2022 End of Year Recap
End of year holidays, Yes!
Unbelievable! We did it guys! Together we celebrated accomplishments, faced loss, welcomed new friends and new babies, said goodbye to loved ones, shared stories, sang and danced the Toyi-Toyi (South African freedom protest song). We made uncountable pots of food, ensuring full tummies every night of the year.
BCDT stands resolutely at the coalface, supporting, protecting and empowering at-risk families. All made possible thanks to your support and assistance. We, you and us, are an amazing team! Thank you from all those hearts that do not know you, and perhaps may never meet you.
Generations from now, your humanitarian contribution will be written in every child born, though your names may not be known. Well done, it is so impressive and moving. The Humanitarian Dream Team!
Recap of BCDT’s 2022 year in words, photos and caricatures
Thankfully, our year was mostly positive. Yes, there were negatives, but our love and passion for each other, and the importance of our work far outpaced these trials and difficulties. We shared food and water when they were scarce. We suffered voracious electrical storms and electrical outages, government mismanagement, squabbles and personal affronts. Through it all, BCDT grew doggedly and resolutely. And with a sense of humour (which we will share with you through our favorite artist, Zapiro).
The character of the school has changed. BCDT stopped offering boarding in one large dormitory structure, and moved to placing scholars within families of their own culture and lineage. We believe this is a more holistic approach. Children and youth can download emotionally within their own families, in their own language. Still, it requires the umbrella of BCDT support to ensure low rates of truancy, gangs and incarceration, and ensuring families have sufficient food.
The upgraded poverty campus had wins and challenges this year. Wins included reduced school absenteeism, domestic abuse, and physical abuse of children and youth. Scholars’ test scores improved markedly. Challenges included the need to enforce curfew hours and regular school-night schedules, regular bathing, completion of homework, and getting school clothes ready.
The village school MGS began robotics and coding but are in desperate need of 50 tablets to continue with all the classes. Please if any donor or sponsor can assist, contact Nicole.
We continue to ensure the safety of the children as our first priority, which begins with the basics. We have gated our village, and we log entry of all strangers. We report drug dealers and any evidence of sex trafficking to the police. We track and deal with youth who are involved in petty and syndicated theft, before it escalates and leads to incarceration.
This year we provided focused education and intervention on female youth. We trained them around issues of sexuality and ownership and power over their bodies. Contraception and access to clinics have empowered teenagers to focus on their own education and empowerment. This blunts the forces of malignant culture and ignorant parents which might otherwise lead to unwise behaviour. Boys were educated about the rights of females’ sexuality, which also helped to prevent harmful behaviour.
BCDT began to openly discuss cultural myths surrounding certain behaviour patterns. Some of these myths will be shared in newsletters next year, because it does explain some of the behaviour of the youth.
BCDT has a reputation of never turning away those who need help. Consequently, destitute parents sometimes abandon children or youth on our village campus “doorstep”. Sometimes the parents reappear at the end of the year to reclaim their child. Other times they never return. BCDT’s previous attempts to force parental participation from destitute parents ended in disastrous outcomes for the children, who left school and languished at home. Normal rules for children do not work for children living in dire poverty.
Maintenance of HIV/AIDS at BCDT
The children and adults living with HIV/AIDS is monitored and mostly everyone is on medication. Fortunately the stigma of having the virus at BCDT is mostly gone because so many villagers are HIV positive. The babies born are put on nevirapine for a year as a safety precaution, especially since they are breastfed. For some reason, women tend to be more compliant with their medication. A recent report found that 80% of HIV positive women in South Africa are on treatment, while the comparable figure is 30% among men. BCDT encourages compliance for HIV/AIDS and TB, but in the end it is individuals who make their own health decisions. Sadly, even with medication available, some village parents continue to die needlessly, with poor outcomes for their families.
Employment prospects improve somewhat
Village employment has increased over the festive season with picking and holiday camps in the environs. This will provide much needed additional money on top of the grants received by mothers. Jobs are still scarce; workers accept any job offered. Fortunately, all housing at BCDT is rent free, as is water, leaving money for food and toiletries. And as much as we hate to say it, in many instances alcohol.
Food and Nutrition
We can do without education, electricity, clothing, entertainment, shoes, and proper housing, but never food and water. In 2022, we were hard pressed to have sufficient food for all, yet we made it through. Everyone appreciates available levels; nothing is wasted. The gratitude in the children’s eyes after each meal belongs to you, kind sponsors.
Water and electricity
After depending on our borehole and water wheel for years, the government arrived and put in water pipes and tanks in the village, to great fanfare. However, as mentioned in previous newsletters, after a few months the water began to dry up, first on alternate days, next a week, then we only had water during the night. And finally, nothing…
Our challenged utility provider, Eskom, taught us that electricity is a privilege and not a right whether you are paying or not, and BCDT pays a huge sum per month. Tonight, the electricity goes off from midnight to 2:30 am. Then tomorrow morning from 8 am to 10:30am. So far in 2022 we have had 3,085 hours or 129 days of national loadshedding as it tries to balance demand and supply while being hampered by an aging infrastructure.
On nights when there is loadshedding, people are fearful. Darkness is total; opportunistic theft is very common during blackouts. Unfortunately, our dogs must remain in doors during the night because poisoning is a method of keeping the dogs quiet. When power returns, electrical surges sometimes destroy sensitive equipment.
Swimming Pool allows water to become fun and not deadly
In a land where not all children learn to swim, accidental drownings are all too common. BCDT works hard to ensure that all children and youth in the village learn to swim safely. Some older villagers become powerful swimmers this year, and new children are taught to stay afloat, then swim underwater. BCDT’s youngest swimmers are fourteen months old and two years old respectively, they can swim on their own with water wings. Babies are introduced soon after birth.
Time for Rite of Passage for 16-year-olds as they go off to initiation school
An exciting and important ritual for the 16-year-old boys is cultural initiation. This includes circumcision, but additionally, elders from their culture teach and initiate them on being good men and citizens. Some boys are excited, others are terrified. And rightly so. The number of deaths from illegal initiation schools have caused over 700 deaths over the last decade due to unhygienic or botched circumcisions or dehydration. Due to public outrage the health department is demanding firmer legislation and the closing down of illegal initiation schools.
Normally, at BCDT a medical unit arrives and operates on the boys. Even though they forego the traditional teachings from the elders, the parents are more concerned with the safety of their children. One of BCDT’s youth has been dodging his uncles from the Eastern Cape, [next to Lesotho] which is a very traditional and strict area. But he has run out of leverage and must go into the mountains for his Rite of Passage this festive season. We wish him well on this initiation into manhood.
Plight of abandoned Pensioners
BCDT’s primary focus is on children and youth. Yet abandoned elderly are also important. We made space in the recreational buildings for an old gentleman who is terminally ill and unable to fend for himself. When he arrived, he was incapacitated, dehydrated, his BP was of 220 over 120. He was taken to hospital by ambulance in critical condition. Two days later the hospital phoned Nicole to collect him. Unfortunately, we are momentarily out of cash and had to ask the hospital to keep him for an additional day while we sourced funding. We have become experienced at providing palliative care to make the process of dying as dignified as possible. We have learned how to love and respect a stranger, giving comfort and compassion to villagers who would otherwise die alone.
Animals, rabies, castrations, spayings, abandoned animals, strays, and puppy factories
That is what Leigh, our CEO faced all year. BCDT was relieved to have the government vets arrive to administer rabies shots to all the village animals, after a two-year hiatus due to Covid. The vets also provided medication for the pigs and dip for the cows. A moment of humour when the vets became tired of walking through the whole village but were spurred on by Leigh and her animal crew. Michaels beloved terrier, Gigi, whose story we followed in an earlier newsletter, was hit by a truck on the main road. We buried her and other beloved furry friends this year.
Our vet bill is eye-watering. One of those ironies of life when we use food money to save an animal or have it euthanised. Older Botshibelian children and youth see this as normal, but new children gives us a look of ‘you are joking…use a hammer to kill it… humans are more important and higher... ‘. Then the education begins afresh.
Snakes everywhere, this is not an exaggeration, due to the high rainfall, snakes in the wild have bred well this season. Interestingly a large Red Lip snake was eating a frog that was more than a 200% larger than his mouth and swallowed it while all the children encircled it, mouths agape. Everyone is aware that BCDT has environmental safety and protection for reptiles, scorpions, spiders, animals, and birds. Mosquitoes and rats are not under the protection of BCDT, two of the largest killers of humans on the continent.
Camping, cooking on fires, swimming, TV and games and soccer – the mainstay of our holidays.
The tents are going up as we prepare for the holidays. Although our work does not stop, it is a change of pace and gives us an opportunity to play and have fun. The long days and intense duties of the BCDT management team leaves little time for play, so free time is appreciated. The children and youth also love kicking back and relaxing. The learners from the village campus go home, which leaves us time to catch up with families and inner core. Even though that number never seem to go under 85. It is collection time for Christmas presents we would appreciate any donations for special meals and presents.
In conclusion
the daily work is constant and all consuming. However, it provides the children and youth with a sense of stability, security and happiness, a truth we are reminded of every an ex-Botshibelian returns to greet and introduce their children and partners to the place where they grew up. It is heart-warming to see a well-adjusted man drive in with his children, and recall his terrible start in life and his appalling behaviour years ago. It proves how much a helping hand can change children’s lives.
We hope that you and your family have a safe and happy holiday. Once more, thank you for all the wonderful support and we hope that you can sense the valuable contribution you are and have made to the preservation of future generations. Bless you
