Again, as always, I think about blogging when really rad things are going on. This blog kinda holds a little of my journey to Africa, so read a few back to get to know my story and heart for these beautiful people. I am here for a short 7 day in South Africa and Zambia as an intern with Chegg for Good and The ONE Campaign. This was supposed to be posted last night, but the WiFi wasn't working....Africa haha
Our first official day here in South Africa is quickly coming to a close. To be honest I feel quite out of place here at our hotel. Here in Johannesburg we are staying in a central part of the city in very modern and Westernized accommodations. I have running water I can drink, WiFi, hot showers, and constant electricity. Quite different than the Africa I expected, but about 15/20 min down the road you can see what most consider Africa. Poverty. Thousands of tiny shack houses made of tin and cardboard, dirty water, and no electricity, but the most beautiful children one could set eyes on. Both of our site visits were in impoverished townships about an hour outside of Johannesburg. The wealth and poverty disparity here in South Africa is unbelievable.
We first visited the Winnie Mandela Clinic for Male Sexual Health. They specialize in medical male circumcision as a means of HIV infection protection and prevention. A male has a 60% lower chance of contracting and spreading the disease if he is circumcised. PEPFAR(Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), a program funded by the US government, is a donor partner for this clinic so that all of their services can be free to the African population. They also have mobile teams that go out into the townships and mining hostel communities to provide free HIV testing, screening and counseling. They also refer to the clinic for circumcision and to local clinics for ARV’s if a patient is positive for HIV. Their outreach team also goes out door to door educating the locals on the practice of medical male circumcision, giving out literature on the procedure and why it should be done, and referring to the clinic. This clinic is the only one in a 120km radius, servicing about 100,000 people. Since the clinic opened in September 2011 they have performed 6,000+ circumcision procedures. Hopefully 6,000 less cases of HIV, not to mention the spread to many others and children born without it! As American’s we are playing a part in that! People were lined out out the door and down the street to get in the clinic. About three weeks ago, after an extended outreach session they had 1,500 people waiting outside the clinic. You can see that the African people are ready for change and positive steps toward HIV treatment and prevention. Most men and boys didn’t look excited to be circumcised, but the fact that because they are going through this they most likely will not contract HIV, that makes it worth it! The prevalence of unmarried, youth sexual activity, and multiple partners was far greater than I expected, but when you live in an environment where there are vitually no jobs and often your family cannot afford to send you to school what else is there for young people to do but explore and mess around?... It happens enough here when kids do get to go to school and do have money. All of this goes hand in hand. The lower class need more job opportunities, but how can they work if they do not have an education or skill to contribute to the workforce? That is really where the work of our second site visit comes in. Kliptown Youth Program. The level of poverty was even greater in Kliptown than our first site. Kliptown is a shanty shack town of about 12,000 people. This youth program sponsors 400 children with books, uniforms, and lunch for school and then after school tutoring and help with homework, as well as fun activities on the weekends. The team at KYP are all locals who grew up in Kliptown and as they encourage their studies and goals they have a greater understanding of what life is like for them and they know how to support them and give them the skills and resources to one day break out of the vicious cycle of poverty that their families are in. The children were absolutely beautiful. I could say that a million times more! I got the absolute pleasure of holding my first African child on African soil today. She just can right up to me, hugged my legs, and jumped in my arms and started talking to me in Zulu. She was so precious! I will most likely never see her again. I can’t help but ask the questions, what will happen to her? Will she grow up strong and healthy? Will she go to school? Those questions shouldn’t have to be asked. Basic food, water, and education should not be a privilege, but they should be what is normal for a child. These needs are so overwhelming, but it’s just one child at a time. As KYP says it’s the quality of investment in a child’s life and future, not the quantity. The youth of this generation are Africa’s future leaders and adults who, if educated and given the basic tools they need, can break out of the vicious cycle of poverty they were born into.
The only thing about this trip that has disappointed me so far is that we are staying in such a nice hotel. I feel like I tasted Africa today, touching the poor majorities life for a few hours, but now I am back in comfort, luxury really. It’s weird to be honest. Those beautiful children are still at home in their shacks, probably cold tonight in the South African winter temperatures. Each day will go by for them and it is so easy for us to forget and become indifferent to what goes on amongst them. I don’t know how I could live in the rich part of South Africa and be ok with myself if I wasn’t engaged somehow in making change and helping the poor populations of my country, but sadly I sit here now asking my own heart the same question. How do I/we sit back and at home, spending money on unneeded possessions, too much coffee, and pleasure, and be ok with myself as people in my own state and country suffer and live in poverty similar to this in places? I know that there is an extremist line to this. Yes, we are blessed and can enjoy the blessings we have been given, but how can we better use what we have been blessed with to benefit and better the lives of the millions who have next to nothing, rather than spending most of it on ourselves? This is more than just writing another check to charity or an NGO. Yes, that helps and is needed, but there is a deeper something to this. A total shift of lifestyle, goals, and aspirations that were once self-centered, self-focused, and self-glorifying to a humble place of serving, loving, giving, investing time, and using our voices to impact our communities and those like Kliptown. The children are full of potential, but have no means to even discover it. Corruption, racism, past and present conflict, and a lack of equality all feed the issues here in South Africa, which is one of, if not the most well off African countries. That fact makes is even harder to wrap your mind around why they still have so much poverty. I can’t imagine yet how Zambia will be, where around 64% of the population lives under $1.25 a day. That will come in its time, but for now as the founder of Kliptown Youth Program said, our focus needs to be on finding African solutions to African problems and issues that have been fed by over 100 years of corruption cannot be fixed overnight or in the 18 years since their independence. Development is complicated, but in the here and now there are millions of mothers, fathers, and beautiful children everywhere that who need to be reached with the basics.
