Township Visit

So Drew and Holly, two NDers, are working with an organization called Ikamva Labantu which is a non-profit that works with local townships so they can become sustainable (health, education, food, security, infrastructure, etc).  The organization was started by a woman named Helen Lieberman who is just an absolutely fantastic human being.  We had an opportunity to meet her yesterday and words can't even describe how amazing this woman is although this article I just found does a pretty good job.

Many donors to Ikamva (and many other non-profits) are becoming much more interested in determining where the money they donate goes and what impact it has.  As such, from what I understand, Drew and Holly will be working to create some sort of tracking tool to help quantify Ikamva's impact, specifically related to the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) group (how many children are involved, how long, etc.).  Since Kirstin, Mimi, and I don't actually start our internship until Monday, we were able to join Holly and Drew this morning on a township visit, to Gugulethu.

We were escorted in (safety is a key concern in the townships especially for white women) and arrived a bit early so we were able to spend some time at the Ikamva preschool.  The kids were absolutely adorable and all OVCs (so either orphaned or likely being raised by grandparents/great grandparents due to AIDS deaths).  They were amazed by my hair since I was wearing it down and all kept petting it whenever I would bend over since it feels so differently than theirs does.  They also kept trying to pick me up, reach into my pockets, give high fives (or thumb snaps, which was a new one for me), and loved seeing their faces on my digital camera after I took a picture (unfortunately, I somehow managed to delete all the pictures on my memory card but thankfully Mimi got some good pictures and it's only 3 days in)!  Afterwards, we sat in on the OVC team meeting which I also found very interesting.  Still not entirely sure how the whole thing works but basically, they have one director and a different community based worker (CBW) for each section of the township.  The CBWs are responsible for a certain number of families and stop in as often as necessary to check up on their safety, food, living conditions, etc - after each visit they must fill out an evaluation-type form and are required to complete a certain number of visits each month. I still don't completely understand the whole organizational structure but it appears these CBWs work closely with the government social workers that are also assigned to the township.  They also have one specific CBW that is responsible just for special needs kids.  Regardless, these woman have quite a task on their hands and I imagine must encounter some incredibly difficult circumstances.  All in all, quite the visit.  Part of me is jealous I'm not on this project however a much bigger part of me isn't sure I'd be able to handle seeing kids in such desperate states.  Helen mentioned yesterday that she would bring us back and walk us around so definitely looking forward to that trip (especially since she's pretty much a legend around the townships) and will promise not to delete my pictures this time!

Feel like that was a lot for one day so I'll fill you in on my other happenings another time.

xo.