While South Africa is often looked at as a leader on the African continent, many issues still face this very young democratic country. Before we left Cape Town, I was able to interview three different agencies about issues that children face in South Africa. In addition to these interviews, I also gained much perspective on how children are treated or what they deal with from my interactions at the schools we’ve been visiting and even at my internship.
All of the individuals I interviewed when asked what issue children face the most replied with poverty because most difficulties that come to mind when thinking of South Africa stem from poverty. Though South Africa’s main endeavor is currently to decrease as much as possible the HIV infection rate, this is only one of the many illnesses facing children. Sister Margaret of the Nazareth House, which is a children’s home for abandoned children, said that tuberculosis, malnutrition, and dirty water illnesses are extremely prevalent as well because of poverty. These lesser known diseases are rising much more steadily in the Cape Town region, but HIV is still the highest climbing disease elsewhere. The effect of HIV on children in South Africa is devastating considering the impact it has made on families. The family unit has been broken down and children are left with one or no parents. Their childhood has been stripped from them as they are more worried about helping provide food or water for their family instead of going to school or playing with their friends.
Another plague of poverty on families is the increase in drug and alcohol use. This directly affects children with regards to physical and sexual abuse and also with birth defects. Parents who are struggling, who have been abused themselves, or those who are simply trying to express their anger take it out on their children. Many women don’t realize they are pregnant and use drugs or alcohol during their pregnancy, which causes immense issues for the child starting from birth. Once these children are born, some are seen as abominations or the parents think that their ancestors are punishing them or they are being bewitched. The children are then neglected by their families and the community.
The physical abuse does not always go directly to the child, but sometimes the child sees the domestic violence between his or her parents and is still affected. At Ons Plek, which is a shelter for girls who are taken off the streets, social worker Carmen told me about how many of the teenage girls there run away to escape violence in their home. After these girls run away, they often turn to crime, drugs, alcohol, or even prostitution. However, there are also others who try to escape their home situation by agreeing to work domestically for a family in the city. A will come to their village and make promises of work and fair treatment from a family, but some discover after leaving their home that they are now sex slaves or mistreated by the home to which they agreed.
Beyond the problems facing children who are indigenous to South Africa, refugee and migrant children too face significant difficulties. After going to the Trauma Center and hearing from the social workers there, I discovered how real and still freak the imprint of apartheid has left. Our daily class discussions about the historical moments throughout the apartheid era and even our recent discussions of the racism that still exist definitely prove that apartheid is far from being forgotten. The director at the Trauma Center feels that though apartheid has been removed, people are still angry and frustrated at their situation in life, seeing that they still don’t have certain services and still are being mistreated. However, since their government has abolished the apartheid system, they think they can’t be mad at the government. Consequently, people blame a different group of people who they think are “taking their jobs.” Thus, refugees and migrant children are often shunned, and some of these children are even battling the scars of war or oppression for which they left their country.
After hearing all these horrendous issues and stories, one has to wonder why or what is the cause? From the people I talked to, many couldn’t point to one certain perpetrator, but more so to contributing factors. The effects of apartheid obviously have left South Africa with many individuals who still want to resort to violence to solve their problems. Urbanization has undoubtedly shaped South Africa both in losing certain sacred cultural values and in creating almost a class system between rural and urban people. Sister Margaret said she used to never see black children in homes because of the emphasis placed on the community raising the child. Now, it’s mostly black children that they see come in for emergency rescue or those who are abandoned.
In hearing children talk about their family life and their rough conditions, I’m confronted once again with the same ugly reality the agency representatives described. However, in addition to these children’s pains with losing family members, being abused, not having enough to eat or whichever, they also tell me about their dreams to become lawyers, doctors, and teachers to help other people. They tell me of their dreams, as one boy I interviewed at Eukhannyisweni primary school said, “to travel to all the places James Bond has been.” I then realize these are children who are so full of aspirations, determination, and willingness to work hard towards their education and goals. I also see the hope they have for their families to work through their struggles, and the sincere love and innocence they still have despite what they face almost everyday.
These children show South Africans what it takes to move forward to overcome these difficulties through accepting and speaking up of what is wrong and empowering one another through education to move forward. They also show me and other outsiders the power of openness to those who are not like you by answering questions after just meeting, love to strangers to simply holding my hand to show me the way, and generosity by giving me their only cookie just so I’ll remember them when I leave. Children send powerful messages because of the way they affect us right into the center of our hearts, but it shouldn’t and doesn’t always need to take a graphic story of a raped child or a picture of a starving girl to inspire us to enact change. People can be inspired by hope in a younger generation without feeling guilty or saddened. They can take action and want to provide assistance to children from a simple token of a cookie or an unforgettable smile.