The project that we are here to interact with is called the Transkei Life Project. The following is from their website, "Transkei Life has been established to stand in the gap for underprivileged children in South Africa. The organizations first project is in an Informal settlement (squatter camp) called Mthethwa Cottage on the outskirts of Umkomaas, South Africa. The project has an After-School program for the older children who are struggling to keep up with their studies." Schaun and Akosia are leaders of the project and our hosts for the week. You can find out more about Transkei Life (hereafter TL) from their Facebook page (linked to above).
Our Tuesday started with a visit to the settlement (squatter camp) where the children live. Here are some pictures from that visit with descriptions below the pictures.
There are about 100 families living in the settlement in houses they have built from whatever they can find.
The settlement is in two sections separated by a major 4 lane highway. You can see the path leading down to the road and the pavement is visible in the lower right. About 8 of the kids in the TL have to cross the highway. It would be scary for an adult to cross this road, but the kids seem to manage it.
Notice the contrast between the settlement houses in the foreground and the city in the background. They are separated by a drainage ditch in some places and by a street in others. The contrast is dramatic.
There are two water taps in the settlement, but no running water in any of the homes. They take tubs down to a drainage ditch/stream and do their laundry.We saw the woman on the left balancing her laundry tubs on her head. When asked, Akosia said that she could do it and went down to demonstrate. She even balanced it while standing on one foot. Laundry is dried outside on lines. Most of the houses are not completely water proof and in a rain storm things get wet. You can see the clothes drying on the bush.
We visited Lindo’s house. Lindo (on the left) is one of the TL kids who has turned his life around as a result of Involvement with the project. On the couch are his grandma, grandpa and aunt. This house had to be rebuilt after a major flood in the recent past.The TL children worked in pouring rain plugging holes during the storm. After the storm, the kids helped demolish the old building and constructed a new home with some new materials and reused some old aluminum sheets. His grandpa was very proud of the new house. Of the 4 houses we visited, this was one of the larger ones.
Here are the two beds in Lindo's house. After the big rain and flood they found the grandma under 5 soaking wet blankets laying on a soaking wet mattress.
The house of Happy and Senzo In the front row. Most of the houses have electricity (stolen from the power lines). On the upper left you can see some speakers. Just off the left side of the picture is a CD player and other stereo gear.
The house of Nompilo on the right, is dressed up for our visit. Next to her Is her mother.
This was the nicest house we visited, the home of four Transkei Life Project children, Zoleka, Xolani, Thina and Ovayo. TheIr mother and family were at work so we didn’t meet them. They clearly had great pride in where they lived and took good care of it. But, you can see it is still primitive by looking at the roof structure in the top of the picture.
We would not have described where they lived as “paradise”. This is Zoleka, Thina and Ovayo’s room, notice the school pictures on the wall, stuffed rabbit, and the artificial flower.
There are two toilet facilities in the project. In addition TL built an outhouse in one part of the community. Naas is demonstrating. BTW, I did get his permission before I used this picture. Schaun told us there was originally a door on the structure.
The picture on the left is of an 8 year old girl and her brother and a cousin. Her mother works and the 8 year old is in charge of keeping track of the two youngsters. On the right is a woman carrying one baby in her arms and another baby on her back. She takes care of young children for women who work.
I saw this sticker in one of the houses. Ponder this as it relates to your life.