Jabulani Project

Gap Year Students


Isaac, Fiona, Caragh, Anna and Edee

Today we headed down to SISCO at lunchtime. Upon arrival, we were told that most of the boys are still taking part in programmes at iCare. We brought rolls for their lunch kindly donated by good friends of ours, the Sussman family, and later on Isaac brought a cake that had been donated by Grant form the KZN Zionist Council which received a lot of excitement amongst those who were there. We had a meeting with Abdul talking about our plans for easter and how we are going to try have some festive activities for the boys to take part in.

The day seemed long and slow due to the fact that most of the boys weren't there and some of us felt a bit lost for something to do. After our meeting we talked about how sometimes you can have days where you feel useless and how we can deal with this. After talking it through we came up with a few ideas which mainly involved a lot of preparation of things to do before heading to the centre and when the best time to arrive would be. We left with the intent to return to the hostel and prepare some activities we could run with the boys.

However on the way home we met one of the girls we had spoken to during our outreach programme. She has been on the streets for 1 month and seems to be coping ok but like so many others, it is obvious she is using glue to get by (glue takes away your hunger). It was a surprise seeing her and recognising her on the street and after a brief chat we persuaded her to come back with us to visit SISCO. Next to her was a boy who was the epitome of a street kid. He is only 12 years old however it is obvious he has been on the street for a while. During our time here this is a quality we seem to be developing, recognising the difference between a new child to the streets and one who is more 'streetwise'. It is heart breaking to realise that he is not new to the streets yet so young.

After talking to him we also convinced him to come along to SISCO and take a bath, which is the only thing he said he needed. Although to us he just needed some warm food, clean water and some rest. The little bits of Zulu that we have picked up helped in communicating with him as were able to ask him if he was hungry or thirsty. We took them both to the centre and the SISCO staff took it from there, fetching clean towels and some soap for them to use. They worked their magic, to put it simply. We left with our spirits lifted, after feeling useless and lost we had managed to bring two people to safety for a few hours at least.

Isaac stayed on a little while to wait for Russel, the project manager. In the mean time the rest of the boys arrived back from iCare and were very excited to see the huge cake. They ate their food and then all had a miniature party with the cake. The boy we'd brought in earlier that day was clean, in new clothes and enjoying playing games with the other boys. You wouldn't have known they hadn't be friends all along. When Russel arrived back they decided that tomorrow they would take today's new girl together with the girl we had met last week to a safe place for girls who have been forced onto the street. The two girls were very excited.

The cake kindly given by Grant of KNZC