A sense of community in South African Townships.

We left South Africa 4 years ago this month to move to Dubai, originally from the UK. We embraced life in South Africa to the full. Peter working, child 4 and 5 in education and myself getting involved in full time volunteering supporting vulnerable children living in poverty.

We had 4 wonderful years here and desperately miss our friends here and I visit as often as I can (twice a year) to continue with the hands on volunteering work, delivering Christmas gifts in townships in Pretoria. 

Last weekend I was in Soshanguve delivering gifts to 250 children, some of their housing conditions are heartbreaking as you'll see if you click this link.

This shack in the Alaskan Informal Settlement in a township called Mamelodi. This is home to a mother and father and 2 children. It is one room, where they eat, sleep and wash. There is no running water, there is no electricity, no toilet, no windows and the floor is mud.

So why is this shack painted like this?

4 years ago child 5 and I were working with an arts project to give the community a sense of belonging, to encourage members of the community to have pride in their homes, to join in, create some art, help and support their neighbours and create a sense of belonging and pride in their homes.

Child 5 and I camped in the community for the weekend, ate dinner, sang songs and was thoroughly looked after and entertained during our stay.

Can you imagine the whole landscape with shacks decorated? It would look stunning.

Supporting vulnerable adults and children in South Africa.

Before moving to Dubai, I lived in Pretoria, South Africa for 4 years. There I worked with 3 charities/organisations supporting educational projects in rural areas and in townships across the region.

I was back in SA July 2^nd – July 10^th to work with these charities/organisations and I was hoping one or two of you would like to support the work I do.

The Santa Shoebox Project is a country wide organisation and collects and distributes over 100,000 gifts every year to the most vulnerable children. In Pretoria I worked with a team who provided over 50,000 gifts over a 5 year period.  For AED 50 you can buy a gift for a boy or a girl aged 0 - 18. Sadly I won't be able to support them with collection, checking and delivering the boxes this year as that takes place end of October, early November. But I am spending a week there in July to sort the storage unit out, do some marketing and collect donations, ready for drop off. Last year I had sponsorship from Ford and worked with KFC and other national companies.

 The Pretoria Volunteers

 Each shoebox is packed for an individual child

 The hats my MIL knitted for Njabulo Child Care facility

Out in Soshanguve delivering gifts November 2015

The Viva Foundation provides rape support and counselling as well as running several educational centres in South Africa, including a school in Kildare, an hours drive west of Kruger National Park that I sourced donations for, they provide support for orphaned and vulnerable children in the Alaskan Informal Settlement and arrange family days to build communities, fund birthday parties and provide training to help people get into employment. One of their community projects is an annual Art's festival. I was involved with the education side, teaching and training and sourcing educational supplies.

There is little, if any, government funding for these projects and they rely almost on public donations, volunteers and cooperate sponsorship.

I fund raise and raise awareness year round for the above causes and I'm hoping a few of you would like to make a financial donation for this years trip. I paid my own flights and I stayed with friends. I'm looking for donations to support educational supplies, even if it's just your loose change, it will go a long way with the current exchange rate. I will provide you with receipts and photos of the children who receive your donations.

Please let me know if you would be interested in making a financial donation or click here for paypal.

Below are some of the blog posts I've written, with photographs, if you're interested.

Just how far does your loose change go? 

The Santa Shoebox Project 

Rural Communities 

Camping in a township and the Viva Art Festival 

When you have to walk 4km for fresh water 

What else could you do with the price of two cups of coffee

Last year I visited South Africa for 6 weeks to work with a children's charity, The Santa Shoebox Project, who source and deliver over 100,000 christmas gifts every year to children living in poverty, that I'd been involved with for 4 years while I lived there. I paid my own air fare, borrowed a car from friends and had access to a transit van kindly donated by Ford SA which included fuel costs. I fund raised in advance and while I was there. The only other expense I had was my food and drink.

Most mornings I picked up 2 coffees on my way to collect the transit, one for me and one for my friend. I paid 44 rand.

I love a latte when I'm out, I stop at the local garage on my way to work every morning and buy one every afternoon on my way home. It costs me 28 Dirhams.

In the UK 2 lattes costs on average £5.20.

What else could you do with that money? Well if I stop drinking 2 latte's a day, within 6 months I would have enough money for a flight from Dubai to South Africa so I could support some of the many facilities I've been involved with over the years.

The cost of 2 lattes in South Africa purchases a months worth of electricity which enables a student to study after school for their matric.

6 lattes will purchase a pack of reusable sanitary pads from Dignity Dreams to enable young girls to continue their education by remaining in school.

8 lattes will purchase a christmas gift for a child living in poverty or provide a child with a birthday gift with The Viva Foundation.

With the current exchange rate, your money would go even further. In fact twice as far.

I'd like to invite you to join me and think twice about that latte you're going to buy and decide to donate the money instead to support good causes in South Africa.

                           

If you would like to donate you can do so here via paypal or using the Donate button on my blog.

Week 45 - My Sunday Photo

Celebration day and an early christmas party for some of the 7000 children in Pretoria who will receive a gift from us this year. The whole purpose of my trip to South Africa.

24 hours camping in a township

Back in March 2013 I saw an invite for the Viva Foundation to take part in an Arts festival at The Alaskan Informal Settlement in Mamelodi, in Pretoria.

I took my youngest son with me, the tent, paint, food and a boot full of donations.

We were in the sun all day painting shacks, meeting the owners and generally having a lot of fun.

If you'd like to know more about the work Viva do or you want to volunteer please contact them:

You can follow Viva on Twitter as @viva_sa and like join their face book as The Viva Foundation of South Africa

Longdrops or toilets as we know them as. When a long drop is full, a new hole is dug using the soil to fill in the old one and the shack is repositioned over the new hole. be grateful there is no such thing as smelly vision.

The local fruit and veg shop, which now sadly has been closed down due to numerous break ins.

This is Betty's house, she makes items like shoes and decorations to sell every day on the side of the road to support her and her husband, teenage daughter and another daughter and her child. She provides the only income for the household.

We camped without electricity and running water, taking everything we needed for the weekend and sharing with the community.

We had access to one solar panel to charge phones as volunteers needed to contact us for directions after getting lost in the township.

This shack houses a family of 6, it is one room inside. The sleeping area is curtained off from the kitchen and living area. In here lives a husband and wife, a disabled daughter and 2 teenage sons. 

If you wish to make a donation to projects like this please click here to do so.

Education and poverty in Mpumalanga with Viva

I had the great privilege in June 2014 to travel with the Viva Foundation to meet Pastor Jonny in his home in Kildare.

Pastor Jonny is 2nd from the right in the black jacket.

Kildare is in Mpumalanga, South Africa near Kruger National Park.

It was a 2 hour drive from Pretoriuskop Camp mostly on dirt roads

Pastor Jonny with the support of the Viva Foundation is developing the local community, with the building of a church, a school and kitchen. He told me that the biggest problems the community face are poverty, alcoholism and HIV and AIDS.

The Pastor wants to address the issues of poverty by providing education at a young age and training for the youths of the community to learn new skills they can use to gain employment. The nearest Pre School for their community is 6km away and a cost of R100 per month for lessons and R150 for the transport. Not only does Pastor Jonny want to provide training in building, but he wishes to develop the communities farming skills and teach them to become self sufficient.

There is no employment in the area and as a result most families are grandparent led due to 2 reasons: the parents work away in Gauteng and return home at the end of the month or the parents have died from AIDS, there are also many orphans in the community and Jonny’s dream is to build an orphanage for these children. Most of the men work in the mines and many were been involved in the strikes at Marikana and were without work for 5 months without pay, striking for a living wage and safety improvements. There was little income in the community for those 5 months.

Families receive social grants for their children of R320 per month, this is often the only income and despite the intention for it to be used to provide their children with education, it is often the only income to feed the entire family, therefore the children don’t attend school.

Jonny set up a crèche 2-3 years ago and employs local teachers who do not receive a salary; they currently teach in a wooden, slatted building with a tin roof and even in the middle of winter the building is hot and humid. 

The children receive a cooked meal daily, which is often the only meal they eat during the day. It is cooked outside, there is no kitchen.

Uniforms supplied by Viva

There is no water in the community and men, women and children walk 2 kms each way to Ximhungwe to fetch water. There is no municipality water available and on occasions the pipes break and then it’s a 12 km trip to fetch water, which is the basis of sustaining life. A bore hole would make  a big difference to the community.

There is however a river that runs through the community and Jonny wishes to fence off the land to enable them to farm and become self sufficient. We discussed how he could start this project starting with a small vegetable garden that the children can be involved with seeing where their food comes from, planting, nurturing the seeds, harvesting and then cooking and tasting the food and understanding the process of the foods that they eat.

On Friday's a mobile clinic visits the area, they give flu jabs, inoculate babies and treat minor illnesses for free. For more serious conditions they give a letter to take to the local hospital some 30 kms away who charge R40 to open a file. For transport to the hospital Pastor Jonny has a vehicle and he is also the person called at 2am when someone goes into labour and needs a lift.

We took tables, chairs, educational supplies, stationery, clothing, toys and food. Everything was donated collected from businesses, neighbours, colleagues and friends. 

If you want to make a donation to this project and other educational projects in South Africa please click here. Paypal address is thechickendoesjoburg@gmail.com

I will be returning to South Africa in October and November this year and hope to visit Pastor Jonny and update with all the good works that have gone on over the past year with the help and support of Viva.