The "New" Plague

Despite its reputation (compared to the rest of the continent) as 'developed', South Africa has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world. HIV/AIDS is easily the main cause of death in here, with one study I recently read stating that around 1000 people a day die from it. This same study put the HIV/AIDS rate at around 10% of the whole population- around 4 million people!

HIV affects Refilwe in many ways. Back in the early 90s, in its early days and right up until just a few years ago, one of Refilwe's main projects was a hospice for dying HIV/AIDS patients. More than a couple of the Refilwe children's parents passed away at that hospice. A sad reality is that many pregnant mothers pass the virus on to their newborn babies and with almost 30% of all pregnant women in SA being HIV+, this reality hits close to home for several at Refilwe.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Refilwe's current main work with HIV/AIDS is through the Voluntary Counseling and Testing program (VCT), a government initiative funded by an American Aid organisation. With the prevalence of HIV, the first aim of the program is to counsel individuals who may or may not have been infected with the virus, giving important information and options for each person. The individual then has a choice to be tested for HIV and the Home Based Care team must then follow up to ensure the appropriate health care steps are taken should the results be positive.

Despite the prevalence and immediate risk faced, many communities and individuals remain indifferent or uneducated about the causes of HIV. In a culture where sexual fidelity is not always the norm, there is a real danger that the virus is unwittingly spread to those who are not even aware of their partner's "status". Refilwe's Home Based Care team also works to provide clear and basic education for the communities, outlining the risks and suggesting alternatives to unsafe sex. Their education also focuses on pregnant mothers, teaching strategies for avoiding transmission of the virus. 

With all the Swine Flu panic that has swept the globe, we have often discussed mankind's deep-seated fear of "another bubonic plague"; a disease that will wipe out half the population of the world before anyone can do anything about it. What people seem to forget is for millions and millions of people, that disease is already here, slowly wiping out entire generations. It may not move as quickly as an airborne virus might, but its devastation is just as pervasive, with no cure in sight.

The fight against HIV takes commitment by individuals, communities and government as it is just as much about changing lifestyles and beliefs as it is about good health. Refilwe is committed to not only educating and raising awareness about HIV in the local community, but it is also committed to supporting people through the devastation the virus leaves in its wake. 

Mandy's Team

Last night our good friend Amanda left us to return to the USA. We have loved having her with us at Refilwe over the past six months and were very sad to see her go. Having a close friend with us has made our experiences here in South Africa much richer as we experienced things together and were able to debrief, laugh and cry in the context of our long friendship.

Amanda has spent the past seven months working closely with Refilwe’s Home Based Care  (HBC) Team, assisting in administrating and organising their work as they go out into the local informal settlements each week. As I have mentioned before, these settlements are often sites of poverty, malnutrition and disease. Many of the HBC workers come from the communities in which they work, a benefit for Refilwe in terms of accessing community networks and authenticity within them.

The Team as a whole is separated into six smaller teams, each of which is assigned to a specific settlement. The teams’ main role is to become aware of the needs within their settlement and to take action to meet them. They do this in one of three ways:

They conduct home visits to members of the community, attending their homes and assessing if there is any way in which Refilwe can assist. The team may then refer them to several different services available at Refilwe: if they need clothing, they are referred to the clothing donation service, if they need food they are put on a list to receive a monthly food parcel. If the need is for counseling they are referred to Refilwe’s social workers; if the need is for young children to be assessed and helped, they are referred to Refilwes Orphaned and Vulnerable Children’s workers. If their needs are health related, the teams find ways in which to assist such as providing basic health care and/or organising transport to clinics.

They also conduct health education sessions for communities on a range of topics including nutrition, basic hygiene, HIV/AIDS and other STIs. These education sessions are usually held within the communities with an open invitation for anybody in the area to attend. Preparing for and presenting these sessions provides the HBC team with training and new skills, which is a dual goal of the program.

The third way the HBC team works in the communities is through Voluntary Counseling and Testing, the formalized HIV/AIDS counseling and testing program in SA. This program is specifically targeted for reaching as many individuals as possible, with the team having undergone specific training to be able to work in the program. This is a topic which requires more space and time than I have left tonight, so you can expect a more detailed blog about the effects of this disease and its treatment/prevention very soon!

The HBC team is Refilwe's main and most regular arm into the communities around us. They are confronted daily by the reality of the ways in which poverty and social injustices wreak havoc on peoples' lives. Mandy, over the past 7 months, was able to oversee, encourage and work alongside the team- what an amazing woman!

 

Changes

Something we were told by friends who have been to Africa before was to come with the expectation that anything that can change will. Something else they told us was to be prepared for ‘Africa Time’, a concept that involves phrases such as ‘now’ and ‘now now’ to differentiate between what is happening sometime in the next few hours and what is happening sometime in the next half an hour or so.

We have adjusted well to Africa Time.  We quickly learned that when someone you were expecting said the words ‘I’m coming’, it meant they may show up anytime in the next few hours... or not at all. The idea of time being flexible and unable to dictate life to the extent it does in our own cultures creates a sense of laid back acceptance of the ebb and flow of life.

As we were warned, in the past couple of weeks we have experienced a number of changes here at Refilwe, all of which happened very fast. In almost direct contrast to the usual way of doing things, in the space of a week we had 5 new children, a new Godparent family, another Godparent family resign and amongst the chaos we were given 24 hours to completely move house (For once Africa Time waited for noone!). The above picture shows our new house- it's up the hill about 30m away from our old house, has a double sink (which beats the tupperware bowl we used to wash dishes in for the past 5 months!) and a back door. 

Change is not always enjoyable, especially when it happens so quickly. I would say we've adjusted well, overall. A double sink goes a long way.

 

Good Food, Good Conversation.

I recently had the opportunity to partake in an Afrikaaner Feast. Catered by some good friends of Refilwe, I sat down to experience some of the cuisine unique to the Afrikaans culture here in South Africa. The spread consisted of biltong soup and cheese bread for entree, springbokjies (cherries wrapped in bacon), pumpkin fritters and steak kebabs for main and mini malva puddings for dessert, giving us more culinary delight than we could handle.

The feast was thrown for some of the teenagers that live here at Refilwe. Jaco and I arranged a time for them to come and enjoy themselves, eat a good meal and to give them an opportunity to talk and ask questions about their experiences here. You should be aware by now that I have been working with most of these teenagers at Refilwe's Hands of Hope school in the role of teacher and counselor. In my conversations with Jaco about some of the issues that seemed to be themes for many of the teenagers, we came up with the idea of giving them some time and space to forum some of these issues for themselves.

After an hour or so of wonderful food, we settled down with coffee and dessert to get to the business of talking. Having had conversations about the various topics with most of them, I was able to facilitate some discussion around issues such as relationships and dating, feeling trusted, discipline procedures, etc etc. One of the most interesting topics that has come up for me lately with my students has been 'outsiders' views of the children here at Refilwe. To quote one of my students, he asked of Jaco 'Why do they say we are orphans? We all have families that we live with here.'

This idea is a good reminder to me of the work that Refilwe is doing. Yes, some of the children living here have been orphaned and many have come from difficult and unlivable family situations, but the moment they became 'Refilwe Children' they were no longer orphaned or vulnerable. There is keen significance in this fact for the children who live here- their identity is not in that they are orphans, but in that they are part of a family who loves and cares for them no matter what. The struggle comes for many of the teenagers when they read and hear donor and other volunteer organisations' descriptions of Refilwe's role in their lives. It seems that the idea of 'neglected and orphaned' children draws sympathy (and money) from the public, inaccurate as it may be.

Ultimately it is the teenagers' individual decision which identity they choose. Refilwe receives a lot of different support, donations both financial and in kind as well as regular volunteering. It is easy to assume the role of needy and vulnerable child here, what with the amount of donors and volunteers coming ready to 'help the poor children'. The kids must take some responsibility in how they allow themselves to be viewed, not just choosing when and how they want to be indignant about the misunderstanding of their situation. In all of this, the challenge for Refilwe is to direct some of this good intention to the many children just down the road who truly are vulnerable.

Science Week

After three weeks of holidays, Term Three began for us with our Science Week. It was a crazy, chaotic week that ended with a very successful Science Fair and some Very Proud teachers! We gave every student a project that consisted of an experiment they had to publish and present at the end of the week. 

Not coincidentally, we were also visited by a group of students and teachers from a school in Canada. The group is connected with a Rotary Club in Canada that is hoping to invest in and support the construction of a larger and more permanent school at Refilwe (at the moment we hold classes in modified house!). They were a great help with assisting our students with their projects.

Instead of normal classes, we focussed only on science experiments all week, with our main aim to teach the students the vocabulary and process of the Scientific Method. After every one of us made the students recite "aim, hypothesis, apparatus, method, observations, conclusion" at the beginning, middle and end of every class you can be sure they learned it! We often find with our students that learning and repeating technical English vocabulary can be challenging (one student called experiments 'experiences' all week- so by Friday we were all getting mixed up and saying the wrong word!) so have to concentrate on making sure the terminology is understood before starting on complicated concepts.

As I said, our Fair on Friday was a big success! All of the students worked very hard (some were even knocking on my front door at 7.45am on Friday morning asking me to hurry up and get to school so they could work on their finishing touches!) and produced excellent work! Everyone learned something new in the process of their experiments, from how aeroplanes are able to take off to how hydroelectric power is produced to how sound waves move. We all had so much fun and it was a great way to begin the term. Next week we begin our normal time table again, hopefully with as much energy as we produced this week!.

Happy Birthday, Madiba

Today is Nelson Mandela's 91st birthday, a day of notable celebration in South Africa. Mandela, affectionately known by his nation as Madiba, will have his birthday celebrated by the entire country as well as in many places around the world. As I write this, 'Madiba's Birthday Party' is being televised live for all South Africans to watch; in fact, the children at Refilwe were invited and are attending the party here in Johannesburg.

Nelson Mandela almost singlehandedly led South Africa through one of its most tumultuous periods. Imprisoned for life because activism against the apartheid regime, he chose to dedicate his life to the reconciliation of his nation. Rather than promoting violent revolution against the apartheid government, he sought instead a path of negotiation and communication. In the early 90s, this approach enabled him to convince the president of the day, F.W. Klerk, to unban Black political organisations and release political prisoners. Mandela was released from prison in 1991, after 17 years' imprisonment.

Leading the ANC to victory in 1994, Madiba became South Africa's first black president. 15 years later, although retired from politics, he continues to play a vital role as a symbol of peaceful progress and hope for a nation plagued by ongoing social difficulty. There is genuine affection in this country for Mandela, evidenced by the way people speak of and honor him. As we learn more about the role he played in South Africa's history, it is clear to us that he is one of those men who, through persistence and commitment to his cause, actually changed the world. It is because of his leadership that we can be in SA today, working alongside and empowering those who were so destroyed by the system he fought so doggedly against.

Happy Birthday, Madiba.

The Kruger

To say the very least, our trip to Kruger National Park (known by most people here as "The Kruger") was incredible. Not only did we get to go with my wonderful parents, but we also got to spend an entire week driving around a completely wild sanctuary of almost 20,000 square kilometres. Our days were spent staring out the windows of our car at sights like this lioness stalking her prey

and this giraffe practically posing for the shoot

and this elephant being none too pleased to have us in his space 

And herds and herds of zebra, often doing funny things

and plenty of animals just chilling in the trees by the river

Not to mention these incredible sunrises every morning!

South Africa, as we are discovering, is a country blessed with a myriad natural resources. Just before the holidays I covered a unit with my Year Eights on 'South Africa's Natural Resources' and the lists we came up with were extensive: from iron, coal, gold and diamonds to fertile soil and great climate to a huge coastline to incredible scenery... not to mention the Big Five! With so many international visitors coming to SA in the next 12 months, it is exciting to think of the potential the tourism industry has for playing a vital role in economic growth that is so needed.