian of his class and was selected to give the Commencement speech. He included a personal story about his American parents and a thank you to the YES program while we sat in the front row, both beaming and holding back tears. 

Norman’s YES alumni grant project in 2014 was to provide a library to his local community.   Norman secured a room in his community center from the Chief and mounted shelving to the walls. Over 1700 books were collected and shipped by volunteers in our community who had met Norman. We visited the Mahlathini Community Library, an amazing and beautiful reflection of the young man who dreamed large! We also brought another suitcase of books for the library!

Read more about Norman's library project.