By Jan Keucher - Christel House Volunteer
What would it be like to be a
child of the townships and come to a private school for the first time? Our
children at Christel House South Africa come from the most extreme
circumstances of poverty. Many, if not the majority, live in tiny shacks
made of corrugated tin with usually several people occupying the same meager
space inside. In some of these areas, the shacks stretch as far as the
eye can see. Most have no inside plumbing or electricity. Their
families are often abusers of drugs and alcohol. Their neighborhoods are
filled with violent gangs. What our children learn in their communities
is survival. They learn early in life that fighting is how they
handle the everyday struggles within the family and in their
neighborhoods. For so many, there is no parental structure of any
kind. Often a sibling must step in for the non-present parent. Too many
of our children lose their parents to gang violence, and sometimes even our
children are lost to the same brutality.
Now it is time for
this same child to enter school. Few of our children have gone to
crèche (pre-school). Most have not had the opportunity to look at a
book or hold a pencil. Christel House South Africa is a private
English-speaking school, but most of our children speak Xhosa or
Afrikaans. Now they must learn English. Fortunately for them (and
for us), we have an interpreter who is able to translate for them/us in the
beginning days, weeks, and months. The children must come to school
wearing clean uniforms, and we ask too that they themselves are clean.
Since most have no running water, being clean hasn’t been high on their list of
priorities before. Their school days are quite long, and they fight to
stay awake. Many get practically no sleep at night due to the harsh
conditions in their homes. The children struggle to get along with
their classmates, they struggle to cooperate with us, and they struggle against
the very structure of a classroom setting. Of course this is no easy task
for the teacher either! It is exhausting work. Yet, as the days
roll on and progress is beginning to be seen, the teachers know that
the arduous task of slowly transforming their lives into something much better
is so worth the energy and effort it takes. In spite of all the
challenges each child faces both at home and at school, their huge smiles
never cease to amaze. Surely this is a positive sign that they feel
good just being at the school surrounded by the love of their teachers and
knowing for those hours of each day, they are safe.
Labels: Cape Town, child development, child nutrition, child poverty, children, Christel House South Africa, student, students
posted by Christel House Blog @
11:40 AM
