Home is Where the Heart is

The tragic story of the the family in Munsieville recently burned out of their shack home (http://projecthopeukmunsieville.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/homeless-in-munsieville.html), highlights once again, so many of the challenges facing the community of this and other South African townships. Once more, the importance of The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville is graphically demonstrated.

The family is typical of many within Munsieville: a mixed, extended family quite different from the western "norm"; Grandma and Grandpa, three grandsons, one of whom is an orphan and the other two placed with their grandparents because their own parents can no longer care for them; and then a lodger from their home village (possibly related), given sanctuary by this compassionate family.  They all lived together in their decrepit two-room tin shack, squeezed between others on the rocky hillside of the exposed informal settlement (squatter camp). Similar, grandparent-led households are common in Munsieville, often reflecting the desperate reality of families where parents have been lost to AIDS, and poverty-driven migration.

At a time of life when most look forward to taking life just a little easier, loving grandparents like these are forced to rise to the biggest challenge of their lives. Extra mouths to feed; growing numbers to house in their tiny, freezing shack (this is winter in South Africa); all at a time when their own health may be failing. The South African Constitution affords them many "rights", but so often, these are at best aspirational, as resources are thin and the "safety net" is thread bear and moth-eaten, inadequate for the vast needs of this mineral-rich nation.

Over the past decade, international NGOs and western governments have turned their back on the apparently wealthy Gauteng Province, focusing their efforts on the poorer rural areas on Limpopo, Kwazulu Natal and Eastern Cape, but the reality is that for years, there has been mass migration from the rural villages to the peri-urban areas surrounding the major cities like Johannesburg. The poverty of the villages has transferred to the informal settlements - there are now approaching two hundred of
them around Johannesburg alone.

The family at the centre of this desperate story illustrate so many of the facets of the problems facing South Africa:

1) They have come to the settlement from elsewhere in a search for the illusive "better life". Then others from their village have followed them, including the man who allegedly destroyed their home, threatening their lives.
2) They lived in an awful, cramped shack, incapable of keeping out the rain, the cold, the rats and any intruder that decides to enter. Though the loss of the shack is a catastrophe for the family, it did contain many major threats to the safety and security of the children and absolutely no privacy. (One of the most important initiatives currently being implemented by The Thoughtful Path programme is to improve the safety of all shacks, for the sake of the children being raised within them).
3) The threat of violence and abuse to children living in these situations often comes from within the household - abuse by strangers is comparatively rare. One in five children reports personal experience of serious abuse. In this case, sexual abuse is not being alleged, but it is alleged that the children were specifically included in the death threat to the family by the lodger who, it is claimed, was responsible for burning down the home. (Project HOPE UK is taking a leading role this week in Child Protection Week in Munsieville - campaigning to make the township a zero-tolerance place for abuse and abusers).
4) With few available jobs, and mass unemployment amongst shack-dwellers, poverty bites hard. This family faces an enormous challenge to re-establish their home. Economic activity has to increase, so the Thoughtful Path Community Strengthening Hub is vital, promoting savings and micro-credit, small enterprise and active involvement in the community of local employers, so they can see the benefits of employing those who have most to gain from working hard.
5) Orphans and other vulnerable children need somewhere to turn when they are in crisis. Already traumatised by the loss of parents and then subjected to an arson attack and possible attempted murder, at least the children in this story have the care of loving grandparents. Many do not - there are many child-led orphan households in Munsieville. (Since December 2011, all children have the benefit of a place to run in an emergency - the Munsieville Children's Embassy. And soon, there will be a 24/7 crisis line based at the Children's Embassy, so services can be mobilised in minutes to support and protect the most needy children in the community).

The driving passion of the Thoughtful Path: Munsieville is that all children be afforded the opportunity to grow into health, productive adults. The recent events for this family illustrated just how difficult it is right now for many to receive that opportunity. But, little by little, step by step, together we are building a future of hope for children in the township and beyond.

Big Boys Don't Cry

In their classic 1975 hit, "I'm Not In Love", 10cc whispered "big boys don't cry". Well, after a meeting with the Early Childhood Development Hub of the Thoughtful Path: Munsieville yesterday, I discovered that they were either completely wrong, or I am not a big boy after all!

A tragic story of an event this week in an unregulated pre-school creche has lodged itself firmly in my heart, filling me with fresh determination to hasten reforms in the South African township so that terrible abuse, whether deliberate or caused by ignorance, is eradicated. I don't mind admitting that, not for the first time, I have wept for Munsieville.

Lizzie, Chairperson of the ECD Hub reported to a hushed meeting that a four-month-old baby had died a few days ago on the lap of the lone-operator of a creche. Apparently, she had held the child's nose closed as she attempted to force a portion of "pap" (a thick porridge of ground maize) into his tiny mouth. The baby died of asphyxiation!

If this was an isolated case, it would be bad enough, but it is common for children to suffer serious injury and death in townships across South Africa, at the hands of those entrusted with their care. It is not that the country has inadequate laws and regulations to protect children; the problem is such an acute lack of resources that Munsieville's 50,000+ population, with its 10,600 orphans and other vulnerable children, has just one social worker for only one day each week. She has vast experience and masses of compassion, but she is also completely some overwhelmed. She dare not even visit some of the worst pre-school cheches; if she did, she would be compelled to close them down, which could leave hundreds of children in even more danger of neglect.

But, tragic though the death of this baby is for his family and the whole community, giant strides are being made by the Thoughtful Path ECD Hub. Already, ten creche operators, with no previous training, have passed through the first stages of an accredited two-year "level 4" ECD training course and are introducing improvements to every aspect of the care they provide to children. Another two are currently undergoing their initial eight-week basic training and a further eight have been enrolled and will start their training as places become available over the next few weeks. And on top of this, we have just received funding to train a further twenty community members from the township, equipping them with the latest internationally-acclaimed ECD training techniques and teaching them to support caregivers in the community to deliver all the many advantages of early childhood development to pre-schoolers in the home, massively extending the reach of the programme.

The good news does not stop there! We now have everything in place to launch a full-time Health Promotion Unit, to support the ECD Hub and the other six Hubs of the Thoughtful Path in promoting the health of the children with whom they work. The team will cover medical, public/community health and mental health and well-being issues and will give a huge boost to the campaign to overcome the ignorance that led to the death of the baby earlier this week.

And another cause for great optimism is the progress of our Child Rights and Protection Hub which is striving towards the launch of a "Emergency Response" service for children at risk in the township, based at our newly-opened "Munsieville Children's Embassy" and partnering with all local support agencies, some of which have excellent services to which the vulnerable children desperately need access. A generous UK donor has just agreed funding that will allow us to develop a 24/7 Emergency Response service, accessible by every child in the community whenever they, or those caring for them, need help.

So, my tears mingle with those of the family of this precious little life snuffed out at just four months, but they are eased by the sensational progress being made by this wonderful community to make theirs the best place in Africa to raise a child. And together, we can make it happen!

Beyond the Tipping Point

Two years ago I had a number of conversations with my friend Martin Lafontaine about "tipping points" (Martin was volunteering with Project HOPE UK in Munsieville at the time). We would sit together having a meal at the end of a long day in Munsieville dreaming of the day when bringing this great new concept to birth would no longer feel like pushing a giant boulder up a mountainside, because it had now reached the place where it would roll forward through its own inner momentum.

Over the past three months, The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville has, in many ways, reached a crucial tipping point! More and more people, both locally and from around the world, have seen the importance of the project and joined forces with us to realise its true potential. Our Children's Embassy has opened, making a huge statement to the community. The House of Young Ambassadors has been launched, placing children at the heart of the process of delivering change. And the Thoughtful Path Leadership Academy is steadily equipping the emerging "movers and shakers" of the township as agents of transformation. As we welcome the programme's new-found momentum, we also recognise that it needs to be maintained and managed. A boulder rolling uncontrolled down a hill can be very destructive! And what happens when the boulder comes to rest at the foot of the mountain? Is that it?

The energy of pushing, shoving, influencing, advocating and cajoling to bring The Thoughtful Path to where it is today has been shared with a number of incredible people who, over the past two years, have come as volunteers and interns to the project. The recent, highly-significant push, leading to the "tipping point" has been made possible because the efforts of our permanent team have been multiplied by the sheer professionalism, passion, sacrifice and perseverance of Carola Michielsen from Holland, Alyson Krucher from the USA, and a band of 11 doctors, nurses and health and safety professionals, all of whom were gifted to us by our corporate partner, GlaxoSmithKline.

But the fact that all except Alyson have now finished their assignments (and Alyson only has another week in Munsieville), poses a couple of very important questions: will the current momentum of the project simply peter out? Will the good things they have initiated be sustained?

Well, in all honestly, it would be imprudent to answer definitively. Clearly, in the harsh reality of an undeveloped South African township, only the strongest and best ideas survive. "Good" is never enough; only "great" will cut it! But, where the activities of these and other volunteers succeed, there is always evidence of much "sitting under the mango tree" with the local community. And none of the volunteers has just whisked through Munsieville like the Lone Ranger - they have all planned well, felt the Munsieville "vibe", listened to the community, and worked, not to deliver change, but to equip the local community to deliver change!.

Project HOPE UK has benefitted from our volunteers and interns more than words could ever adequately describe, and we want all these friends to stay engaged. They all have so much more to offer. That's why earlier this week, we launched our "Directors' Circle". This is an invited group of special friends of The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville, who have expressed their desire to stay with us until we see the project reach its objective of being an influential, world-class model of excellence in community-based care of orphans and other vulnerable children. Now we have strengthened our support-base with a growing band of trusted advisors and consultants, all of whom have first-hand knowledge of the project, so they can comment from a position of real understanding.

Yes, it has taken supreme effort to bring The Thoughtful Path to the tipping point. But now, as momentum builds, the Directors' Circle will mean that progress is controlled and maintained. After all, to succeed in Munsieville, we will need to reach many more tipping points along the path!

View from The Appalachians

IT IS NOT HARD TO SEE THE ATTRACTION OF JOHNSON CITY, Tennessee, USA, especially in what Americans call “the fall”. The bright, optimistic, energetic city nestles between the tree-covered Appalachian mountains, boldly displaying the full panoply of rich autumn colours. The air is clean, rivers full and the bears, like the people, have a spirit of enquiry, sometimes venturing from their safe haven to investigate the riches beyond.

I am writing this blog from Dulles International Airport, Washington DC, en route for London after a few days as the guest of the Public Health College of East Tennessee State University (ETSU), in Johnson City. And for me, it was an experience far richer that the glorious scenery. I was there to cement friendships with the Dean, Randy Wykoff, Tim Baylor, who does an incredible job in placing students in locations including Munsieville, as part of their studies towards, bachelors, masters or doctoral qualifications, and students like Megan Quinn and Twanda Wadlinton, who have worked with us in the past and become true friends. I was also in town to deliver a public lecture as part of their “Leading Voices in Public Health” series, entitled “The End of Disempowerment and Dependency: Rethinking the Path for Africa’s AIDS Orphans”.

Why do we sometimes limit ourselves to the expected, though, when life blesses us with so many unexpected treasures, too! I fully expected a rewarding experience with the ETSU friends who have already demonstrated their commitment to The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville. What I had not expected was the many new doors of opportunity that opened up with many other parts of the university community.

Meetings with leading charitable foundations in the area; question and answer sessions with students in the Health Administration department; a meeting of minds with the Director of the University’s groundbreaking Graduate Program in Storytelling, to learn more about the evidence of the effectiveness of storytelling in the care of people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa; discussions about how we can work with students and faculty to develop targeted garden solutions for South Africa that can be developed so that shack-dwellers can grow specific crops to enhance the health of pregnant women, or under-fives; creative exploration into how to enlist the university’s best brains in the quest for a way to turn the garbage problem of Munsieville (and similar locations) into a resource-enriching opportunity .... it was a rare opportunity to be with a community of people who personify the truism about many Americans that they are people who will strive to discover a 100 ways to make something work, as opposed to a 100 reasons why it won’t!

But (and I am conscious is the irony of using the “B” word in the context of such thrusting optimism!!), such opportunity also presents its challenges. Martin Lafontaine, a good friend and previous volunteer in Munsieville (courtesy of his employers, GlaxoSmithKline), has constantly encouraged me with his belief that The Thoughtful Path would almost inevitably arrive at a “tipping point” – a place where we will no longer feel like we are pushing boulder up a hill, when it will have its own forward momentum. This visit to Johnson City is yet more evidence that if we have not yet reached the tipping point, at least on an operational level we are pretty close. The new and existing ETSU opportunities stack up alongside the invitations and requests coming into our UK offices almost daily, from people and organisations who “get” The Thoughtful Path concept, realise its huge potential for changing the landscape of orphan care in Africa and want to “be the change”. The downside, however, is that the financial and resource tipping point is lagging behind, so the whole management structure supporting the work in Munsieville is creaking at the seams.

I promised that my blog would be an honest, “warts and all” account of the process of creating a new paradigm for the care of Africa’s orphans and other vulnerable children, so hear you have it – on the one side, an avalanche of encouragement from those who can see that what we are doing holds the prospect of providing effective new models that challenge the bankrupt “status quo” of international charitable and governmental programming and replacing it with something that energises destitute local communities to provide transformational change that results in their most vulnerable children having the opportunity to grow into healthy, productive adults. And then on the flip side of the coin, real frustration that lack of human and financial resources mean that we are unable to seize some of the opportunities presented to us.

I am utterly convinced that The Thoughtful Path is the right path. I also believe that we will win and that the financial tipping point will be reached when partners and investors will see that the tiny amount needed to bring this venture to reality is just a drop in the ocean of the massive and sustained returns that such investment will generate. But for now, the struggle remains; the struggle that is akin to that of the leader of a string quartet who sees a percussion section being added, then woodwind, then brass and so on until, unexpectedly, he finds himself conducting a full orchestra, and then two, and then three orchestras .... all trying to play the same symphony.

All I can say is – we urgently need more brass!

Munsieville's BIG Issues

I have attended several meetings in the past week, where the big challenges that hold children back, have been discussed. Business leaders, community representatives, house-holders, pastors and, most important of all, children and young people themselves, all seem to agree on South Africa's BIG FIVE!

Poverty, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, drugs, and booze!

The super-sized beer can pictured here, towering over Betty Nkoana, Manager of The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville and dwarfing the shacks which house destitute families, just about sums up the drink problem of the township. It's massive, highly destructive and pervades every aspect of life in the community.

I once described alcohol as the cheerful destroyer - making people "merry" as it robs them of of their dignity, their health, their wealth and their future. But, in a place like Munsieville, it appears to go straight for the kill - you rarely see people enjoying the "happy" stage. You just see lives being wrecked; the lives of the drinkers, and the lives of those who share their space. (And in Munsieville's informal shack settlement, sharing space means living as a family in a tin hut with a dirt floor measuring as little as six or seven square meters.)

TIME TO CHOOSE
When Project HOPE UK started its journey down The Thoughtful Path, it was pretty clear that demolishing the walls of the "prison" which prevents the orphans and other vulnerable children of the community from becoming healthy, productive adults, was going to take a very long time. There were no quick-fixes, no short-cuts and no easy solutions. And perhaps most disconcerting of all for us westerners who imaging that if we can fly to the moon we can solve anything, it became abundantly obvious that if the transformation of Munsieville did not come from within the community itself, it would certainly not come from outside!

So, as one who lives, eats and sleeps Munsieville, but only gets to sit down with its people every few weeks, it is so indescribably exciting to see seeds of change germinating and sprouting through the hard crusty ground of this beautiful community, as very ordinary people take extra-ordinary steps on the path to a better future.

The government's strategy for Munsieville over recent years has been to try appeasing the anger of destitute communities by throwing huge sums into high-profile capital projects, like a new sports centre, the opening of which was accompanied by an announcement that from now on, those wanting to hold sports and cultural events for children would have to pay an impossible fee for facilities which had previously been free! In contrast, our strategy is to search for the seeds of change in the lives of the community, and then water them with encouragement, nurture them with mentoring and fertilise them with training.

Like the rest of us, the people of Munsieville are faced with a bewildering array of choices. There are many who continue to choose destructive "solutions" to their pressing problems. There are many who choose to wait for someone else to solve their problems. There are many who choose to stand on the side-lines, probably with a can of Castle Lager in their hands, and jeer at those who choose to be the change that they long for in their community.

And, from what I have seen in the past week, a growing band of people is making that brave decision - a businesswoman in her 80s with a longing to give shack-dwellers the opportunity to create productive enterprises; a fiery group of young adults totally committed to make Munsieville a zero-tolerance location for child abusers; a dozen women who have lived in poverty all their lives who have created "Heart Gardens" as their first step towards self reliance; a growing band of school children diligently constructing a plan to eradicate alcohol and substance misuse amongst their peers!

Another week here in Munsieville has reinforced my belief that even the biggest problems faced by a community start to diminish when people decide to be their own solution.

Small Steps to Massive Change

Model excellence to inspire change! That was always the clarion call of The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville, right from its earliest concept.

The fact is, as a small, hard-pressed organisation in a world of cut-backs and diminishing resources, to set about creating projects to provide essential services for tens of millions of orphans and other vulnerable children across sub-Saharan Africa would be no more effective than a sticking plaster over the sluice gates of the Three Gorges Dam!

Our aim for the entire programme, as well as for each of its many components, is to create models of excellence that are truly sustainable, measurably effective and deeply embedded in the community, so that others facing similar challenges will be inspired to change the way they care for children. Our aim is that people from communities right across Africa will come to the jaw-dropping realisation that if Munsieville can rise to the challenge of ensuring its children can grow into health, productive adults, so can they! It’s no longer about what we can do; its about what they can do with a bit of support and encouragement from us.

Ok, that may be a laudable objective, but, in the real world, how on earth can it emerge from Fantasyland and become a dynamic reality?
Firstly, by making sure that the fundamentals are in place and that the foundations are unshakeable. And the first of the foundation stones is a profound belief in the dignity and value of each and every child and those who care for them. For us, “child rights” does not start with their entitlements; it starts with their status – who they are! Christian and Jewish theologians would describe them as “made in God’s image”; to us they are worth the world and valued as ten-out-of-ten….. and it doesn’t get better than that!

Secondly, The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville is constructed on a belief that every solution we take into Munsieville from the outside is doomed to failure, but every solution we can help to be generated from within the community has a great chance of success, especially if we can fan the flame with sensitive encouragement, training and mentoring, to help take the energy, creativity and enterprise of the local people to the very highest international standard – without them losing control and ownership!

STARTING AT THE BEGINNING

Although the programme in Munsieville operates through seven themed service-delivery “Hubs”, in the early stages of this 10-year initiative we have prioritised the work of the “Early Childhood Development Hub” (ECD) in order to demonstrate to the others just how The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville works.

Long before we arrived in the township, over thirty crèches had been started, mostly as private, small enterprises. The crèches were set up in order to provide cheap day care for children cared for by adults who work elsewhere, or who are unable to care for the children. Sadly, few crèches had trained leaders, toys, books or any resources to stimulate the children, up to eighty of whom could be huddled in one small tin shack, roasting in summer and shivering in winter.

Children are placed in such establishments because it is thought to be safer than staying at home without supervision, or being shut out to fend for themselves on the streets. Personally, I have serious doubts about it being a place of safety: the infants may be protected from some dangers, but are exposed to several hours a day devoid of the stimulation essential to brain development. Countless children in Munsieville and other similar settlements are inadvertently being coaxed into a “zombie-like” state, leaving them susceptible to serious manipulation and under achievement in adolescence and adulthood.

But, by starting small and modelling excellence, a tide of change is beginning to sweep across crèches and child day care centres in Munsieville, inspired by a few pioneers. Funded by GlaxoSmithKline South Africa and in conjunction with our partners, Safe & Sound Learning Association, crèche workers are being offered a two-year professional ECD training package. Eight women have already completed their first eight-week residential induction course and have returned to make immediate and dramatic changes to their work with children.

Last month I had the privilege of visiting some of the crèches now in the process of converting to full Early Childhood Development Centres. The difference, in just a few short weeks, was breathtaking! Children were engaged in active learning through exciting, creative play, and staff are organised, motivated and eager to explore every opportunity to improve the lives of the children in their care. The facilities in which they work are still far from ideal, but already, small steps have been taken to make the environment safer and more suitable for purpose, and bigger steps are being planned to make major improvements.
Modelling excellence does not mean instant perfection; it means total commitment to getting it right and to making the many small adjustments that add up to massive improvements. In Munsieville, there is no finer example of this commitment than the brave pioneers who have stepped forward to accept the challenge of giving pre-school children the very best foundations for a healthy, productive life.

Rating Performance over Potential

The famous American statistician and consultant, W. Edward Deming, largely credited with the transformation of the post-war economy of Japan from the late 1940s, once said, “In God we trust, but all others must bring data”!

On The Thoughtful Path, we obsess about results and are building partnerships with universities around the world to help change the mindset of people to challenge communities, to empower them with the skills by which they can measure what they are doing and perfect the processes that lead to constant and never-ending improvements in the health and total well-being of orphans and other vulnerable children.

George Bernard Shaw observed, “The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them”. In a rapidly changing environment like Munsieville, we recognise the importance of making the collection and analysis of data the foundation of every activity.

For far too long, “monitoring and evaluation” (fancy charity-speak for measuring and analysing impact) in many international development programmes has been soft-edged, narrow in scope and so slow that by the time it is processed, the whole situation has changed out of all recognition. In response, our aim with this “model of excellence” programme is to develop “real-time monitoring” so that, just like Shaw’s tailor, we always know the situation as it is today, rather than what it was a year ago.

This aspiration will take a while to bring to fruition, but every journey starts with a single step! Over the past two months, we have taken several steps forward in Munsieville. International Development Masters student, Candice Wallace, of Brunel University, UK, undertook a month of “participatory action research” on the issue of child sexual abuse, with focus groups of children and adults in the township, uncovering the alarmingly high number of incidents of such abuse and also demonstrating the importance of measuring the scope and impact of the problem as a basis for future community-led action.

Ten days ago, Betty Nkoana, our programme manager, and I led a community workshop for those working with us to deliver change under The Thoughtful Path. We were able to introduce delegates to Megan Quinn and Twanda Wadlington, both doctoral students with our highly-valued partner, East Tennessee State University, and deployed in Munsieville for two months to help push forward better data collection and analysis across the seven “Hubs” of the programme.

Workshop delegates immediately grasped the essentials as Megan and Twanda led a short Monitoring and Evaluation Basics class. “It’s not good enough that our children smile more than those in the township down the road”, said one local community activist, “We need a much greater understanding of the things that affect them, and then we must develop the programme so we can all be part of the change process”.

How quickly they have embraced the spirit of W Edward Deming, who said, “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing”.