Path out of Poverty

Southern Cross Centre Volunteers

Nix — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:50:37 +0000

The Path Out of Poverty (POP) Programme have been very successfully implemented on the Goedgedacht farm for the last 12 years. The programme on the farm deals with issues of farm worker families, particularly farm worker children on 32 farms in the Riebeeksriver Valley. After 12 years of implementing the programme on farms and seeing the change in the lives of children, we decided to replicate the POP model in rural areas where similar levels of poverty exist. As a result we were very lucky to open the doors of our first POP Youth Centre in a small rural village called Riebeek Kasteel.

This centre has been showing real growth over the last three months with a number of very exciting projects for children from that community. We now have a daily After-school project where about 140 children come to the centre to get assisted with finishing their homework, completing school assignments and where they also get a plate of food. It is also worth mentioning that all the work is being done by 6 highly motivated and dedicated volunteers, who contribute their time and skills without receiving any form of compensation. One of the volunteers remarked two days ago: “I don’t want any money for what I do because I do it for the children of this community and seeing them happy is more than enough compensation”.

One of the community leaders who visited the centre one day said that: “The volunteers are the real hero’s”. I can’t help but agree with him more. The one thing that all people can give, poor or rich, is something of themselves. We therefore are very blessed to have volunteers who are willing to give their time and skills so selflessly.

Please go to our contact section if you are inspired to make a contribution towards the Path Out of Poverty Programme.

Talk to you soon.
Jeremy Maarman (Programme Coordinator)

Winter Woolies Report Back

Nix — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:17:20 +0000

It is freezing! Whoever thought that there would be snow on the mountains around Cape Town. It seems to happen more often than we expect. And yet there it is, on the mountains, like icing sugar on a cake. If you only had a T-shirt and a pair of short pants, and only one pair of good shoes that you don’t wear all the time, then Winters in this part of Africa are tough. You can imagine who thrilled many of our children were when they heard that we were going to kit them out to handle the harsh winter months. Thank you so much for your response to our generous appeal! Our children want to join me in thanking you for looking after them so well and so generously.

Kind regards
Ingrid Lestrade

COOP (Cycle Out Of Poverty) Raising More Funds For POP

Nix — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:22:02 +0000

COOP was inspired by an article about several women who had hiked through the Drakensberg, with babies on their backs, to raise money for impoverished children and babies. Lisa Copeland, a young Mother with three children of her own was so motivated by the story that she approached a few friends (Liz Olbrich and Ann Harrison), determined to get a group of women together to do something similar in Cape Town. Mountain biking seemed to be a sport that would appeal to most women and so the idea of a cycle tour for charity was born.

At Path Out of Poverty we were blessed to have a group of 38 women from COOP (Cycle Out Of Poverty) doing a cycling-tour from 5 – 8 November 2009 to raise funds for our organization. It was so inspiring and successful, the ladies are doing another COOP!

The dates are Thursday, 14 October 2010 – Sunday, 17 October 2010 and Thursday, 28 October 2010 – Sunday, 31 October 2010.

They will start with a quick breakfast at the pre-school on Goedgedacht farm and will finish in Elgin. They have two groups of 40 women for the two events and a waiting list as well.

Email Liz from COOP for more information or join the COOP Facebook site to show your support.

Gems from the Past!

Nix — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:35:16 +0000

Some things have a feeling of ageless wisdom about them. As you know, Path Out of Poverty is in the youth business and we are always on the lookout for quotes, stories, sayings, etc which will cheer us up, give us strength, and make sense. Here’s a gem from the past which every time I read, I believe it is still as relevant today as it was 30 years. Please write to me and tell me what you think of the quote below.

All I really need to know I learned at Kindergarten.
• Share everything
• Play fair.
• Don’t hit people
• Put things back where you found them
• Clean up your own mess
• Don’t take things that are not yours
• Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody
• Wash your hands before you eat
• Flush
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you
• Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some
• Take a nap every afternoon
• When you go out into the world watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.

Robert Fulghum

Thank you Robert for your wise words.

Path Out of Poverty Celebrating National Womens Day

Nix — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:12:20 +0000

On 9 August every year the people of South Africa celebrate national Women’s Day. In fact the entire month of August is regarded as Women’s Month where we commemorate the sacrifices, efforts and commitment of women in this country. This commemorates the national march of women on 9 August 1956 to petition against legislation that required African persons to carry the “pass” [special identification documents] which curtailed an African’s freedom of movement during the apartheid era. On 9 August 1956, 20 000 women staged a march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against the proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act (commonly known as the pass laws) of 1950. They left bundles of petitions containing more than 100 000 signatures at Prime Minister J.G. Strijdom’s office doors. Outside they stood silently for 30 minutes, many with their children on their backs. Those who were working for Whites as nannies were carrying their white charges with them. The women sang a protest song that was composed in honor of the occasion: Wathint’Abafazi Wathint’imbokodo! (Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock.). In the 54 years since, the phrase (or its latest incarnation: “you strike a woman, you strike a rock“) has come to represent women’s courage and strength in South Africa.

So in keeping with the commemoration of Women’s Day we at Path Out of Poverty also joined in by hosting our own event for women on the day. We invited 40 women from farms around Goedgedacht to a day of pampering and beauty. We were very fortunate to have two schools from Wales (Brynteg Comprehensive School and Bishop Gore School) for the week on the farm where they were on a Cultural Exchange experience with the African children. What a week we had together, but more on that in a next post. We however took the opportunity to have the learners from Brynteg, Bishop Gore and our Tiener Aksie (Teenage Action) youth group pamper and wait on the 40 women for the day. What an incredible day we had together!

Ms. Sarah Jarrett, who is a Home Economic Teacher at one of the schools proved her excellent cooking abilities by dishing up a three course meal with the help of three of the students. A beauty salon was on site where the 40 women were given a full spa treatment which included hair and make-up. Six of the boys were waiters for the event and they were absolutely exceptional. These 40 women had a most enjoyable time and for that we want to thank everyone who made this day possible.

• The COOP (Cycle Out Of Poverty) ladies from Cape Town for the donations of gift packs.
• The teachers and students from Bishop Gore and Brynteg for their generous support and great performance.
• Rev. Elsabe Booyse our main speaker for the wonderful message encouraging women to “get back to basics”.
• Tiener Aksie youth for their hard work and beautiful performance.

Please go to our contact section if you are inspired to make a contribution towards the Path Out of Poverty Programme.

Talk to you soon.
Jeremy Maarman (Programme Coordinator)

Don successfully swims across the English Channel for POP

Nix — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:52:01 +0000

On Tuesday, 3rd of August 2010, Don Perrott, 41, successfully completed a solo swim across the English Channel in a time of 12 hours and 16 minutes. He overcame tidal currents, cold water, jelly fish and choppy seas to make the epic 35km swim from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in France.

The Channel swim is regarded as one of the toughest long distance swims in the world. It is mentally and physically a feat of exceptional endurance and determination requiring huge stamina, courage and strength. The rules allow him to wear only a swim cap, goggles and speedo and during the swim he was not allowed to touch the boat or receive any assistance from any person.

Don, who is from Cape Town and a Rondebosch Old Boy, started preparing for the swim more than a year ago. Last year on 28^th June he swam in a 3-man relay team across the English Channel and in February this year swam from Robben Island to Three Anchor Bay. Most of his gruelling training, however, took place in the icy waters of Dover Harbour under the watchful eye of Freda Streeter, known as “The General” for her no-nonsense approach to channel training.

The swim started under the white cliffs of Shakespeare Beach at 3:20am – it was cold and dark, but still and the water was inky and smooth. On his channel boat (named Suva and skippered by Neil Streeter) were his support team including his brothers Andrew and Geoff Perrott and two other successful channel swimmers, Rob Drysdale and Andrew Hughes. The support boat followed the little flashing green light attached to his swim cap until dawn broke 2 hours later.

Don kept up a consistently high stroke rate and the English coast began to fade into the distance. Don was looking strong as he crossed the South West Shipping Lane and the Separation Zone, giving his support team no doubts the swim was going to be successful. But then the weather turned nasty as so often happens in the English Channel. The wind picked up, the tide turned and the sea became choppy. Despite deteriorating weather conditions Don upped his work rate and the French coast moved closer with every stroke. All the hours of training was starting to pay dividends.

Don finished strongly, trotting out of the shallows onto the beach to meet his hugely relieved and overjoyed wife, Helen who was there waiting for him with his father, Mike. After the swim Don said “It was tough, but I never thought I wouldn’t make it…it was just a question of how long it would take me as the weather had turned bad. Fellow South African channel swimmers, Kieron Palframan and Ryan Stramrood had given me some great advice which was to take a moment somewhere out there to enjoy what was happening which I forced myself to do….I will never forget that sunrise and the feeling of the French sand under my feet!”

When asked what he thought about during the swim, he replied “Remember what Freda told you Don…just swim from feed to feed…one arm then the next…don’t look forward, don’t look back, head down, bum in the air!”

Don became the 29^th South African to successfully swim the Channel since it was first swum in 1875 by Captain Matthew Webb. He also raised nearly R150,000 via his website http://www.justgiving.com/my-trip-to-france for a local charity, the Goedgedacht Trust.

Safe Houses as an Indigenous Response

Nix — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:26:29 +0000

The Path Out of Poverty Programme operates every weekday and has 17 interlocking projects, which include a pre-school for farm children, after-school support and life skills projects as well as school holiday programs. One of the most important aspects of the programme is our food security project, where we provide food to children and young people when they attend the different projects. We have been successful in providing food to children during the week, but over weekends we are very worried that the children may not have a decent meal to eat. Why? Alcohol abuse by parents remains one of the biggest challenges affecting the lives of children on African farms. As a result of alcohol abuse children are often neglected and very vulnerable over weekends.

When I started working for the Path Out of Poverty Programme, I remember feeling very inspired by the Safe House project that we currently have on 9 farms around Goedgedacht. The Safe House project came about as a result of engagement with our Home Based Care volunteers and feedback from our youth members. The Safe House concept is an indigenous response to the challenges of alcohol abuse, domestic violence and the resultant child neglect and starvation over weekends. Each Safe House is run by a volunteer, whom we call a Safe House Mother, who live in the house and provide food, give care and affection to the children of farm workers over weekends.

In a recent study on our safe house project that was done by Ms. Julia Janssen from Stanford University, she indicated that the establishment of “an educational Safe House Programme that serves as a catalyst for greater change by inspiring community members to speak out, all stakeholders must be involved in order to take advantage of all available networks.” Although the safe house project started out as a means of providing nutrition, safety and care for children on farms on a weekend, the project has brought about a few very significant opportunities. One such opportunity has been the fact that safe house mothers are now more than just mere providers of food and care, but are now also a leader in the community. Safe house mothers are regarded as a valuable source through which critical information are communicated to the farm, they receive monthly training sessions where they are taught how to give basic first aid and health related information. One of our safe house mothers have also been recognized by the local magistrate and social worker as a temporary care giver, who is now caring for a child that has been abused.

We believe that the possibilities for the safe house project are endless and with your support we want to take on the challenge of ensuring that each one of the 32 farms that are served by the Path Out of Poverty Programme, has a safe house over the next 24 months.

Go to our contact section if you are inspired to make a contribution to our safe house project.

Talk to you soon.
Jeremy Maarman (Programme Coordinator)

Food Voucher Appeal

Nix — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:35:07 +0000

We don’t deserve you, your generosity for the food voucher appeal has been awesome! The food voucher cards are winging their way to us from the Grow Peace office in Ipswich. This is the perfect moment to be handing out these food vouchers because many of the families that will be benefiting from this are not working at the moment, the harvests are over, and the pruning has been completed. We are thrilled and delighted with your support. So a BIG thank you from the POP team.

Hint: come back soon to hear how you can join our Potato Truck team. I know this is a very strange use of words, I am bursting to tell you more, but you’ll just have to wait until all our plans are finally in place.

Are we really taking childrens health seriously?

Nix — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:27:32 +0000

What is health?

WHO definition of Health (1948) – Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

WHO Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1984) – Health is a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living.

Definition of children’s health

“The extent to which individual children or groups of children are able or enabled to:

develop and realize their potential
satisfy their needs
develop the capacities that allow them to interact successfully with their biological, physical, and social environments”

(US National Academy of Sciences, 2004).

South African Under 5 mortality

MRC Burden of Disease Study – 2000

Reported cases of vaccine-preventable conditions

Malnutrition

	% under weight	% stunted	% wasted
World	30	37	11
Developing countries	31	39	11
South Africa (all)	9	23	3
Urban South Africa	7	16	2
Rural South Africa	11	27	3

Poverty

48% of South Africans live below R462/month (2007 Rands)

Failures 1994-2010

Worsening infant and under-5 mortality as a result of HIV/AIDS

Poor PMTCT rollout and coverage

Failure to reduce malnutrition rates

Lack of progress in improving neonatal health

High teenage HIV sero-prevalence and pregnancy rates

Sub-optimal access to adequate secondary and tertiary care services

Patchy availability of laboratory services and drugs

Successes 1994-2010

Free health care for children under 6 years of age, children with disabilities and pregnant women

Increased availability of primary health care services

Polio eradication, measles reduction

PMTCT and roll-out of HAART

Expanded access to child social security grants

Provision of water, sanitation and electricity to more families

The health of children is everyone’s responsibility

Excerpt of report by Haroon Saloojee at the University of the Witwaterstrand, Johannesburg

July 2010 Newsletter

Nix — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:39:41 +0000

Grow Peace Path Out of Poverty July 2010 newsletter

On Page 1 of the July 2010 newsletter read more information about our “Sponsor a rural child” initiative, and find out where your donations have been making a real difference.

Page 2 of the July 2010 newsletter maps your support for the Path Out of Poverty (POP) programme, and Don’s Sponsor Swim appeal.