Isaac, Edee, Caragh, Nathaniel, Fiona, Emma, Caitlin, Anna
Today was the SISCO street children initiative ID taking programme. Here the organisation aimed to get IDs for as many street children as possible. Without IDs, one cannot get a job. What is more, street children without IDs are given a lot of trouble by the police to say the least. We chose to walk down to SISCO and, underestimating the distance, we unfortunately arrived half an hour late. This meant we missed the first round up of children for the programme which was not an ideal start to the day. We ended up waiting around for a while and was not only a loss of an opportunity for those of us who had not experienced SISCO outreach before but meant we started the day feeling surplus to requirements.
Eventually we met Abdul and Russell of the organisation and we walked down to the YMCA, where the programme was stationed, with three street children who were taking part. We walked through a part of Durban which we wouldn't normally have walked through but we had no trouble in our orange SISCO shirts - the organisation has a good rapport on the streets of Durban.
At the centre we chatted to people whilst and after they were getting their photos taken. We also helped dish out soup and bread which people were patient for. We did notice that people drank the liquid of the soup but left the vegetables at the bottom as they were not used to that kind of food. Another observation was the span in ages between the people taking part in the project (from babies to 30 year olds). SISCO did not have to pay to use the centre so it must be recognised that they are doing a good job in the community.
Edee is still recovering from food poising so she went home at around 1pm with Fiona and Emma. Although it was a good thing to be introduced to SISCO the group who had to leave at this point felt there was not much of a challenge.
Russell took us on a walk through the surrounding area of the YMCA. He showed us where a large number of foreign, mostly Zimbabwean, Kenyan and Nigerian, homeless people live. This was an area of open space by a busy train track. The space was barren and they live there as a protest to the police and council who have never offered them any support, never mind the accommodation they deserve. After this we walked back to the YMCA building where Russell also showed us a very small patch of pavement, with slight shelter, that usually accommodated 30 plus street children.
Our next and supposedly final job was to go down to get the ID photos developed with a man called Larry. Whilst we were cutting the photos ourselves we learned from Larry how he is a head of an organisation called AbaKrestu. It is a Christian organisation which does a lot of good work as well as having a lot of connections. We were sure to exchange details in order to put him in touch with Alex immediately!
In the cab on our way back, Russell mentioned in passing about three girls who had recently become street kids. As new female teenaged street kids they were incredibly vulnerable to being raped or abused. Before we knew it Larry had secured a safe place for them to go and we were rushing about Durban in the cab trying to find them. Once we found them we crammed eleven of us into seven seats and went to the YFC centre. Before we dove off again, Larry said to the girls:
"Girls, what's happened in the past is gone now. This the start of your new lives."
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| Isaac and Edee serving soup and bread |
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| Team meeting with Abdul |
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