Lappieskombers

M A R L A   G R O V É

I am a 3rd year Social Work student at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. I am also the Chairperson at the University of Pretoria Student Social Work Association.

I am studying to become a Social worker because I have a passion for people from all walks of life. Also I have a personal story that will inspire and help people believe in a better tomorrow. My inspiring story involves a very rebellious teenager from divorced parents, one that got involved in very destructive activities. Still, regardless of all the cards that were dealt, I managed to stand up out of my situation and make a better life for myself. I am half-way to the top with no intention of stopping; bigger, better things are yet to come.

I chose Lappieskombers (Afrikaans for Quilt) because … 

… Making a quilt needs proper planning, patience, off-cut pieces of material, thread and a skilled hand putting it all together.

Quilts are made to keep you warm and will brighten up anyone’s day with all the different colors, but most importantly a quilt brings little pieces of off-cut materials together to form a big, beautiful, colorful masterpiece.

Social workers are the same; one of the first things we are taught is that social work is a multi-disciplinary profession, we need other professions like psychologists, doctors, psychiatrists, nurses, teachers ect. to empower our service users to become the best they can be, just like a quilt needs a lot of different pieces of material.

Each piece of material already possess the potential to be something beautiful, someone just has to unite it with the other pieces. This links directly to our service users – we are the thread that links them with other professionals when needed, but the material (service user) already possesses the real beauty, all we need to do is to show them the personal power they have inside of them.