I guess now that there have been new developments it is time to tell you about the secret mission I have been planning over here. Since coming to South Africa I have talked in past blogs about education and the treatment of women here. Having spoken with locals and combined forces with a few people we have started work on creating an after school program for girls in primary school that will address sex, puberty, HIV/AIDS, extra educational help and general support. The region that I am currently located in is very rural and most of the supportive programs for people in South Africa are run in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria. The rural area of Limpopo Province is largely forgotten as being a part of the country. Further, the region here sees about 40% of young women being mothers by the age of 19; teenage pregnancies is rampant here and often times these young women drop out of school to care for their children and often times rely on the men to care for the children who do not. Women here are often victims of what we would call “sugar daddies” in the US these older men want to take on the young women as mistresses and promise them an easy way to step up in society, but when they become pregnant the men often do not follow through and these young girls are left uneducated and penniless. To address this problem I have been working with the University of Limpopo here who created a similar program for boys that uses games to discuss HIV and how life decisions can affect the goals that you want to reach. Going a step further myself and a colleague have created a protocol for an after school program that will provide girls a safe space to go after school and discuss their concerns as well as get extra help with school work.
I am excited because I have found the village where we will be opening our first after school program once the program is finalized and we have enough funding. The area is Mohokone village where they just have a primary school with an average of 40 students per teacher; this creates a lack of extra support for the students who need extra attention, particularly when there is a low adult literacy rate making it difficult for them to seek assistance at home. Further, to go to secondary school the children must walk long distances where villagers have complained has resulted in many young girls being raped by thugs in the early mornings. Such problems have deterred girls from continuing with their education. 55.9% of the households in the area are headed by only females because many men have left the mothers to find other families and opportunities outside of the village which has resulted in extreme poverty as the majority of houses with no income are headed by just women. This village is in extreme need of help and I am excited to get to work with the local school and leaders and find a space where we can open up the program.
It will take lots of hard work, and time (the University of Limpopo is still waiting on ethical clearance for starting a similar girls program that we will use in our program). It is just the beginning and I would love help and suggestions from anyone who has them. This was not something I planned on starting when I got here, but felt moved by the local villages and people here who need the help. It is hard once you see something to turn a blind eye and not help in some way, and so began my journey on this project. The color of my skin has also been helpful in getting support from the villages as most have never seen a white person come to the village and so I get attention as being someone important and it makes it easier to hold meetings with people who are excited to see me. With this, and the local help I am ready to, hopefully, start making a change and when I return to the US I will continue my work from there with plans to return soon to build the project and work with the local villagers. Please, please send me some thoughts, ideas (particularly about fundraising), I look forward to them.
(we have started our work on getting Non-Profit status here in South Africa to make finances easier)
For More reading on the district we are working in and where I got my statistics from:
http://mfma.treasury.gov.za/Documents/06.%20Annual%20Reports/2009-10/02.%20Local%20Municipalities/LIM332%20Greater%20Letaba/LIM332%20Greater%20Letaba%20Annual%20Report%202009-10%20Draft.pdf
http://www.mopani.gov.za/docs/2007-2008IDP.pdf
