Sunday, September 30, 2012


Friday, September 21, 2012

 

This morning we were picked up by Carly Tanur, Director of the Mamelani project and set off to see our fourth grassroots project funded by the Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF).  Accompanying Carly were the three facilitators of the separate programs which make up Mamelani – Numvuyo, Thandi and Cleo.


The three programs are Health, Youth Development Program and Child and Family Support Program.

1.       Health program.   Within this program, Mamelani has workshops for women as well as HIV Support Groups.  They support people with diabetes, hypertension, HIV/AIDS, TB,  and in general look at the body and the mind and the stresses on people’s lives.   Mamelani looks at health in a holistic manner and it is difficult to separate each of the parts from the other.

 

Their Health Champions Program is new and looks at how to support women to develop their initiatives themselves.  It is a one-year mentoring program to support resourceful women who are taking the initiative in the area of health.  At first 16 women were selected and then narrowed to 10 who are going through a capacity building program .  These women share their ideas and projects with other women and then go through further training and get assistance to expand their projects .  One of the women runs a soup kitchen and another runs an after school care program.  By helping these women get their projects off the ground and connecting with other women, it is building capacity within communities, rather than just handing over resources.

 

How does Mamelani choose which women to support in the Health Champions program?  The projects are started entirely by the women themselves.  These women have processed the information, turned it into action and are keen to share their experiences and see how we can all harness the energy together and help their programs grow.

 

The tension is this: either you deliver programs or you fund projects in small ways .

 

2.       The Youth Development Program focuses on young people who are coming out of state care – 18 and over.  They are not yet independent but not street youth and they require a lot of support.

3.       The Child and Family Support Program is a small program focusing on social work in primary schools.  They might come from families where there is substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, etc. and there are poor services for children in this area. 

 

 
 





As we drove to our first stop at a soup kitchen in Khayelitsha township on the outskirts of Cape Town, we seemed to drive for miles and miles and miles through desperate areas of extreme poverty, small tin shacks and lean-tos .  It was deeply disturbing to all of us, every one of us asking ourselves when will it end? But our spirits were about to be lifted by “Mickey”. For almost four years now, Mickey has been running a soup kitchen inside a tiny tin shack in the middle of a depressed area of Khayelitsha. 

 
 

 

 

 
 
 

“Even though it is small”, says Mickey,” at least I know that people are eating here.” For breakfast, Mickey provides sour porridge – mealie meal soaked overnight .  She feeds about 60 children in the morning before school.  Then at lunch time she prepares a wider variety – today it is “samp” (thick maize – like hominy grits to look at), and mealie meal as well as lentil soup with vegetables.  She goes to schools or wherever she can to get leftovers or foodstuffs and now feeds about 185 people per day.  Mickey says she has learned a lot from Mamelani on how to handle people, how to organize her soup kitchen  and she has learned a lot about health and wellness from them – how to handle those who are sick, education on HIV/AIDS, other diseases and diet.

Mickey and Mamelani have gone to Social Services for help but there is none.  They have been given some funding from Operation Hunger for food, for a community garden and for the soup kitchen.  They have begun a Soil for Life garden. Now they only operate the soup kitchen 3 days a week (before it was 5) but at least they are able to keep that going.  They have 4 staff and volunteers from both the primary and secondary schools to help them run the program .

Mickey insisted that we squeeze into her tiny soup kitchen to see what she was cooking in her huge pots.  There was barely any room to move with so many people waiting patiently for a serving of her deliciously smelling food.  We felt the warmth in that little tin shack – not just because the soup pot was boiling but because Mickey exudes a pride and commitment to the people of Khayelitsha that is unique.

 

We reluctantly got back in the bus to continue our journey through Khayelitsha  to see the work of another  of these women at Mamelani – the Health Champions.  Next stop was a small community centre where several young women were ready for us as soon as we arrived.  Yet another of the Champions is working with a group of young women to encourage them to dance traditional dance and drumming.  We watched these beautiful young women run through several routines of dance and theatre as well as drumming. 






After the wonderful performances, we walked behind the centre with one of the coordinators.  She took us to the very tiny Women’s Shelter at the back which can house 2 families in a pinch.  There are 4 beds set aside for abused women. Gender based violence is a huge issue in South Africa as well as the issue of rape.  

 

Thursday September 20

 

Today we flew to Cape Town to begin our tour of Stephen Lewis Foundation projects there.

Alexanne Tingley and Juanita van Wyk arranged for us to be picked up on Thursday afternoon to take us to the Music Therapy Community Clinic (MTCC).  Although music therapy programs are well established in places like Canada, in South Africa there are very few of them available.  There are only 45 in the whole country and most are private organizations.  MTCC is the only community based, non-profit program in South Africa.
 
 
 Samantha presents recorders and other gifts for the Music Theraopy program

However, the Music Therapy program makes up only part of what MTCC does.  They run clinical music therapy sessions, after school programs, and conduct training and capacity building workshops.

The Vision of MTCC: for children and young people to generate hope and possibilities for their lives through shared engagements with music.

Mission of MTCC: to join with communities by offering therapeutic services, and creating and strengthening musical resources and support networks to benefit some of Cape Town’s most vulnerable and marginalized children and young people.

Here are some of the communities they have worked with in the past year:

·         Home from Home – a non-profit organization that provides a network of foster homes in Khayelitsha the third largest township in South Africa. The MTCC runs an after school music program that includes gumboot dancing and African musical groups.

·         Nomzamo Place of Safety in Langa is a sanctuary for babies and children under the age of six who have been removed from abusive home environments.  The MTCC offers individual and group music therapy sessions.

·         Etafani Centre in Nyanga is a multi-purpose community centre for children affected by HIV and AIDS and their caregivers.  The MTCC runs and after school music programs at the centre. OPSEU delegates visited the Etafani centre.

At MTCC there is a total of 9 staff which includes 4 music therapists, 1 community musician and one developer.  They provide services to specific sites and many of these sites are working with children with HIV/AIDS.  The beneficiaries of this program number 667 people.  This type of therapy assists in dealing with traumas, by allowing children to express one’s grief, loss, etc.  The shared experiences of trauma are particularly successful and 50 % of the music therapy sessions are group sessions.  The problems these youth are facing include abuse, fetal alcohol syndrome, abuse, HIV/AIDS etc.

The Music for Life program is a huge success. This is a program which has taken kids off the streets, away from drugs and bags. Alex quoted at the beginning, “Children seldom need a good talking to; they need a good listening to!”  MTCC creates a kind of Music for Life Island for 6 to 14 year olds.  The kids are formed into either drumming group or a marimba group (with huge wooden xylophone-like instruments.) The values the kids learn are things like sharing, love, caring, respect and fun.

MTCC holds an annual camp for kids which is very popular – and a Youth Forum where young people can have a say about their future, issues of gender, etc. 

After an hour with Juanita and Alexannne explaining the programs run by MTCC, they drove us to the Etafani Centre in Nyanga township to see one of their bands ready to perform for our visit.

















Usually women don’t play the marimba.  It is a striking instrument, carved out of wood but something like a wooden xylophone.  We were treated to some amazing music from the marimba players and then tried playing and dancing ourselves (with the help of the young students who had great fun with us). Three of these young women marimba payers are heading to Toronto in early November to perform at the Stephen Lewis major fundraising Gala.  What wonderful music they played for us. It was very difficult to tear ourselves away!

We thanked Alexanne for the afternoon and headed back home, our heads filled with the beautiful sounds of the marimba.

 

 

 

September 19


On Wednesday morning our OPSEU delegation began our first scheduled visits to projects funded by the Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF). At their suggestion, we split into two groups so that we could witness more than one project in each city – and we would make a smaller footprint on each of the projects as we visited them.

Group A - Tateni House in Mamelodi, Pretoria.

As our van entered the grounds of Tateni, Regina Mogkogong, Executive Director of Tateni House, scolded us for being late! Traffic had delayed our driver but that didn’t matter to Regina. She soon welcomed us and sparkled with warmth as she introduced all of her staff and volunteers at Tateni, Among them are social workers, home care givers, a Psychologist, driver, Supervisor of Operations, Supervisor of Home Based Care, Administrative Assistant, founding member and Regina who has retired twice in her life already!

Regina has been involved in Tateni since 1995 when she was involved in Soroptomists International. Their group adopted 3 families by furnishing their houses, setting up food gardens, etc. She had worked in HIV/AIDS with the South African government and then in rural health. She retired and joined a literacy program and worked in Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) for a number of years until she began with Tateni. Tateni was founded by a nurse, Veronica Nkosa and the name comes from a small child tottering. While the child walks, s/he goes Ta – ta – ta… Mainly set up for patients with HIV/AIDS, the group struggled with the ignorance and denial taking place re: HIV/AIDS at the time. Patients were not accepted by their families. Some were locked inside their homes, others locked out and kicked out to fend for themselves. Hospitals would not admit patients because there was no cure; in short they were completely neglected and needed someone or some people to care for them.






Still today the main problem is nursing people in their own homes. Tateni saw people who were critically ill, terminally ill and saw the need to set up a hospice. They also saw the traumatization of children as they watched their relatives dying. So began the Care and Support of Vulnerable Children program. Kids were identified in schools, where they were obviously neglected, hungry and uncared for in many cases. Tateni began drop-in centres and home based care. Others would go to the centres and have food cooked for them there.

In their work with the schools, each carer is responsible for 10 families. If there is a family with 4 children, you cannot just look after one child. Tateni staff go into their homes to see how families are living and make up a needs list. Especially in the informal settlements they look to see if there is anything they can provide for the homes to make the physical space more comfortable, e.g. Regina called up a carpet company to donate a piece of carpet for a hut where children are sleeping on a dirt floor. They were committed to making sure these children looked like other children and gave them boxes of toys, clothes and also provided counselling with Tateni’s own psychologist as many children have demonstrated either aggression or depression. There is a tremendous need for them to express these emotions so the psychologist’s assistance is key.

As well as Tateni’s direct services, there is a group called Friends of Tateni with a program called Reach for a Dream. They take children camping and on outings and group children together quarterly for their birthdays. For example, those with birthdays from January to March have a joint celebration and it becomes a "bumper birthday" with lots of photos, cake and toys.

The property Tateni stands on was bought from the municipality by the Soroptomists – it only cost R2000, a gift! The building itself was completed with funds from a twin city in Japan. When Tateni moved into the premises in 2006, they had big dreams for an office centre, a hospice, a youth and development centre, a training centre and more – and yet no-one has been willing to provide the money necessary for the completion of this dream. They do have a great vegetable garden with lots of spinach, onions, carrots, beets and tomatoes and their flower gardens are very welcoming.




In 2008, the National Lottery Fund gave them enough money to purchase a panel van (pick-up truck) and another car for their home visits. They also need to have a storage area for the grains and dry food, but recently this was flooded and caused great distress. Tateni has to have food stored to meet the needs of the people. The group relies heavily on community friends who offer goods, e.g. filing cabinets, other furniture.

There have been some great successes at Tateni – for example, a boy who finished his schooling, earned money for school clothes, paraffin, groceries, etc. He finished school, Tateni trained him as one of their own people and he got his licence and he is now working for ADT Security company. You would not recognize him as the same traumatized child who came to us from that small shack in the townships, said Regina. This gives Tateni satisfaction that some have benefitted from their interventions. In a testimony from one of the patients, one young man said that just getting water from Tateni and being able to wash his whole body, improved his life!

"How did we get our funding from the Stephen Lewis Foundation? VSO (Volunteer Services Overseas) sends professionals out to volunteet and to participate in "shared skills". This particular volunteer, Peter, sat on the internet and surfed the web. That’s how we found the Stephen Lewis Foundation, we applied and were accepted and we are now into our 5th application. As well as helping the community. Tateni has 51 people working there – 37 carers, 14 -15 child carers, other coordinators and many can now consider themselves "employed". If they could realize what we do, the government would provide funding, sign agreements, etc.", said Regina.




Education around HIV/AIDS is crucial everywhere. Getting people to understand that that AIDS is transmitted mostly through sexual contact or mother to child transmission and sometimes through blood transfusions – all of this is key. Here it is not so much transmission through drugs. Talking about sex within the African community is difficult – it is almost taboo to talk sex. It is very important to do so, however, especially children in schools have to be educated about sex. We use sex education tools (dildos, etc.) to show children, but parents often react very strongly to this kind of explicit sex education. As part of Tateni education programs, they demonstrate by putting a condom on a broomstick – or engage in puppetry. There are no drugs to cure HIV/AIDS, but it can be prevented and we mourn all the deaths that have taken place.

One of the Gogos said she just takes a pack of condoms and puts it on top of her grandson’s clothes – and hopes only that it is at least opened.






After our discussion with staff and volunteers at Tateni House, we went on a couple of house visits in the Mamelodi East community. Our first visit was to a family home where the husband lay dying of AIDS, but the wife does not know he has AIDS. She thinks he has diabetes, so his secret will die with him.

Our second stop was to see Patrick, a 40 year old man who weighs perhaps 500 lbs and suffers from chronic obesity. He cannot get out of bed or leave his room at all and so his family has to bring food for him to cook for himself – which he does so on a small two-burner stove beside his bed. Our nurses, Shannon and Amy were wondering if he might have a thyroid problem and whether he has ever been tested for this or for Glandular fever, for example.

Regina and staff took us to Mamelodi West Clinic where there are approximately 343 TB patients. We were struck as we walked through the general waiting area to get to the TB clinic. Most patients have AIDS and TB. The carers care for 10 patients each. The challenge is still for people to come forward for testing and then once diagnosed, it is crucial to follow up with people to make sure they take their medication, under observation. Despite Tateni’s work, the percentage of patients with TB is going up because of people defaulting on their medication, so we are trying to eliminate defaulters. We have to go from house to house to check these defaulters – and to look for new cases in their families. At the houses we watch them taking their medication, watch them drinking liquids, etc.





There are approximately 35 people testing each day and the TB clinic admits about 50 per month. At the clinic, Tateni does not isolate the TB patients, but teach them about infection control, washing, the need for sunshine and exercise, etc. If they are not sick, they do the infection control at home. The cure rate is going up as the group is observing and monitoring constantly. The medication is taken daily for 6 to 9 months. The TB clinic administrator testified to us that Tateni is helping greatly with their work. There is a testing for HIV/AIDS and ARV clinic there as well.



When asked how many general patients are seen at this clininc, we were told 13,000 per month – perhaps more than usual because 3 other clinics in Mamelodi West are currently closed for renovations.

Our next stop was the primary school to witness Tateni’s school feeding program. After the general population at the school has eaten, a group of 94 children are fed at approximately 2:30 pm every day. The menu varies and while we were there it was chicken, rice, "pap", pumpkin and salad. These children have been identified as those with special needs, that is, either one of their parents has HIV/AIDS or they are traumatized because of a loss of someone from HIV/ADIS or other diseases.

At the Lusaka Secondary School nearby, we met the Supervisor of another of Tateni’s programs, and visited a class of 56 students inside their classroom. It is a support group for these secondary students – again students who come from families affected by HIV/AIDS or TB, etc. There, inside that classroom, they deal with issues like teen pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, violence against women, etc. School begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 2:30 so between 2:30 pm and 3:30 pm, these kids are engaged in other activities such as chess, football (soccer), discussion groups, etc. together. They also have access to Tateni’s psychologist for support. This group has also started a community garden and the two women who help the students with the garden performed a little skit with their watering cans to show us what they do together.








The Supervisor spoke and then two students stood up and gave presentations about violence against women (‘You don’t have to be a victim of male violence", said this young female Grade 8 student, "you can stop the abuse, you have the right to resist and get support!").









Every time a student spoke and each time we introduced ourselves, the students broke out into a chant and clapping which went as follows:

"Thank you (clap, clap, clap), very much (clap, clap, clap) Keep it up (clap, clap, clap) Shi-i-i-ne!(both hands in the air waving)"

When we returned to the Tateni office, we thanked Regina and the other staff for a wonderful visit and assured her we would take the message back to our union and others in Canada that their funds are supporting amazing grassroots work in Mamelodi and elsewhere.




Regina thanked us for our support through the Stephen Lewis Foundation and asked us to spread the word about their work and their needs.


Group B – Cotlands, Johannesburg

We arrived at Cotlands headquarters and were met by Yani Horn who spent the day introducing us to the services that Cotlands provides. The organization was originally started by a woman who was taking in abandoned white children. Today Cotlands is celebrating its 76th anniversary. The organization has locations in 6 provinces and serves 6000 children and families and has 200 employees, including nurses, community care workers, social workers and ECE workers.

The number of orphaned children in South Africa is estimated to be 5.7 million by 2013. Cotlands supports children that have been abused, abandoned and neglected. The organization provides both residential and community services. Currently 70 children live in residence. 60 per cent of these are affected by HIV/AIDS and 55 have been placed in foster care. Cotlands collaborates with child welfare agencies who place abandoned children in their care. When we visited the nursery we met a 15 day old baby whose mother walked away shortly after giving birth.

The organization is currently in the process of applying for permission to be the first NGO to provide adoption services. Yani explained that they were trying to shift their focus from providing direct care to providing more community-based supports so that children can live with families in the community and at-risk families can be supported so that they don’t abandon children. Community workers provide preventative care for every 25 families. Cotlands has also begun to provide a resource centre for the community to attempt to address the grade 1 failure rate that they had identified through a community –based assessment. We were shown rooms fostering "theme-based learning" such as toy libraries, fantasy, numeracy and art rooms open to schools and the community. Currently 12 schools make use of the facilities. The residence and resource centre was a haven. We encountered exceptionally nurturing staff and witnessed a warm and welcoming haven for children needing a home.

 
 
We then left Cotlands headquarters for Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital, the largest in the world. Yani wanted to show us a Stephen Lewis Foundation project that they support directly in the hospital. The day that we visited happened to be the 10th anniversary of the program. We were met by Pinky, the team leader for the eight counselors who work in the paediatric wards. The counselors provide assessments to all the mothers coming in to the "high care" maternity ward. The counselors provide assistance to mothers who are delivering babies with HIV and have been informed of this for the first time. The counselors ensure that the mothers who need home based-care receive the services that they need and know how to care for their baby when they are discharged. The hospital staff collaborate well with the counselors and recognize the support that they provide to mothers. The counselors identified space allocation as their primary struggle in providing services to mothers. We visited storage closets and small nursing rest areas where counseling sessions are held with little accommodation for confidentiality.

At the end of our visit we shared a cake with the eight counselors at the hospital marking their 10th anniversary. They shared with us that just over half of the counselors were currently attending university part-time to complete their bachelor of social work. We were inspired by their positive commitment to the mothers that they serve and juggling university and family life.