2024 January Newsletter
Botshibelo Community Development Trust (BCDT) Themes for 2024: Forgiveness and Respect to self, parents and community.
The world is riven with conflict. Yet in our small corner of it, we strive, with your support, to leave a lasting impression in the lives of those we serve. We are endlessly grateful for your belief in our mission of empowering women and children, and their families here at BCDT. Together, we have achieved remarkable things.
On behalf of all the babies, children, adults, and animals at BCDT, we express our profound gratitude. Your unwavering commitment to us has driven positive change in the lives of countless individuals. Through your financial contributions and encouragement, you have helped us provide food, medical aid, educational intervention, transport, and animal rescue. You’ve supported us in creating educational opportunities for underprivileged children who consistently fall through the government’s safety nets. You’ve enabled the poorest of citizens to remain with their loved ones, despite the countless challenges that normally rip poor families apart. These families can now look forward to a more hopeful future. We also want to thank our volunteers for generously giving their time and attention to support our programs.
Children reared in poverty face limited access to quality education, healthcare, and nutritional food. These problems perpetuate themselves due to reduced life opportunities, psychological and emotional scars, and early mortality. We touch the lives of a few hundred people every day, striving to build a protective wall against poverty’s worst effects. Keeping “bums in seats” until students graduate is one of the keys, keeping more youth in school and off the streets. We strive to blunt the evils of drug abuse, depression and hopelessness, prostitution, and suicide.
Back to school preparations and the making of happy moments
We held our onsite camp again this year, which lasted for a month. This is a perennial favourite for the kids. But also it was our small way of compensating for the Durban seaside trip, which we were forced to cancel this year due to lack of funds. We will try again in 2024.
Thanks for the support to make the festive season a happy memory for the children. For our KFC sponsor, the joy was banked in their tummies. The happiness on the children’s faces when packing their school bags, stationery, and books for 2024 was infectious. Thank you to the benefactors for that huge post-Christmas gift, the Christmas gifts for all the children and scrumptious festive food. This festive season was a very lovely time.
Research supports the evidence that the number of happier moments and experiences collected as a child the less chance of acting out a negative behaviour pattern. BCDT continue to pack in those special moments to shore up their hearts against the day-to-day stress as survivalists. Thank you for ‘packing’ moments with us.
Electricity! But with Loadshedding woes
The village celebration of having electricity in every house was dampened by the 87% increase in loadshedding over the prior year. Just to give some relevance to the villagers having electricity. Most villagers bought electric appliances for the first time. Irons, TV sets, fridges [although still a luxury that only a handful could consider], lights, cell phones could be charged. As a few villagers bought small TV sets, folks crowded around this new entertainment marvel. School uniforms were ironed, studying and homework could be completed at night. Well, at first. But loadshedding struck and, lacking generators or backup power, villagers were often forced to take a step back to reliance on wood and other non-electric sources. Trees were chopped down; wood was stolen from agitated neighbours, and toxic paraffin reintroduced. But at least we have electricity some of the time, for which we are thankful.
What 2023 taught us to do better in 2024
Soup Kitchen
The soup kitchen was begun to prevent hunger, and it has done so. But it’s done more than just feed people – it’s provided a sense of community, caring, dignity and compassion. It has provided a platform where a meal is guaranteed with no questions asked. We all hope to see supper and lunch added. Breakfast and the fortified tea-time drink remains our main meal because it provides stability for the day.
A quarter of South Africans, 18 million citizens live off social security grants. Which means that they survive on R35 (less than $2 US dollars) a day. Food prices have skyrocketed, due to fallout from wars and the pandemic. This includes very basic foods used in a “Poor People’s Basket” – vegetable oil, eggs (40%), potatoes (65%), rice (22%), samp and meal meal. Eggs and poultry are in short supply, as millions of chickens have been culled to contain the worst avian flu outbreak in recent memory.
It is heart wrenching to witness hungry people, or those eating only nutritionally dead food. Hunger could be the single tipping point to explode our present civil unrest into a war. Civil unrest can spread like wildfire, as recently experienced in the country.
Strategy for dogs and cats whilst living in poverty
Amina, the dog, came to live at BCDT after her beloved owner died. She howled for days after arriving, killed a cat who had just delivered one kitten. then adopted the kitten and reared it. Forgiveness all round.
We have nearly completely halted puppy farms, with chained dogs and continually impregnated females. We’ve also managed free spaying and neutering services. Should poor people be allowed to keep pets in the village? It’s a complex and nuanced issue. It is an open secret that pets are hidden, despite owners’ inability to meet the basic needs of the pet, such as food, veterinary attention, and compassionate handling. But on the other hand, many villagers keep pets that provide companionship, emotional support, and joy, which helps offset living in abject poverty. BCDT management realized that intervention and , openness is the best solution. The pet food bank was opened and works side-by-side with the soup kitchen. It is successful, despite having a limited impact on our food supplies.
In emergency situations, such as dogs being hit on the main road, broken bones, or euthanization, private vets are paid. It is prohibitively expensive, but only done for compassionate reasons. Our animal shelter organizations have mostly closed due to funding.
If anyone is interested in assisting with the dog outreach, please contact Leigh.
Complacency is a mirage - and can be easily shattered
As things roll along, we tend to grow complacent with our lot. Yet occasionally, “black swan” events shake us to our core. It may be a loved one or a pet dying unexpectedly. Or something else. A few such recent events we have lived through:
-In May a villager went to work on a game farm and was trampled to death by the bull elephant he was handling.
-A group of us was charged by a huge elephant trying to protect her baby.
-A large group of the family were eating out in a restaurant (we do this sometimes to access precious Wi-Fi for work). A truck ploughed into the restaurant, narrowly avoiding crushing them all.
-The government informed us that they could not pay out the school subsidy until December 12/12. No reason given.
-Domestic abuse cases continue to leave us breathless.
Despite it all, new babies born at Botshibelo continue to renew our hope for the future.
Educational Campus and academic and remedial assistance
The one area that has taken most of the planning and energy. We have a large group of Grade 12 [final year of high school] students this year to assist. We introduced stricter rules for parents to ensure that female students do not miss school due to childcare duties, or lack of access to female products, or boys left to cut wood for the family.
But a terminally or chronically ill parent is another matter. Love for a parent trumps education, and students lose concentration, sometimes dropping out of school for a year, or permanently.
Sex education has become a priority. South Africa has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the world. The girls are as young as 13. Sex education has become a priority, although it is a minefield when teaching a class with different ethnic and religious groups. Once a scholar has had a baby, further schooling becomes difficult due to a combination of shame, guilt, humiliation, and childcare logistics.
MGS School furniture drive
MGS, the BCDT school, is in desperate need of school furniture for the scholars and would appreciate assistance in this regard.
In Closing:
In closing, we thank you again for your gifts of compassion, time, and financial assistance, and we wish you the best for 2024.
