Aniek Nieuwenhuis will graduate with a full suite of distinctions for her academic programme.
The events leading to the March 2004 accident, when she was only nine, are etched into her memory. What was meant to be a fun family getaway to a mountainside cabin in the Kogelberg Nature Reserve near Gordon’s Bay turned to tragedy when a faulty connection on a gas cylinder caused a gas leak that led to an explosion."When I eventually got to hospital, I had suffered third-degree burns to 95% of my body – 85% to my body’s surface and 10% was internal.
When the incident occurred, Nieuwenhuis was in grade 4. She missed a full year of school, but when she was finally well enough to return, she was allowed to move to grade 5. "I had to find myself as an artist and establish what I was trying to say and what I was trying to tell my community. It was hard and I was intimidated; everyone seemed to have it all. I later established that they were as frightened as I was."
"In arts you have the scope to insert your own interpretation of things. It allows you to think for yourself. This really inspired me and, in my view, made my studies so much easier," she said.
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