2021 November Newsletter
Gratitude and Blessings
Greetings to all the wonderful sponsors who participated in the world programs to end hunger and poverty. A huge thanks for your amazing donations, which have been used, in part, to pay for the children’s seaside holiday. Your commitment holds a special place in the world and will never be forgotten. Whether you have sent money, a toothbrush, pen, food, or happy card – it’s all a blessing.
The end of the year is barrelling toward us
Covid-19: We are grateful that Covid-19 rates in our area have declined. This has allowed many jobs to return, even the most menial of which is highly sought after. Every cent counts in households where many are unemployed and living on government grants. Nevertheless, the pandemic has left many dreams abandoned and plans placed on hold. Residents battle anger, disappointment and general fatigue, the emotional strain sometimes resulting in physical battles.
Hunger: Although the soup kitchen operates every day, most villagers are very thin and appear malnourished. One reason for this is that BCDT prioritizes nutritional value and quantity over taste and variety. Admittedly, our fortified mixtures and soya will win no international taste competitions, and our lack of access to fruit and nuts doesn’t help. South African soya is mostly Genetically Modified (GM), and therefore its use is somewhat controversial. However, such concerns are trivial for hungry people. We stretch the food budget as far as it will allow, and hand out additional food parcels to families whenever we can.
A constant state of low-level hunger has devastating emotional fallout. Leigh, a BCDT manager pointed out how peaceful the village is after additional food parcels are distributed. Physical altercations disappear, and village children don’t need to be forced to go to bed to sleep.
Hunger Notes state that at least 120 million women in developing countries are underweight due to malnutrition. How sad to know that there is enough food in the world for everyone, yet World Hunger estimates as many as 811 million people go to bed hungry.
Sponsors, please know that your contributions toward the soup kitchen is putting a smile on the faces of the children. And so much more.
Standing Up
This past week, the village children and youth requested that management acquire funding to add breakfast to the soup kitchen menu. The BCDT team was encouraged by the kids’ boldness in their modest request. It’s a huge move for very poor children and youth to step up, without signs of shame, insecurity, or inferiority, and take responsibility for their nutrition. Currently we provide tea and lunch meals for all; breakfast and supper are reserved for what we call the “inner core” – primarily the children and youth who grew up at BCDT. It would be wonderful if all the children could participate in breakfast and not only this group, which is about half the children and adults.
Meeting their request would require finding additional funds each month for
Rand Quantity Item
2,880 9x50 kg bags Mealie meal [maize]
3,400 10x25kg bags Sugar
2,400 2x48 kg bottles Gas
8,680 ($566 USD) Total
If anyone could assist, please contact Nicole.
Camping
The usual ten-day spring-break on-site camping at BCDT went very well, and the children and youth were sad to pack up the tents. Thank you to all that sent money for marshmallows, chocolates, and sweets. Fortunately, they know that after the village trip to Durban they will camp again right through the holidays to New Year. They adore camping now, but it took a long time to convince the village children to try it. Initially, they saw leaving home and sleeping in a field under a piece of plastic as quite an oddity! “Pleasure walking” is also a foreign concept and an oxymoron to them. Like “jumbo shrimp”, or “deafening silence”. Understandably when you have had to walk and hike everywhere for your entire life. As one child put it, “I can play soccer, play volleyball, I can swim. But walk? Why would I do that?”
Two unwelcome guests
Our daughter Leigh was complaining about discovering a snake in her cupboard and had begun plugging all possible holes in her bedroom. Her bedroom is part of an old classroom, so it wasn’t easy; nevertheless, that visitor was quickly dealt with. But it was the second guest where she drew the line.
One morning at 3 a.m., she awoke to hear shuffling and heavy breathing outside her window and someone turning her door handle. Tentatively pulling aside her curtain, she found herself staring into a young man’s face, as he beckoned for her to come outside. Leigh’s husband Joseph stood with her as they opened the door, but he merely stared at them. The managers rushed out of their homes to assist Leigh and Joseph. Upon questioning, the young man said the police had dropped him off, a common practice as the police often drops off people that need a place to sleep for the night. They frisked him for weapons and were careful of distancing for Covid-19. The police later apologized and agreed to let him sleep in the cells while they attempted to contact his family.
We mention this story because South Africa has some of the highest crime and murder rates in the world. People are edgy and trigger happy. Had this man been dropped in one of the surrounding farm areas, he could have easily been shot. Our very strict non-gun policy on the property has always proven to be advantageous. And Leigh and Joseph’s compassionate approach of refusing to open a case is one small step towards a new more peaceful narrative in South Africa. We have learned to react differently to such incidents, doing what we can to foster reduced violence.
The death of numerous dogs and puppies in the village
Before leaving our city home 30 years ago to live in a poor village, we took for granted having a pet dog or cat. But we have discovered that having a pet is a privilege. It is a sad reality that if you are underprivileged this childhood joy is often unrealized. Children yearn for a pet to call their own, and shower love, attention, and even their own food on them; in return the pets decrease their owners’ loneliness, stress, and depression.
Too often, those parents who can afford a pet cannot afford vaccinations for it. So, the animal becomes sick and dies within a year, resulting in a painful grieving process. Animal lovers will understand the loss of a pet can be like the death of a family member. It could explain why the cruelty figures are so high, since children are never taught how to love and have responsibility for an animal. Nicole puts aside a certain amount of funds each year to assist with pet vaccinations.
On the flip side, ‘puppy factories’ still thrive in our village, and it is a constant fight to close them down. In the end, we assist with the death process and pet burial. These are unbearably sad jobs for the staff, and not for the faint of heart.
The Annual Seaside holiday
The annual seaside trip to Durban is gaining momentum as the count down to the 15 of November begins. Planning is finalized, the children and youth are unable to contain their excitement. Rules have been reiterated on how to behave in public spaces, including masking, Covid-19 dangers and social distancing, no begging, no alcohol, no following strangers. The truth is that it is a beautiful resort on the edge of the Indian Ocean. But because we are black, and poor, we will be under constant surveillance and must behave much better than white or privileged children at the resort.
We have rehearsed further personal safety rules and procedures, including what to do in the event of an attempted kidnapping, assault, rape, or molestation. Never to go a public toilet alone. Years back we had a traumatic episode on one holiday when one of the small boys was molested in a public toilet. A wealthy man was under investigation, but we had no money and the case disappeared. We learnt a valuable lesson.
We are still collecting costumes, towels, shorts, flip-flops, and hats for the children because, in the village, everyone swims in their underwear. The school exams have been moved around and the holiday divided into two groups, as the one group goes back home the other one comes down. We booked out an entire section of the camping sites and have chalets for weak or sick children and youth and elderly. The children have packed and unpacked too many times to mention. Fishing, shell hunting, long walks, body surfing and snorkelling are all on the cards. We must teach a whole new group of children how to snorkel. Fortunately, most of the children have learnt to swim in the village pool, but sea and wave education is quite different.
Never underestimate how well you are doing
A social worker from the hospital phoned BCDT to request a space for an elderly man with advanced AIDS who had been abandoned in hospital by his family. We made space for him in the recreational centre where he has 24-hour care. His CD4 count is between 4 and 70, a typical count is between 500 and 1,400; we normally struggle to keep a patient alive at this stage because they are so susceptible to any opportunistic illness. The hospitals do not assist and send patients home to die. We struggled to get him clean, obviously nobody bathed him in the hospital. His hospital gown was caked with dirt. We took him to the clinic and began his Anti-retrovirals (ARV’s) once more and are feeding him slowly. If we can get him to walk a few steps, and have normal motions, he has a chance at survival. The biggest problem is the sadness and brokenness in his eyes. For a vibrant human to arrive at this moment, to garner the courage to stand at the edge of an abyss and evaluate his life and make decisions is a wasteland of pain.
He told us that during Apartheid, he had worked the very land upon which BCDT now sits. It is a raw reminder of how farm workers toil their entire lives as menial labourers with nothing to show for it later in their lives. And painfully ironic that he has come back to die, homeless, abandoned, penniless, and close to death. This is where we support him as fellow humans, no judgement, no expectations, just a celebration of a life, good, bad, or indifferent. Working and supporting people who are dying is a privilege that can break you or grow you. As Con and I, as founding members, see dedicated young managers step up and continue this work of compassion, we are deeply moved and encouraged.
One of our teenagers lost her baby sister of one and half years. She died while staying with an aunt in Mozambique. We send love and blessings to her very short life and feel the sadness of the mother who cannot afford to go and bury or see her baby one last time. The child stopped breathing, a very common problem with babies from malnourished mothers or mothers on chronic treatment. Difficult to celebrate her sisters baby boy that was born at the same time.
What is your Passion?
We get so busy with our lives, to live, survive and maintain our position in society that we forget about our original dreams and passions. How often should we recalibrate our life course or if we had that privilege to do so. This was made stark this week when we were interceding in a disciplinary hearing, with a disillusioned, learning challenged, angry, sad, lost 17-year-old youth in the village, living in dire poverty. When questioned what he dreamt of doing as a child he answered without hesitation, ‘boxing’, I have always wanted to box. What astonished us even more was when Sissy, a top manager said that she too always wanted to box. So, we are opening a boxing club. Anyone with old gloves please send. When you have no academic possibility or prospects in your future, participating in your dream sounds like a healthy alternative. What dreams have you forgotten you even had?
The Nation: The corrupt former president Jacob Zuma’s claim that the ANC will rule ‘until Jesus comes’ is in doubt
The Municipal elections are over, and the results indicate that a new era in South Africa’s political landscape is emerging. Our governing liberational party the ANC (African National Congress), fell below 50% for the first time since 1994. 12 million South Africans voted, 14 million did not. What kept so many away from the polls? Yes, there were Covid-19 fears, and yes, there is no other adequate party to vote for. But many chose not to vote as ‘punishment’ for the ANC’s unprecedented level of corruption and looting, allegedly in the trillions. While most of the villagers have not received their promised government housing, have no decent job prospects and are still going to bed hungry, it seems bold indeed to expect them to vote. Some of the youth who were raised on the idealism of Mandela’s dream eventually found crime to be more alluring. One of the outcomes of this government betrayal are the local police rushing into the village in search of guns and stolen property. Yet all we want from the government is fiduciary competence, ‘please stop stealing the peoples’ money!’ and from the disillusioned youth ‘please stop stealing from innocent citizens. The brokenness continues.
Letimela ‘the lost one’ was found in our district last week.
An international team of researchers discovered the first child from the ancient humanoid strain homo Naledi, just meters from the original 2015 homo Naledi discovery. This child lived somewhere between 230,000 and 300,000 years ago. Almost a quarter of a million years later, how is it possible that homo sapiens in the same area are living in such squalid conditions? Where is the pinnacle of our civilization when only a fortunate few on the planet live in comfort? We have United Nations, Ave Maria – Schubert/Bach, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Michelangelo’s Pieta, mapping the human genome, Internet, space travel, engineering, education, modern medicine. And yet poverty persists?
And finally - Gratitude
Thank you for helping all the children. It is thanks to you that some of the children will get their tiny share of extreme pleasure on the beautiful golden beaches of South Africa, a warm feeling in their tummies, and a smile on their faces. Not a snowy wonderland but a hot African sandy wonderland. Pictures will follow in the December newsletter. A definition of a perfect Christmas present.