Last Weekend in SA – Two Nobel Prize winners living in same Street

By now you should have observed that I have a phobia for pictures, I have a phobia for posting my pictures on the internet but lets see how this goes

On Saturday 14th April, Hye Lynn (CPS staff from Arlington) and I stormed Soweto to visit some tourist centers. Not a very fantastic city but a significant place that reflects the history of SA. We visited the Regina mundi church where blacks took over as they fled the police during the apartheid, thereafter we visited the Hector Pieterson Museum. Hector was the first child (aged 14) who died in the struggle against Afrikaan - the language of the apartheid government. We also visited Mandela’s house at ‘8115 Vilakazi street, Orlando West, Soweto’. A stone throw from there is the house of Bishop Desmond Tutu both of which were Nobel prize winners living on same street. Before we left the area, we took time to eat from a buffet at Sakhumzi restaurant, thereafter, we visited the Mzanza community and finally the apartheid museum again in Joburg but this time with just Hye Lynn exploring. By the end of the day, I felt I had known the history of SA to a large extent.

A view of Joburg as we found our way to Soweto

 This should be the oldest/biggest hospital in Soweto

 Regina Mundi church, Soweto

The white women who stood against Apartheid

 The forceful ejection of blacks from their homes


 Artcarft on the streets of Soweto

Mandela's house


The words of Prime Minister HF Verwoerd, architect of Apartheid (1963) "When I have control over native education, I will reform it so that natives will be taught from childhood that equality with Europeans is not for them"  - Extracted from the Hector Pieterson Museum

Absurd right??? What a statement, I was enraged when I read it. Of course he ended up without control

 At Sakhamzu with Hye Lynn.....

Touring Mandela's house..

Children at Mzanza settlement (I love the girl with the sweet)


On Sunday, I finally attended the Anglican church at Waterkloof heights. Nice!


Last week – Monday to Friday (16th to 20th)

After our rigorous work of developing an FGD guide, Kathryn’s strict corrections/inputs and editing the interview tool that we were to administer to the target populations during our visit to the North star road wellness centers at Beitbridge (Zimbabwe), it was unfortunate that we were informed by the consulate that my Visa which I applied for at the Zimbabwe embassy in Nigeria was still not ready after three weeks of application. Reliable sources informed us that it would be futile driving for more than 6 hours from Pretoria to Beitbridge because I would be denied entry since am a Nigerian citizen (here it comes again – that tough screening always given to Nigerians, talk about the few bad eggs spoiling the bigger good. Nigerians are good people, resourceful and always ready to be creative, why would Zimbabwe of all countries give such a hard time, as much as I admire Zim citizens like Naume, Jabulani and Sheila, I don’t see myself permanently staying in SA talk more of Zim for a ------ dollars) – home and family is more precious to me. Well, well, amidst my efforts in visiting their consulate in Pretoria and series of calls, it yielded nothing and that was the end. I felt disappointed because it blew my chances of visiting the field. But something came up later in the week that compensated for the chance – Visiting the Methodist Church (refugee center) at Joburg.

But before I talk about that, I had the chance to make a presentation titled “A brief of key strategies employed by the CUBS-Nigeria project” on Wednesday. It was pleasing to see a huge turn up from the BLC staff including the COP himself – Don Harbick. It was a participatory process as we shared ideas on Gender mainstreaming, the Enhanced Gender Framework (EGF), Income Generating Activities (IGA) and Peer Education as strategies that could complement ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful and Condom Use) in HIV prevention. A copy of the EGF document can be searched out from http://www.msh.org/.


That same Wednesday evening Zuzelle and I visited the Methodist church not only to attend their evening service which lasts from 7 to 8pm but also to see for ourselves and have a one-on-one interview with some of the residents.
It took us awhile to locate the dark hidden gigantic church located at the far end of Prichard street, behind small street in Johannesburg. The sight that greeted us was pathetic. With mixed feelings of compassion and pity we went through dozens of residents as they littered inside the building, selling, eating and lying on the floor. We navigated our way to the service as they commenced with singing, prayers and the bible reading “Come unto me all ye who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest … and the story of Peter and the blind man” Carefree without a worry, the members relieved their burdens by singing with emotions, children jumping around oblivious of the throes of life and adulthood, the mentally and physically misfit were not left out as they joined in the holy anointing and communion. One would almost feel comfortable in this place that had no stringent religious rules on dressing, conduct, how to look holy or flipping through many religious books instead they were free and from their heart sang to the Lord in the languages they understood.
By the end of the service, Zuzelle and I met with a couple of them as they relayed the unhealthy situation of their lives at the church. Without any legal documentation to reside or work in SA, most of these migrant populations from Zimbabwe, Cape town and other locations were to face a hard life to fend for themselves in Joburg, unable to find work and left with no requisite skills to engage in any tangible income generating activity, many have lost hope of ever finding a comfortable life and have stayed at the church now for many years. Sexual activities seem to be rife here as many came single and alone but after years at the center have given birth to several children (one would wonder who their fathers were).
Tina (not real name) was a qualified nurse who was divorced and had to leave her home in Zimbabwe as she came into SA. She found solace at the church but still slept on the floor even after a year of being at the center. With dysfunctional toilets, they had to endure the bad water streaming from the broken pipes down to their sleeping areas amidst urine stench. They paid R5 per week for Harpic disinfectants yet the toilets are still a sorry sight. She is unable to even get an opportunity to work at the sick bay or even to teach at the school. She seriously advocates for external support to re-build their toilets.
Alfred (not real name) is physically challenged and only needs only R250 to start a car wash business so he can engage other physically challenged persons like himself as well as support staff since most of them are unable to reach the top of cars as they wash.
Benedict (not real name) is in her mid 50s alone in the wide world, without husband or children she tried going back to her home land but had to return to the center when it was hard for her to get any kind of work back home. Presently she gathers empty plastics for recycling.
The stories seemed to be endless as we found our way out of the building, difficult to find a way for our legs as everywhere was filled with people sleeping on the staircases from top to bottom. We finally set out for Pretoria around 9pm as we resolved to follow up with the Bishop who was out of the country at the moment.

For more information do visit this link on what life for migrants can be at the Methodist Church http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/4299

Thursday was a unique day, never knew the BLC staff planned a send forth for me. With cake cutting and a gift I began to miss this family I have known for a month now. Wow!!

Do you know that on Friday, Roselyn was supposed to be off and working from home but she came all the way to the office to give me a nice gift…. Can you beat that!!! Thanks a lot

Still have more pictures to add to this blog. will do so soonest

No Easy Way to Freedom (Friday 6th to Friday 13th April, 2012)

My second weekend in SA was more interesting than the last. Although, I was indoors all through the Easter Friday, but on Saturday Tendani Muthambi a colleague of mine took me out to her home, there I handed over the flowers I bought for her, her daughter and her mom. Thereafter, she drove me and her daughter to the apartheid museum in Johannesburg. It was an interesting experience that took me over three hours to go through the entire museum digesting the information bit by bit. The museum relayed the history of South Africa and how the citizenry especially the black community were liberated from the shackles of apartheid.  Apartheid is a form of government rule based on racial discrimination where the whites are usually placed at an advantage and sour discrimination was made towards blacks in the areas of land ownership and use, strict demarcations in mobility and services as well as infrastructural facilities which trickled down to the system of education. With white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule, it reduced the beautiful gold land of south Africa to a living horror for the black masses until 1994 when Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela stood as their hero as the first black President of SA after 27 long years in prison fighting for freedom. Remember his middle name ‘Rolihlahla’ means “Trouble maker”. This blog will be too small to tell you all about the apartheid and Nelson but do Google and get more information or better still visit the museum in Joburg or the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto.

The beautiful scenery of Johannesburg

Interesting words from the museum and pictures outside the museum include


 “Apartheid is exactly where it belongs – in a museum, the apartheid Museum is a journey not just a destination….
 The basic principle behind apartheid was simple – segregate everything. Cut a clean line through a nation to divide black from white and keep them divided”        - From the Apartheid museum profile


"To be free is not really to castoff one’s chain, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others” – Mandela

As you enter the museum, you will find a long show of Identity cards owned by both whites and blacks during the apartheid period. One amusing observation was that while the I.D cards of whites boldly carried the inscription “S.A citizen” that of the blacks were completely blank under “citizenship” or had their native community on them like Zulu. It is important to note that S.A comprises of 80% black people, 10% whites and 10% mixed race such as Indians, Asians, etc.

“Today I think the split between black and white in South Africa is irreconcilable” – Ernest Cole 1967

With other pictures of liberation struggles, protests, killings, prisoners, death by hanging, mayhem,  police brutality on blacks and few conscience-laden whites who also fought the discriminatory system, it was no wonder that some blacks stood out as heroes such as Bishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel peace prize winner), Steve Biko, Sisulu to mention a few and Mandela who also won a Nobel peace prize.

The poem of a child was published which read thus:

“Mandela appeared in my cartoons as the child with the potential to become what he dreams of, as the prisoner embodying a nation imprisoned, as the banned face of the banned struggle, as David slaying the apartheid Goliath, as the bird breaking out of the apartheid cage, as the genie who won’t get back in the bottle, as Moses parting the waters for the masses, and as Moses leading them into the promised land, as the sunrise at the dawn of the new south Africa, as the Colossus bestriding the national landscape, as the architect of democracy, as the rider in the saddle of the GNU, as the sculptor hewing racial harmony, as the fireman dowsing the flames of crises, as an acrobat anchoring a diplomatic balancing act, as super Mandela bridging global divides, as Atlas bearing the developing world, as the wind blowing the spring jar of Madiba magic for Bafana Bafana, as the Mandela Bridge spanning the racial divide, as the grandfather dandling the infant nation, as the giant with massive shoes to fill, as the cowboy and his gal riding into the African sunset, as the tireless globe trotter outpacing all others, as the prisoner pushing open the AIDS secrecy door, as the planet in the fight against HIV/AIDS, as the beaming Nelson atop Nelson’s column, as the cupid of the divided ANC, as the conscience of the nation, as the sun setting on his own era”.      -   Sun Times 18 July 2008

Taking snapshots in the museum is not allowed so I could not get much of pictures but it contained a myriad of videos, pictures and music that one would absorb with mixed feelings.

The words of Cole were strong “No physical barrier separates black from white zones. What keeps the blacks from spilling over into the white preserve is the unseen power of apartheid”

Amidst all challenges the re-quotes from Mandela are courageous to the black ear

“There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountain tops of our desires”.- Original quote by Jawaharlal Nehru

Entrance to the museum

Identity Cards of Whites during the apartheid period (Notice the citizenship?)

Identity Cards of Blacks (Notice the blank citizenship slot?)

 'Europeans only' reminding all of the significant period of apartheid

The long migration by many, all and sundry to Joburg 'the city of gold'

Finally, Tendani dropped me off at the guest house in the evening. Wheww! It was worth every minute we spent.

On Sunday, we planned that I would accompany Tendani’s mum to church but unfortunately Tendani fell ill probably due to the long drives we did the previous day, I felt very bad and guilty for stressing her this much. I was indoors but went for a walk later that evening.

On Easter Monday I was indoors as I worked on the literature review.

Tuesday with Megh

Upon arrival at the office, it was nice to find Megh at the office. Jagriti Megh is the OVC Technical lead/Advisor of the Lesotho project. He visits the country office at Pretoria every two weeks which affords the management team a complete meeting with useful inputs from him unlike the hitches associated with internet calls. I later had a meeting with Megh who enlightened me further on the OVC project especially programmatically which was a huge relief as it allayed some of the misconceptions I earlier had concerning the project. It is interesting to note that Megh is an Indian doctor who has long years of experience on OVC and public health issues with most years of his developmental work in Nigeria – Benue state specifically. He has sat at high level plenaries with top-notch public health workers in Nigeria to develop a lot of working documents, supporting the push of bills into laws and supporting many policies in the area of OVC and HIV/AIDS. Speaking with him would reveal an unmistakable personality of humility and compassion towards mankind and the work he does. He knew a lot about Nigeria and in his gentle manner, had a humorous way of interjecting communication using my native language (Ibo), I found myself often saying – This man is speaking my language!! His well-kept long beards depicted him somewhat as a man of wisdom.

From our discussions and other reports I have read, the BLC 5 year OVC project works with the government through relevant Ministries, Civil Society Organizations, Community Based Organizations, and Faith Based Organizations to improve the quality of care and support services for the OVC (now VC – Vulnerable Children). Existing and new BLC sub-grantees receive effective OVC programming training and subsequently provide improved and comprehensive services to 46,585 OVC and 19,972 caregivers by 2015. Through the Inverted pyramidal model, services are rendered to OVC in a bottom-up approach where the capacity of relevant stakeholders are also built to provide support for the vulnerable child as a sustainability/exit strategy focusing on the household rather than the child wholly.

 
BLC Project Lesotho Capacity Building ‘Inverted Pyramid Model’

  

So far although the OVC enrollment targets given to each of the CSOs is as high as 1,500 per quarter, yet it’s a bit flexible all through the year. One interesting thing I learnt was that, Megh envisions every community and school having at least one social worker who understands the needs of the VC. He made me understand that because the local councils already have a list of VC in the community, it would not be too necessary to use the OVI tool to identify them all over again. Nonetheless, at the end, he gave me an interesting news – the OVC project team has decided to incorporate the Child status Index tool into their collection of M&E tools, Bravo! This will indeed help to monitor the wellbeing of VC around the 6+1 services overtime.

By Wednesday 11th April, I was elated to find Zuzelle back from her leave- At last!! As usual, she had put me on my toes as she sat beside me to see how far I had gone incorporating the corrections she made on the literature review. Today, the left corner of the office was empty as Jabulani and Roselyn were off to Lesotho on strengthening the project’s M&E systems.

On Thursday, I joined other staff to attend the staff meeting as the country Director – Donald Harbick judiciously answered the array of questions from staff. For an hour, we looked at reporting channels, structured technical matrix formation, capacity building, gender issues and staff development.
I was busy most part of the day developing the Focused Group Discussion (FGD) tool and editing the Interview guide that we would be using during our field visit to Beitbridge on Sunday. When I was through, I sent it to the M&E team led by Kathryn for review. Later that day, I re-sent invitation to all staff to join me on Wednesday 18th April to look at key strategies employed by the CUBS-Nigeria project which was accepted by most of the staff.

Finally Friday came, with a theme – “Cheese and wine”. Worthy to note that Naume joined me today to make it a traditional Friday and she really looked beautiful in her attire. But earlier that day, Kathryn, Zuzelle and I had a review meeting on the FGD tool as we made corrections, deletion and other edits. At the end of the exercise, it was like starting all over again incorporating the changes. Zuzelle was also busy making preparations for our journey and contacts with the North Star staff, it was only then it dawned on me that I had still not gotten my Zimbabwe visa even though I had applied for it in Nigeria before I left, but their 7 working-day stringent requirement did not afford me enough time to pick up the visa amidst series of calls to the embassy. Of course I could not cancel my flight reservations to SA so I left the Visa behind. What can I do? As we cracked our heads on what to do, I sent the final review of the FGD guide as well as the respondents’ consent form to Zuzelle and Kathryn for a final look. By now, the office upstairs was already full of staff as we all joined in the Cheese and Wine event organized by Don to ease the official tension. There I met the wider BLC family as well as Eileen from the home office in Arlington. It was fun I must say. Work and pleasure did take some of us home late, although Charles was off to drop some other persons, Carole the COMU Director was kind enough to drop me off at the guest house. We came to know ourselves better during that drive.

Naume in her semi-traditional attire, Isn't she looking nice???

White bearded Don (Country Director)[right], Eileen (from Arlington)[middle] and others 

Cheese and Wine indeed!!!!!

 Pule (the new Technical Advisor for CB), Joyful Zezelle (Middle) and Anddy (right)

Zuzelle in red......


This is the end of my third week in SA. I remember that most part of the second week and this week, Kathryn was always keeping in touch about my logistics and picking me up from the lodge anytime Charles was away or busy.

The last weekend in SA would be a swell one as I made arrangements for Saturday. Watch out for my next blog!!!!!!

Weekend at SA – Welcome to a new month (April 1st)

Am sorry y’all for not posting early, actually am meant to post weekly.

My first weekend in SA was calm and uneventful (personal choice), I actually wanted to be indoors. Besides, where I reside is very serene with very little chance of mobility options like a cab/taxi. So I stayed on bed for an unusually long period of time. Thereafter, I took out time to work on the Migration corridor literature review for most part of the day. On Sunday, I could not attend church because I barely knew where it was and how to get there, I felt a bit awkward though. By noon I decided to walk down the shopping mall at Waterkloof heights where I did some shopping. It was a good opportunity to also exercise. Eventually, washed some clothes and cooked today.



Entrance to Waterkloof heights shopping mall, SA


Monday with the Capacity Building Project (April 2nd)

Kathryn offered to pick me up from the guest house to the office this morning and I was pleased. On arrival at the office, the MEC (Monitoring, Evaluation, Communications and HIV Prevention) team first had a meeting which I was part of comprising of Zuzelle, Roselyn, Naume, Jabulani and led by Kathryn. The meeting focused on achievements and pending activities as guided by the MEC work plan, upcoming conferences, MEC staffing, the PPRD (Performance, Plan, Review and Development) process and AOB which included updates of my assignment so far in SA. Interesting news – two BLC abstracts have been accepted for presentations at the AIDS 2012 conference. Kudos! The BLC work plan is almost finalized with activities teased out to enhance implementation. ‘The Inside Story’ a film developed/facilitated by the BLC project and its partners has been accepted to be viewed at the Roxbury International Film Festival to be held 14-17 June in Boston, Massachusetts. Hook up to http://roxburyfilmfestival.org/ for more information. Innovative approach of tracking upcoming activities using colored cards was shared by Roselyn and Jabulani. The colored cards represent different BLC projects/countries for each month.

After the meeting, I was able to seek consent from staff via email to post their pictures on my blog which some obliged.

Roselyn and Jabulani brainstorming for a suitable spot for the colored card activity work plan

Thereafter, Zuzelle and I met with Anddy Omuolabi the technical lead on the capacity building (CB) project to gather some information on how the project is grasping with activities in the region. It was another interesting time. He gave us loads of information on the leadership and management development program (LDP) which left me craving for more.
The CB project focuses on two pivotal approaches – “service delivery” and “CB”. Service delivery is focused on Lesotho – partly on the OVC project. While the CB approach is geared towards strengthening Government systems and local capacity of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), there is still a focus on the prevention project. The CB is also strengthening health systems in six (6) countries namely Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho. In Botswana for example, the CB supports 13 health facilities to get accreditation but there is a need to scale up this achievement thus, their partnership with the Ministry of Health and Council for Health services and Accreditation (COHSASA) to mention a few using the LDP program. The LDP uses the framework of the MSH handbook on Managers that Lead to conduct capacity building workshops. Key models were the ‘Leading and Managing for Results model’, ‘the integrated leading and managing process’ and ‘the challenge model’

Do view some of these models below

  Extracted from the handbook "Managers who lead" by Management Sciences for Health, Cambridge, 2005

Our meeting with Anddy, CB Project. Picture showing Zuzelle and Anddy as we sat at his insightful explanations

Some pictures at Andy's corner showcasing the successes of the LDP program in Botswana


One key lesson I learnt from the meeting is that Leaders must learn how to 'inspire' their subordinates so as to bring out the best in them.



Tuesday to Thursday (April 3rd to 5th)

The next few days, Zuzelle was on leave and I did miss her, she always had a way of guiding me, keeping me proactive, ensuring I gathered all the knowledge I could, making me feel free and looking out for my general welfare. She did send back my work with all of her comments and corrections as I dedicated myself to incorporating all of the comments into the literature review. Roselyn taught me a useful way of citing several authors using the endnote library as well as downloading references from the internet into the endnote library using Google advanced search. I later had lunch with Roselyn and we had a chit-chat on the OVC project and how I could develop a closer working relationship with Mathabo the M&E officer for Lesotho OVC project.

By Thursday the office started getting empty. Jabulani did have the time to look through my draft literature review and we had a meeting where we throroughly picked out corrections as well as made additions. It was a fruitful exercise that would make the final draft of the Lit.review a better one. By 2pm almost everyone was on their way out in preparation for the Easter holidays. there was a problem with my modem so Katie was very helpful in getting me another 3G Modem with assistance from Koketso. This would enable me access the internet during the long break. Katie was also kind enough to drop me off at the guest house as she showed me interesting spots around the guest house where I could shop, take coffee, eat out and even a salon. She also unraveled a swimming pool in the guest house where I could even have a spa even though am not much of a swimmer. Interesting updates! We also stopped over to buy some flowers before finally dropping me off at home. I am actually preparing for a swell Easter weekend which would be a surprise detail in my next blog.

 The flowers I bought

 MSH, SA office views