On visiting the Solms-Delta farm yesterday, we were taken through a journey of the farms history by a very inspiring woman, Marcia. She had the courage to share her life experience on the farm with us and how she found herself to be talented, motivated and encouraged enough to change her circumstances.

 

 

If you have read any of my previous blogs, you should know by now that I take a very personal perspective when it comes to these wonderful communities that we are being exposed to through SAWIP. I always think of my own life and how I can learn from these extraordinary individuals who have not forgotten their social responsibility towards their community in the process of empowering themselves.

 

 

Marcia stayed on the farm for 21 years, out of her class of 4 Matriculants, she was the only one who passed and had a Matric Ball. She described that day as bitter-sweet because she drove past her classmates, and they were sitting along the road as she was dressed up and on her way to her matric ball. She felt pleased with herself that she was able to persevere and make it that far, however, she was deeply saddened by the fact that her classmates could not make their education a priority.

 

 

This story brought something very relative to mind. The fact that we all might be afforded the same opportunities and one might take more away from it than the other. In Marcia's case, her classmates received the same education as she did, however, they did not possess the same drive as she did. She also said that she had the advantage of loving, supportive and encouraging parents. I feel that this has always been my advantage.

 

 

I have a mother that does not expect any more from me than for me to stay away from drug abuse, alcoholism and, her biggest fear, falling pregnant before I have a career. So far I have done good. She always told me to steer away from the stigma that is attached to colored girls, that all they are good for is reproduction. I am of course not saying this to step on any toes but my mother really felt this way. She told my sister and I: 'once you have a child, your life is over, is that really all you want for yourself? I see so much more for you.' She made us believe that we are capable of greatness and all we see in our community is not what we should be striving for. We should be reaching for the moon and one day make our way back home to teach others that they are capable of such greatness too. Marcia highlighted today how important this self belief and faith from loved ones are.

 

 

The burning question today was whether or not the fact that the farm owners are giving their workers so many things such as housing, water, electricity and education for their children. I asked Marcia whether or not this was to the detriment of the workers and their families. She answered me very wisely saying that they have earned what they are receiving today through the hardships they faced previously. Yes, we have struggled and we look back and are thankful for those times as they have made us stronger, wiser, determined and ambitious. We would, however, not want our people to have to face those hardships forever.

 

 

Education for their children is the most important investment for this community and I feel that it should be for all communities. It is so important for them that the farm owners gave them DSTV! This was of course shocking for me as I see it as a luxury that only a fortunate few can afford and I couldn't understand the link it had to educating the children. The CEO explained this logic to us very simply. He said that if the kids were to go to the outside world beyond their homestead, they would have seen enough things on tv to avoid them from having intense culture shock. The television holds a wealth of social knowledge that he wants the kids of the community to be exposed to and benefit from.

 

 

So all these benefits are afforded to the farm workers and their families, and like Marcia, I feel that the farm owners sincerely had the best interest of their community at heart. The huge investment that they have placed in the youth of the community is commendable. Yes, we do not know what they will do with it but that is up to them. This is the case in many communities. Youth are afforded equal opportunities but it still depends on them whether they want to take full advantage of it and develop themselves.

 

Cami

As part of our SAWIP curriculum we are required to do 30 hours of community service before we leave for Washington DC. I chose to do mine through a non-profit organization called "Each one Teach one".

Each week we go to Lavender Hills and teach young and energetic children maths and English at a very fundamental level. We collaborate with another organization called "Mother Aid" who provide after care services to all the surrounding schools in Lavender Hills.

This has been a positively enriching experience for me and it reminds me on a daily basis how blessed I truly am. One student who has caused me to profoundly change the way in which I see the education system in South Africa, is a 15 year old girl by the name of Ashleigh Ndlovu*.

Ashleigh is a Grade 9 girl who I have been working with for the past few weeks, trying to improve her maths skills and equip her to tackle any problems that she may come across.

As I VERBALLY went through factorisation, simplification, converting fractions into percentages and a number of other fairly well known concepts in her syllabus; it dawned on me that she was a bit of a maths whizz kid. I assumed that the only reason she came for tutoring was to solidify her fundamentals and perhaps get that elusive “A”.

Upon further investigation however, I came to learn that she is currently failing maths at school and has been scraping through for a number of years. This perplexed me and saddened me deeply. It was only when we started working through exercises from the text book that the underlying problem presented itself.

Ashleigh’s knowledge and understanding of individual topics was far above the average, but when it came to figuring out what was actually being asked in a test situation, she didn’t have a clue where to start. Ashleigh’s home language was Xhosa, her 2^nd language being Afrikaans and finally her 3^rd language being English. Ashleigh attends an English school where she is taught and examined in English only.

In effect, she is being severely penalised by a factor that is out of her control and not her fault in any way. She has tremendous potential and knows all the concepts she needs to know, but based on the current examination process, she will (potentially) simply end up in the “Failure” pile and as another statistic.

Ashleigh’s story saddened me deeply and it made me wonder if she is preparing herself for a battle that she simply has no chance of winning. It made me wonder how many more Ashleighs there are in our country and what we can do to perhaps address this very sad situation. The time to act is now and I am determined to find a solution to this educational barrier to entry.

I encourage comments and potential thoughts on this pressing issue.

In the meantime, I will continue to do all I can to make sure Ashleigh has a future and can overcome the difficulties she has been faced with. Our future does depend on it after all.

*Name has been changed for privacy purposes.

 

It is as simple as that. Anything we do for others means nothing if it is not done with love. This is the message I found highlighted in our community service/interaction session in Robertson on Saturday 4 May 2013. The motto of the Graham and Rhona Beck Skills Centre is “nothing less, than our utmost best”. It is always heartwarming when you meet individuals who are willing to give so selflessly back to their community. It is, however, sad when you find that they feel that the change they want to see is not happening fast enough. It is easy for us to congregate and decide what we can do to contribute towards the well being of a community which we are not a part of because in essence, whatever the outcome may be, it will not affect our own well being. As a team it is different for us. We are passionate about making a difference, leaving our mark, being impactful. Yet, we realize that we are faced with constraints beyond our control. It causes me great frustration that we can only do so much in such a short period of time and hope that it is sustainable and has a ripple effect throughout the community. I could relate to so much of the challenges the people of Robertson are faced with because it is very similar to that of my own community. The issues of teenage pregnancy, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, substance abuse, and the issue that moves me the most because of its often overlooked importance, the lack of community leaders and role models. The problem that people seemed to be having was that they could not see life beyond the mountains that surround them. What we would consider a stunning view was a major hindrance for the development of this community because no one could see a future beyond it. The fact that the elders of the community lacked this vision is somewhat expected because as humans do, they get comfortable and prefer the known and start resisting change. However, it is shocking to find that none of the youth have dreams beyond that mountain. They are uninspired, unmotivated and unambitious. This of course is not an insult at all to the youth of the community but rather what should be seen as a result of the lack of guidance and leadership. They have never come across anyone in the community who has gone beyond the mountain and come back to tell tales of their successes in order to encourage them to do the same. They have no one to admire or to describe as the person they wish to be like some day. There is no one to uplift them and motivate them to dream big. I was lucky enough to grow up in a community where domestic violence, substance abuse, teenage pregnancies and youth dropping out of schools are rampant issues. However unfortunate this may seem, my fortune can be measured by the guidance I received through love by my mother. I had someone who thought of me as their greatest investment and who encouraged me to work hard towards my dreams and never give up. To summarize my thoughts, I end with these three quotes: “The world lies in the hands of those who have the courage to dream and who take the risk of living out their dreams – each according to his or her own talent.” – The Valkyries “Love does not ask many questions, because with thinking comes fear. This might be the fear of being scorned, being rejected or breaking the spell. However ridiculous this may seem, that is how it is. This is why one does not ask, one acts.” – By the river Piedra I sat down and wept. “To teach is to show what is possible; to learn is to make yourself possible.” – The Pilgrimage

So I am definately not one to skip out on a blog post by just posting a video *smiles to self*. But this is something else. This speech is really something else. Written in the 1920's for the movie The Great Dictator starring Charlie Chaplin this speech is literally far beyond its time. This is a speech that from then until forever will remain timeless.

Heres the video link if you don't want to read it. I think the video adds that extra bit of drama and visual effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsgaFKwUA6g

 Here is the Transcript:

The Jewish Barber (Charlie Chaplin's character): Hope... I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor - that's not my business - I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; more than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish...

Soldiers - don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you - who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate - only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers - don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written “the kingdom of God is within man” - not one man, nor a group of men - but in all men - in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

Soldiers - in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting - the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings - and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow - into the light of hope - into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up.

 

During our stay and discussion in Washington, education has been one of the hot topics on the table. In almost all of our session the discussion would come back to education and the primary question resting on all of our minds is how can we reform the education system. One thing I’ve come to realize is that education reform cannot and will not happen solely through changing government policies or teacher salaries alone. What has happened to the state of education in South-Africa is so severe that it is ingrained into the mindset of both teachers and learners. Teachers can easily be persuaded to re-think education, but the learners is where the greatest challenge lies.

 

In reforming education, one has to tackle the issue in multiple arenas simultaneously. What I propose is looking at all the facets influencing learning, not just formal schooling, and start there. Policies do need to be changed, and teachers need to be granted greater recognition, but all of this will sink if the learner’s mind set isn’t changed as well. In this arena there are plenty of opportunities; social media and internet based learning is one of the empty arenas. In one of our recent sessions with a few of the top entrepreneurs in Washington we spoke on the opportunities in internet based learning systems such as Khan Academy and ePals. These platforms create integrated learning for teachers and learners, and it’s reforming the way teachers and learners are thinking about education. I believe this is something that has been overlooked in South-Africa. Many e-learning systems try to come through already established platforms through social media such as mxit or facebook. This didn’t work and won’t ever work, because these platforms already have an identity and trying to bring something to those platforms that does not resonate with its identity is futile. So people write off internet learning systems because it doesn’t seem to work. However, what we don’t seem to realize is that new platforms need to be crated and distributed with a pre-determined identity focused on integrated learning. In this way e-based learning systems won’t spiral out of control and out of its identity and purpose like so many e-based learning systems have. There are obvious challenges to this such as internet access and infrastructure, but if we can realize the potential of e-based learning and prioritize reforming education, we should do whatever it takes to get it right.

I had the honour of making the opening and closing remarks during our (SAWIP) inaugural public conference on 26 June 2012 in Washington, DC. This is how the evening session unfolded.

 

Good evening

... to greet you with merely a “good evening” now seems as an anti-climax after an afternoon that inspired me to want to greet you all with a traditional ululation.

[The audience ardently joined me with the ululation]

I am Makhosazana Sika. I was raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, in Soweto to be more specific, in an area called Zola. I am a member of the SAWIP Class of 2012 and feel honoured to be here this evening.

Opening remarks

We had wonderful speakers this afternoon - a great big thank you to all of them. On behalf of SAWIP, I would like to in particular thank South Africa’s ambassador to the US, Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, for his participation earlier this afternoon, and for spending the evening with us as well.

For tonight’s proceedings, our discussion will be a focus on the life and legacy of our former president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. The most significant inspiration about the life and legacy that uTata Mandela has for me is about hope and dreaming. In his autobiography entitled Long Walk to Freedom (Little, Brown and Company), Nelson Mandela writes:

“I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward.

There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”

Those words speak volumes to me. There have been a few times in my life that had I given up, that would have resulted in me feeling disempowered and insecure about my own future. As a message to us all, and in particular to the youth, I believe that uTata Mandela’s words are those of being hopeful and having the ability to dream about an improved nation with empowered people.

At this point, I would like to share a brief story about myself. In 2006, I left home at the age of 17 to go and further my education at the University of Stellenbosch. I grew up in a township, so the notion of going all the way to what you may refer to as the “country-side” in Stellenbosch to pursue a degree in the agricultural industry was not a popular one. However, I was adamant about it.

 

During my first year, I soon learned that perhaps studying at a university closer to home and closer to what I knew and understood of the world would have been easier. I recall being intimidated when we were told as first years that 60% of us would not make it to the second year of university. Still, I stayed, because I knew why I had come to university. I had and still do have great future hopes.

I believe that education is an investment; it is a gift that keeps on giving.

 

Vote of thanks

I would like to thank all of our forum participants for their thought-provoking and action-inspiring discourse. Your words have again reminded us of the magnitude that the life and legacy of uTata Mandela embodies.

A big thank you to the Woodrow Wilson Centre for partnering with us [SAWIP] to make this event happen. In particular, a very special thank you to Steve McDonald, Mame Khady Diouf, Derek Langford and Sheila Sengupta. Also, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the SAWIP team that worked diligently in making this fundraiser event a great success. In particular, thank you to our SAWIP executive director Claire Shoolin; Kim Williams, our SAWIP program manager; and the SAWIP interns: Dinika Govender, Thuli Montana, Molly Sandza, Afua Sarpong and Skye Kussman.

On behalf of the SAWIP Class of 2012, I invite you all to our reception where you will be treated to South African food and wine, as well as a live performance by Washington, DC’s extraordinary jazz vocalist, Akua Allrich. Please join us across the hall and enjoy the rest of the evening!

Thank you

 

 

Yesterday evening I had the enormous honour of delivering a speech at the Youth Day celebration hosted by the South African ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, at his beautiful residence in DC. The party was wonderful, the food and wine were South African and the people were utterly fascinating. The theme of the speeches was youth uniting for economic freedom.

Good evening to the South African ambassador, Mr Ebrahim Rasool and Mrs Rasool, SAWIP team and guests. Thank you for the honour of addressing you this evening.

 

 

I am the daughter of a Jewish mother. Most of you will know that few beings are more overprotective, interfering and coddling than the Jewish mother. While carnivores are categorised as meat-eaters or herbivores as plant-eaters, Jewish mothers are categorised as clingers and naggers – the defining feature of this species being their inability to let their child out of their tight ring of overbearing control. So you will understand my complete shock when one day, my Jewish mother turned to me and yelled “just leave! Move out, get a job, pay your own bills, run your own life; just do it while you still know everything”. I was entirely taken aback. For a Jewish mother to reach a point at which she was prepared to defy her biological urge to cling to her offspring and to dismiss her daughter on the basis that she “knows everything” means that she must have entered a place of unparalleled despair at the teenage indolence of the youth she had produced.

 

My mother’s Jewish-mother-genetic-code ignited soon after the incident and she quickly decided that while I was still an adolescent brat, I was her teenager and therefore she was not letting me go. However, her outburst signalled to me what is a far greater problem in the politics and discourse of youth development. There is a common perception that the youth think they know everything but in reality know nothing because of relative life inexperience. This is a problematic observation.

 

There are a number of ways that the youth are understood, generally. One of the most common perceptions, in my experience, is that of youth being a nuisance – a group that sees everything as entitled to them. The youth are often believed to be dangerous, lazy or simply arrogant ‘know-it-alls’. To some, youth is a phase – an intolerable phase. The ideas of people in this phase of life are discounted, because of their lack of experience, or lack of knowledge, or lack of discipline.

 

On a large scale, this translates to the dismissal and disenfranchisement of the youth. The current situation of youth in South Africa involves approximately 4 million young people not in any form of employment, education or training. What does this mean for South Africa’s future? Is it the rebellious radicalisation of youth or the total withdrawal and apathy of youth?

 

On the opposite side of the spectrum, youth can be seen as positive agents of change and as the site of novel ideas and enigmatic solutions. June 16^th 1976 is seen as the youth positively assuming responsibility for their lives. These young people were empowered with the realisation of their own agency. The event we are celebrating tonight is illustrative of the fact that the youth are powerful; our ideas matter.

 

The landscape of the South African resistance movement against apartheid was fundamentally altered by the watershed that was witnessed on June 16^th. The youth of Soweto injected new hope into resistance that ended the period of the ‘Silent Sixties’. Youth leaders and student movements rose to the forefront of the United Democratic Front and anti-apartheid resistance movements in the 1980s. Young people – whose ideas were inspired by Black Consciousness and anger motivated by the catalyst of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction – successfully initiated change in South Africa. This is not dissimilar to the United States in the 1960s or the recent Arab Spring.

 

The parents of these individuals probably decided that these young people thought they “knew everything” too; others saw them as naïve and unrealistic. However, it is clear that the youth “knowing everything” allows the youth to be a powerful force filled with inspiration and energy for change. The current South African landscape is such that the youth need not be dismissed. We need to empower the youth, by stimulating their ideas, inspiring them to think, to solve and to act. We then, quite vitally, need to listen and be prepared to change.

 

People frequently tell me that today’s youth are different to those of 1976 because they are entitled or too self-important to accept instruction. I may sound like an arrogant adolescent who thinks she knows everything in saying this, but I suspect that adults have been dismissing the generations below them for centuries.

 

I am involved in a community development project run from the University of Cape Town that uses debating as a means to teach critical thinking, argumentation and confidence as skills to high school learners in townships of Cape Town. The organisation began as an initiative of the youth and aims to develop skills and knowledge for the youth. The high school learners I have encounter in these classrooms have defied every negative view I have been confronted with about the current youth of South Africa.

 

To me, the success of the project illustrates that if young people are provided with the resources and a space to be empowered with knowledge, they will take it and benefit from it. When youth are given the encouragement and skills to create change, they are capable of doing it.

 

Hindrances to economic freedom in South Africa are deeply entrenched in our history of segregation, inadequate education and inequality. This is not something that is easy to change. The only conceivable way I can see of these happening is the youth innovating ways to pave their own way to economic freedom. This requires education and empowerment. This requires a collaborative effort between government, business and active citizens. Programs like SAWIP do an invaluable job in achieving this.

 

I am not here tonight to inspire a youth revolution. Tonight I would like you all to contemplate the magnitude of what economic freedom means in South Africa. We need to stimulate the youth, inspire them to think, solve and act; then we need to listen and be prepared to change. If the youth unite constructively and with the adequate skills and forums in which to achieve economic freedom, it is possible. Considering that every young person knows everything, this knowledge should be harnessed and not dismissed. I would like to leave you with a quote from Maya Angelou:

“When you know better, you do better”.