WORKSHOP OR TALKING SHOP?

Now, here is the dilemma. King Solomon said, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers, they succeed". On the other hand, on a morning like this, when the freezing winter winds are cutting through Munsieville's informal "shack" community, people are dying whilst the policy-makers, divided politicians and community strategists argue, posture and procrastinate.

Earlier this morning, along with a couple of Thoughtful Path Munsieville colleagues, I drove to a point near the shacks to collect a group of women for a meeting to thrash out plans to improve the safety of their shacks. I stopped not far from where yesterday I had met an old friend in the street, hobbling back to her ramshackle kiosk, obviously in serious discomfort. She told me how in May she had been shot by a young man who robbed her of the meagre takings of her micro-business. Now, she lived in constant fear.

Whilst waiting for the shack-dwelling women this morning, an emergency ambulance pitched up. A group shuffled towards it, led by one of the women due at the safety meeting. They bundled a man into the vehicle who had been stabbed repeatedly in the arm and face, in the middle of the night. I don't know if they tried to call for help at the time, but if they did, it would be unlikely to arrive until well into the daylight hours, as the emergency services regard it as a "no-go" area!

There on the windswept hillside where Munsieville is situated, we waited. Five minutes. Twenty-five minutes. Almost an hour. And slowly they arrived. As I waited, I thought long and hard about the plight of the families let down by talking people .... it pains me to say it, but they are predominantly men. I was shivering and trying to fend of a head cold, but soon forgot my woes as I thought of the dangers outlined in my previous blog - fire, smoke, paraffin ingestion by toddlers, actually, the very issues the women were coming to discuss.

My thoughts also went to those who are condemned, eighteen years after they were promised good housing in the new "free" South Africa, to exist in shacks that cannot keep the warmth in or the cold out. I thought about the young babies, the elderly and those who live with conditions such as AIDS and tuberculosis. I simply cannot begin to understand how they feel on a day like this and am sure that many will long for the end!

Eventually, we had all the women together and whisked them away to the warmth of our Children's Embassy. I was asked to set the scene for the discussions that then continued all morning. It was very clear that for these brave, inspiring, desperate women, all the talking must now give way to positive action. They are not calling for the destructive direct action seen in many townships, which merely transfers the blame and responsibility to others, but were intent on finding the small, almost microscopic actions they can take today, tomorrow and everyday, until they see them join together to transform the way children are being raised.

Even the South African government has failed thus far to deliver the homes they promised, so, as a small organisation, we could not even begin to do so. However, by supporting these women, we can create a movement of change which may not remove the shacks any time soon, but will at least render them as safe and secure as possible.

I am not prepared to argue with the wisdom of King Solomon - far from it; we do need many advisers, including these women, and even more so, the children in their care, so the talking will continue, but it is now time to ditch meaningless talking shops, and create genuine "work" shops which always produce positive change.