Khanya Family Centre

At 9am on Monday morning we were met by lovely, friendly Thembi - head of the Khanya Family Centre that she set up 15 years ago with Mamolefe and Tshidi. She drove us out to Katlehong, a township east of Joburg, that was very poor and suffering hugely from the HIV AIDS pandemic sweeping South Africa. Recent statistics estimate that 5.7 million people are suffering from HIV AIDS in SA. The impact on the family is great - not just in terms of trauma through bereavement, but also the children or grandparents left to look after the family after parents have died. It is particularly these people that Khanya helps. It offers counselling and therapeutic care to those infected and affected by HIV AIDS as well as practical support, such as food parcels each month and training in skills to help generate income. The work that these 3 women with their team of counsellors and social care workers undertake is enormous, as is the impact in the district. http://www.khanyafc.org.za/

As soon as we arrived at the centre, we were ushered into their Monday morning staff meeting where Patricia - our fantastic host for the next 2 weeks - was about to feedback on her training session on sexual therapy. For two hours we listened attentively to descriptions about genital enhancement and sexual issues encouontered by couples. The ladies thought it was hilarious and enjoyed watching Guy go red (well it was a hot room!). After the meeting, Pat welcomed us with a giant hug and we got a tour of the centre with her and Sibongile who would both go on to take such good care of us while we were with them. Our plan for the two weeks we were volunteering, was to offer our marketing and comms experience to see how we could help attract new funders and promote the work of the centre across the district, through SA and internationally. We set about asking lots of questions to understand where they currently got their funding from and what stories they could tell to attract  new support.

After our first day's work since Hebron, we headed home with Pat to her house in Boksburg. She made us feel straight at home and before long the 3 of us were settled around the TV watching Pat's favourite 'soapies'!

The next day was Youth Day, a public holiday in SA to remember the Soweto Uprising of 16th June 1976 where children in school's resisted having to learn thier lessons in Afrikaans - a language they didn't understand or speak. We learnt from Pat - who had been a teacher then - that the authorities would punish any teacher caught using English in the classroom. What the Apartheid regime hadn't bargained for is a deeply unhappy generation thanks to this unpopular and ineffective 'Bantu Education' system. That day, Pat had arranged for her two sons - Dumisani and Thebang - to show us around Joburg. Dumisani had been watching the football the night before and was suffering a bit that morning, so first stop was a big breakfast at Nelson Mandela square in Sandton. The area is very rich and home to all the big corporations and financial houses, yet 1 minute down the road is Alexandria ('Alex') one of the most infamous and poorest townships in Joburg. The contrast was stark and shocking. In Mandela Square is a 15 foot statue of the man himself, towering over all the restaurants and fancy boutiques. A strange juxtaposition.

From Sandton, Dumisani drove us to meet his girlfriend Zanele and head on to Soweto where he wanted us to see the Hector Pieterson memorial and visit the museum. Because it was Youth Day, the streets in Soweto were understandably full of families and school kids marking the day. Thebang was preparing a project for his new media uni course so interviewed Guy and I about what it was like to be there on such an important day. The museum itself was excellent, with some striking photographs from the Uprising. The windows in the museum all looked out over key sites from the day's fighting. Hector Pieterson's sister herself was a guide at the museum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Pieterson

We then headed over to a locals restaurant on Vilakazi Street. This little street in Orlando West (a district in Soweto) is famous for being the only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace Prize Winners - Mandela and Desmond Tutu. The restaurant we visited had a great atmosphere and everyone was relaxed waiting for food and drinking beers. We met up with Dumisani's friend Godfrey and his two little girls. When the food was ready, we agreed with Zanele to try some tripe - a local delicacy. While we were happy to try it once, it wasn't going to be a grower! It was an awesome way to spend such an important day in SA and Dumisani, Thebang and Zanele took great care of us - an experience we wouldn't have had without them nor one we'd forget.

Back at work at Khanya, we worked closely with Thembi, Tshidi and Mamolefe to plan our comms materials and agree what we would produce for them by the end of our stay. Most importantly, we offered to draft and design a new presentation about Khanya's work that could be sent to domestic and international sponsors with details of mutually beneficial support they could provide. We also were lucky enough to visit a couple of after school creches and day care centres with Sibongile. These were there to help counsel orphaned kids (some HIV sufferers themselves) and provide them with a safe place after school. They even fed and bathed those kids that weren't being looked after at home. At the creche, one 5 year old got up and performed a poem and traditional dance that had won him the 'Prince' award at a arts competition that weekend! Amazing confidence for someone so young who's had such a tough introduction to life.

That night we were invited to dinner at Pat's neighbours - Nomsa, Joseph and their son Enpo. Joseph had spent some time in the UK so we talked about Oxford and also about Premiership Football. (Enpo was a hopeful Arsenal future star!). In fact during our whole stay with Pat, her friends and family went out of their way to look after us. We spent evenings with Sophie her cousin, Mamolefe and her family, and Tshidi and her 5 year old twins! We also had some great nights out with Pat, visiting Spurs her favourite restaurant for some delicious chicken wings as well as trying out some takeaway from Roadhouse. Most memorable were the lunches bought for us at work by Selina. We got to sample some great townships classics - Bunny Chow (half a loaf of bread hollowed out and filled with chips, salami, sausages and hot chilis!) and fat cakes (deep, deep fried donuts!).

But we made sure that Pat sampled some British favourites too! Guy cooked a great spag bol in the first week. Then over my birthday weekend, he arranged with Pat to prepare a full on birthday party! We had been painting Pat's rooms as a thank you for having us so had spent most of the weekend either covered in white emulsion, playing with Pat's great niece and nephew (Oratile and Mambu), watching the Lions with Joyce, Pat's 76 year old mum, or cheering on Bafana Bafana as they incredibly made it to the Confed Cup semi finals!

But when it was all done, Guy laid on a feast for us all. We had roast chicken with all the trimmings (my first since we'd left the UK!) and party hats, balloons and poppers - and of course a big chocolate cake! It was Enpo's brithday too that day, so he came by with Nomsa. It was a great day and the perfect way to celebrate being 31.

Joyce returned the favour that week by cooking us up a lamb pot roast and mealy pap before asking Pat to drop her home in Daveytown. We went too and had a chance to see the township where Pat had grown up. Lots of local improvements were being made in advance of the 2010 World Cup but they seemed to be windown dressing the town with flags and pot plants. The road that Joyce lived on was still a pile of rubble (or mud when it rained) and couldn't be driven on.

On our last day at Khanya, we got an amazing send off. Thembi, Tshidi and Mamolefe seemed really pleased with the work we'd pulled together and treated us to an amazing African lunch at Izolomn's Place. After lunch we danced with the team from Khanya in the garden and they laughed while we tried to learn some pretty basic moves - and failed. They then presented us with some homemade gifts from their own craft centre. That night we put on our glad rags (well - the nicest things we could find in our backpacks!) and headed to Montecasino Park for a Hugh Masekela concert. The man is a SA legend and now in his 70s was performing with new SA artists. We went with Mamolefe, Sibongile and Pat as a thank you. We had such an awesome night and the ladies were up in their seats dancing, so we had to join in. I wasn't much good at the ululuing though that echoed around the concert hall!

The next morning we sadly left Pat's. She had offered us her home for 2 weeks and made us feel so welcome so it was hard to say goodbye. We headed into Melville to catch the second Lion's test and to get ourselves ready for our next volunteering stint. We were off to work with Hayley Berman and Michelle Atlas at Lefika, an art therapy organisation...