Lifeskills for 2,587 Children in South Africa

This postcard is written by Chi Nguyen, our In-the-Field Representative for Southern Africa. Chi is traveling to the nine countries of Southern Africa, visiting and assisting our partner organizations, for the first half of 2014.

On Tuesday, April 15th, I had the privilege of visiting Keep the Dream196 in Tzaneen, South Africa, and was pleasantly surprised to witness the immense amount of changes KTD strives to achieve in the community. KTD works with over 2000 kids every week in 65 different villages in Tzaneen. They work to instill physical, social, emotional, and spiritual confidence in the children, with the Children's Rights framework in mind. They strive to lead the children away from alcohol and drug abuse, sexual promiscuity, and other behaviors that may be harmful to their futures. Louise of KTD informed me that the shabeens (local pubs) do not enforce any kind of age restriction in admitting their customers, and so it was not an uncommon sight to find children at the age of 9, 10, and 11 helping themselves to a drink or two, three, or four in a local pub. KTD works to instill discipline and integrity into the children they work with to discourage this behavior and to encourage healthier behaviors that can contribute to their futures instead, such as doing their homework together, recycling and keeping their community clean, and working together to improve their communities whichever way they can.

This discipline is evident in the way the children conduct themselves. The day I came to visit, they were all good posture, good manners, and efficient movement along their activities for the day. They first engaged in a steam-release actiivty, where they all played a quick game outside to release some of their excitement before proceeding with the rest of the day's activities. They then reconvened back inside, out of the unforgiving sun's heat, to learn about the importance of recycling and keeping the community clean. Throughout it all, they demonstrated their mantra of being children who are "clear in word, in thought, and in deed."

Keep the Dream196 involves the parents of the children as well - on the walls of the classroom, you could see charts on which the parents had brainstormed during their last parent committee meeting. These parent committees and groups help remove traditional roadblocks in parental attitudes towards children, sensitizing them to their children's needs. They learn how to show their children that they love them, and they learn how to keep an open mind in the new sources of information and learnings their children bring home with them from school every day, even if these learnings may contradict their traditional beliefs in subjects such as HIV/AIDS.

The program ended that day with the children receiving chocolate Easter eggs from a local preparatory school. Delighted, the children ripped off the wrapping and enjoyed their treat after a long day of lessons - a treat well-earned.