Part of the plan for our two-week trip to South Africa was to get out into the community to see the real country. The premise was that it is hard to advise women entrepreneurs when you don’t have an understanding of the environment in which they operate. I completely agree. When I found out that one of our field trips was to a high school, I wasn’t sure I got the connection. After being there, I get it now.
The school we visited was Matthew Goniwe Memorial High School in Khayelitsha, a large township in Cape Town. If you want to see it for yourself, go to YouTube as there are many touching videos there.
The first thing I learned is that the word “township” refers to an informal settlement comprising houses made out of cardboard scraps and whatever building materials can be found. Being there made coming home to my 5 bedroom, 2-story house feel…well…gluttonous.
Starting out our discussion, none of the kids knew where Washington, D.C. was though most had heard of the United States. It was clear, however, that they all knew what H.I.V. was and how to prevent it judging by the posters on the school walls. One gentleman was even sporting a rubber bracelet a la the “Livestrong” model that touted “safe sex = abstinence.” He told me that he had many girlfriends, but then showed me his bracelet. He wants to do accounting (which I think is their generic term for math) and I just bet he will.
The students are part of a South African program called Youth Enterprise Society (Y.E.S.). The goal of this program is to give the children skills they need to “become masters of their own destinies” by launching into entrepreneurship, furthering their education, or finding a corporate job (which isn’t so easy in a country that bears an unofficial 35% unemployment rate!). The day we visited they were working on their Life Skills module and exploring how to make good choices. They worked diligently on their projects with us looking on (and sometimes asking questions) and then, at the end, presented their work to the group.
We left them with a few words of encouragement, and even taught them to WooHoo.
I am not sure what I expected from these kids – raised in extreme poverty in a country where the other extreme - wealth - is right around the corner. Regardless of my expectations, they blew me away with their smiles and positive attitudes. They all wanted to get their photo taken with the kids in our party (see my daughter and fellow traveler Ciana Robinson in the picture) and showered us with hugs as we left. We have plans to find ways to work with them in the future and at some point, I’ll have to go back and pick up the piece of my heart that I left behind. Truly life changing.
