Children's Report - March 2008
The school year started with all the children in the home attending school, even the two little ones attending nursery school. The home in the mornings feels like a morgue, with no sound other than that of the vacuum cleaner, washing machine and the pots boiling on the stove.
After the extremely bad results from the Eastern province schools for the final school year (57,1% pass), I decided to move all the high school children from the Ekuphumeleni School in the township to the Middelburg Hoer Skool in town, the predominantly white school. During 2007, not only were the children at all three schools they were attending subjected to the "normal" disruptions of no school when teachers attended courses, or went to funerals, or went shopping or had meetings but they also had to contend with the teacher's strike that went on for weeks. This type of behaviour does not occur in the predominantly "white" schools.
The national pass rate in 2007 dropped for the fourth year in a row, to 65% of students who sat the final examinations, called 'matric'. So while 565,000 sat the test and 368,000 passed – nearly 200,000 failed. The statistic looks worse when it is known that only about half who begin secondary school actually make it to the final exams at the end of grade 12. Most of them drop out along the way due to lack of school fees, pregnancy, child birth, substance abuse or imprisonment amongst other things.
My decision to move the high school children has not been without problems. Not only has there been the normal expense of change of school with the purchase of new uniforms and books, but the children have been found to have an appalling lack of knowledge and grasp of the basics of education. They are far behind their peers. We are most fortunate that the school is sending teachers daily to the home to give our seven high school pupils extra lessons. Despite these problems, the children love their new school and would not return to the old school for all the tea in China. I now realize that it is imperative that I move all the children to the better schools in town next year if there is any hope of the children reaching their potential. This will be a costly exercise not only in money, but in time and effort, but will be well worth it. However, I can foresee problems from the Department of Social Development (DOSD) who will more likely than not accuse me of removing the children from their cultural roots. I have worked long enough with this department to know what their reaction will be to this move.
I did an interview on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour on Friday 29th February about the plight of the children in South Africa. This interview can be heard by going into the BBC Radio 4 website. We received numerous emails offering support in the form of sponsorship for the children, purchase of our Hope Bangles, and the publishers were inundated with requests for Saving Mandela's Children from www.savingmandelaschildren.com. The response from the British public was overwhelming and heart warming. Riaan Eksteen has been employed as the project Manager to assist Diana with the management of the Children's Home. His contribution to the home has made a great difference, especially as a male role model. All the staff have been given professional training in Child Care, Nutrition and Basic First Aid since January and are currently being trained in HIV and AIDS. We are attempting to procure funds to train the staff in dealing with the emotional aspect of children who have been abused. Janine has unfortunately left our employment after being offered another position.
We have four volunteers from Germany working with the children, teaching them maths, biology, history, English, woodwork and drama. The volunteers contribute a great deal to the home and as they leave, others replace them. They work on a three month rotation. A life skills program has been put into place and the assistance of the volunteers has been a great help. The children are in groups of 6 and are taught skills in cooking on primus stoves, working with candles, safety in township dwellings, how to avoid rape and so on.
There is a slow change in the attitude of the people in town towards our Children's Home. The local Afrikaans church Reverend has started helping us by getting volunteer teachers from his congregation to help our children and by giving the children religious instructions. Unfortunately he has lost a few of his congregation because of his involvement with us, but the majority of his congregation are beginning to change their attitude. He is to be commended for his religious conviction in the face of such hostility and aggression.
Diana, the Children's Home Manager, has been with me in the UK for a month for training on the Child Care Act, the Constitution, the DOSD, fund raising and children's court procedures. She returns to the children on the 18th. Her departure from the children was very traumatic as the children believed that she was leaving them and never returning, just as I left them and did not return as I usually did after a funding trip to the UK. We have had to call them regularly and still they do not believe that Diana will return. Riaan has his hands full with their emotional upsets.
I wrote a letter to the Scorpions asking them to return our files to our office that they seized on 6 December 2006 as it was becoming increasingly difficult to operate the Children's Home without our documents and manuals that could not possibly have anything to do with any investigation that they may be busy with. Imagine my surprise to find that the investigating officer delivering dozens upon dozens of our files to our office in Middelburg the same week
Our application against the Minister and the Eastern province Member of the Executive Council of the DOSD to the Supreme High Court for failing to adhere to a court order to pay safety fees for children who were in our care during 2005 and 2006 continues to drag on. The DOSD are using every technique in the book and inventing some never heard of to stay out of court. What a waste of money on litigation that could be better spent on the children!
We are working in the community with a project called "Stay Teen". This project is aimed at reducing the number of teenage pregnancies, which is extremely high in our area with children as young as 14 years becoming mothers. Forty percent of all high school pupils are parents and the mortality rate for babies is high. Our aim is to get teenagers to take a pledge of chastity in public after which they receive a bangle which they wear to confirm their status. We are giving workshops, talking to schools and our high school children are also involved in this project.
Nombasa has been ill with pleurisy, Nomthle went to hospital with a bleeding nose and Donovan had a tummy bug this month. All the other children have been well. Stuart and Luke got a prize for the neatest and most effort put into school homework. Kholiwe and Clayton were chosen by the children as prefects for the home. Sylvia got into trouble in her new school for talking during assembly and had to do two hours community service. Sam started wetting the bed and we discovered that he was being bullied at school. This was sorted out with the headmaster and Sam is now much happier. The Junior school children attended a Valentine's dance at their school in the afternoon and the Senior school children attended a ball in the evening. Riaan was very proud of them in their lovely outfits as he danced his way around the hall with the girls and the boys took the lady volunteers for a dance. Sylvia, Xolelwa, Nombasa, Kholiwe, Betty and Nombasa went on an educational tour to Gariep Dam with the volunteers and Riaan. Lindelwa, Sylvia and Xolelwa belong to the high school choir. Aya, Sylvia and Xolelwa play netball. Nkosinathi and Clayton took part in the trials for the under 15 rugby. The Junior school children took part in a Big Walk to raise money for their school. The children were also taken in groups to Grootfontein Agricultural College where they learned about organic gardening, cheese making and care of sheep. All in all, they have had a very busy five weeks.
To everyone who continues to support us, we express our deepest gratitude.
Dianne, Diana, Riaan and the children