Energy v. Inertia

Munsieville is a place of contrasts. Hope and despair. Gentleness and rage. Virtue and unbridled evil. Order and chaos. And from my experience over the past few days - energy and inertia!

I have been in South Africa for the past two weeks, visiting the signature programme of Project HOPE UK - The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville - and working with the many people in the community who share our passion for the health and well-being of orphans and other vulnerable children, to stimulate the essential changes that are urgently needed to free these children from the "prison" of poverty, abuse, lack of opportunity and despair, that prevent them from fulfilling their potential.

As ever (I am a regular visitor to the township, which is a stone's throw from Johannesburg), this has been time of rich and varied experiences. Despite the bitterly cold wind of the South African winter - or possible because of it - Munsieville has been pulsating with music and dance. A few days ago, thousands of young people packed a huge tent in the township stadium for the launch of a Provincial Government initiative to target employment opportunities on young people, promising "One Job Per Needy House for 100 Days".

The tent rocked with vibrant local music and African dance routines, and the star of the show was Portia, a teenager who gave an eloquent and passionate speech on the role of young people in defining the new South Africa. The Provincial Premier's representative responded by promising her funding for a university place and extended the offer to young people who work hard and excel in Maths and Science at school.

The following day, we held a workshop for people committed to working with us on The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville. Public health doctoral studies students from East Tennessee State University made a presentation on the basics of monitoring and evaluation, and witnessed the enthusiasm of those present for providing solid evidence of the impact of their activities. We also unveiled the Thoughtful Path Leadership Academy - fifteen of those present indicated their willingness to enrol and commit themselves to the hard work of raising their skills to meet the challenges ahead.

And then to Saturday. The Munsieville Tourism Association had organised a Festival of local arts and crafts and invited Project HOPE UK to attend as special guests - I was asked to bring a few words of greeting and to say why we had selected this community for our defining children's health programme. This was an event full of colour, energy, beauty and all that is good in Munsieville, a township within the UNESCO World Heritage Site, "The Cradle of Human Kind".

In my comments to the crowd I congratulated the township on taking the "Yes We Can!" message given in Soweto by Michelle Obama five days earlier, to a new level. The ordinary citizens of Munsieville have a different chant: not "Yes we can!", but "YES WE ARE!": so many in this community are already working to bring positive change. And that, above everything else, was why we selected Munsieville for our flagship project!

So, why, or why, is the initiative, urgency and determination of the "ordinary" people - most of whom do what they can without being paid - not matched by those employed, and well paid, in South African officialdom? There are many good people at all levels in local, provincial and national government, many of whom have bent over backwards in support of what we are doing in Munsieville. But there is a disease running through the system that saps and deflects the energy of those seeking to serve the most vulnerable members of the community.

Just as well, then that we, and our many brave and dedicated friends, will never take "no" for an answer. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" ..... for yet another meeting in an official office, pressing the case until the vulnerable children of Munsieville hear a resounding "YES"!

The Impact of Despair on the Health of Children

I am not easily shocked these days. Disappointed often, but rarely shocked. I guess being involved in humanitarian work for thirty years leaves you a tad desensitised. But I have just been shocked and disappointed by something I have seen in Munsieville!

Two students from the Public Health College of East Tennessee State University (ETSU) have just arrived in the township for two months, on an assignment connected with their studies to become Doctors of Public Health. Along with Betty Nkoana, Project Manager of The Thoughtful Path Munsieville, and three local friends, I accompanied the newcomers on a tour of the three main sections of the township.

Our tour started in "old" Munsieville, the more established section, dating back to 1906, passing a dilapidated "safe house" where ANC activists were hidden from the police during the struggle against apartheid. Then past a row of simple, but not-unpleasant cottages, each with a shack or two in their yard, where other families live, contributing a small rent to the owner of the property.

And then across a dusty road to "Little Mshengoville", a collection of rusting shacks clinging to the side of a steep rocky hillside, each with its own wire-fenced courtyard where residents sit and chat, drink liquor and lament their poor social circumstances.

I have seen this site scores of times before but was encouraged this time by one family who were so proud of their disabled six-year-old son who was now able to walk a few tentative steps. When I met the family nine months ago, he was not even able to stand unaided. The change had come about simply because his family had been able to access local health services where the child had received physiotherapy and other support.

So, with a little help, big changes really can happen! With our spirits high, we turn the next corner and are hit by a stench that instantly had me gagging. We are confronted by the community garbage dump, a place selected by the residents to tip their rubbish, surrounded, not five meters away, by the shacks in which children are being raised. As we approach, a dog scurries away and a brace of rats dive for cover.

And worse still, right in the centre of the stinking trash, the solitary water stand pipe serving the entire cluster of shacks, home to several hundred people.

What we were looking at, with our hands to our sensitive noses, was not the result of ignorance; it was not the product of poverty of oppression; it was the manifestation of despair!

Each and every resident of that sad section of Munsieville knows better. Every time they stand amidst decomposing garbage to fill their water drums, they know they are exposing their families to disease. Yet no-one lifts a finger to improve their own situation. Hopelessness has sapped their energy and despair had robbed them of the belief that small steps on the right path can lead to massive change.

So, what can be done? Project HOPE UK could send a team to clean the area and at the least, make the water supply safe. It would take no more than a day. And, if we did, it would take less than half a day for the trash to start piling up again.

With The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville, we believe that every solution we bring from the outside is doomed to failure, but every solution we can provoke the community to find from within, is highly likely to succeed and to build confidence for further positive changes in the future.

With that in mind, Twanda and Megan from ETSU, supported by Betty, have already started the process of helping the community to see that change is within their grasp. First,they will throw bucket-loads of doubt on the negative belief that "nothing good happens here"; then they will encourage the residents to voice their own concerns about waste management and safe water, leading to a locally-owned action plan to inspire others across Munsieville that better health for all starts right now, right here!