Last March a Department of
Agriculture community worker assigned to a new area found a 16-year-old girl,
an orphan with no family in the area, and her very young son living in a
rondeval that was falling down. She is
too young to receive a Child Support Grant for her son. The community worker contacted people she
knew who might be able to do something to help.
One of the people she contacted the man in charge of community programs
for our organization. We started
delivering maize meal to her, maize meal that a farmer some distance away
donates monthly – 3-4 tons. Other people
got involved, including the War Room (horrible name for a great program – every
Ward in KwaZulu Natal, our province, has one.
This got the tribal and civil governments involved, as well as
Department of Health, other government agencies and non-profit organizations,
and a couple of churches.) And
neighbors, who provided a place for her and her son to stay. Our org also provided maize meal that a
farmer donates regularly. The local king
(that is the preferable word, not chief) authorized land to build on,
Khayelisha (my org) provided building materials with money from a church in the
States, and young men involved in a local training program I’d never heard of
before did the actual construction.
(They were commended for their honesty, returning sand and cement that
they did not use.)
So a couple of weeks ago was the
dedication of the house, handing the key over to this young woman. Our community programs manager solicited
kitchen things from his neighbors, and we bought cookies and juice, the Ward
Councilor brought cakes, and someone else brought a lot of cold drink. There was concern that she had no furniture,
but the Mayor and the municipality brought a new mattress set and a kitchen
table and chairs. Many officials as well
as neighbors came for the celebration. The
girl was in tears when she saw people’s generosity. And people promised that soon she would get
burglar bars on her windows and door and eventually a second room. After they provide shelter for a couple of
other families in dire need. Amazingly,
with all these challenges, she is continuing to attend and pass school. It was one of the best examples I’ve ever
seen of people coming together to meet major needs. A high point of my time here.
“During my Peace Corps service in South Africa I started a small music project at my school. I was able to get a loan of 8 violins to teach 10 learners with provided by an NGO in the province, Limpopo Youth Orchestra. The kids were empowered by music and they love playing the violin. I took this picture of one of my learners on July 20, 2014, while she was introducing the violin to her family. It was an eye-opening experience to the learners, the community and myself.”
“This was taken in 2013 as I was walking home from school. I let my little host brother ahead to walk with his grandfather. This was completely candid and I thought it showed beauty and love within a family, despite the long walk between home and school.”
Are you interested in applying to become a Community HIV Outreach Volunteer in South Africa? Does this unseasonably cold weather make you crave meatloaf? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, you are in the right place. Try out this sweet-savory casserole, and apply by July 1st to begin service in January 2017.
INGREDIENTS
minced lamb or beef, or a mixture of the two
butter, vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped
2 ml (½ teaspoon) crushed garlic
15 ml (1 tablespoon) curry powder
5 ml (1 teaspoon) ground turmeric
2 slices bread, crumbled
60 ml (¼ cup) milk
finely grated rind and juice of ½ small lemon
1 egg
5 ml (1 teaspoon) salt, milled black pepper
100 g (3 ounces) dried apricots, chopped
1 Granny Smith apple peeled, cored and chopped
60 ml (¼ cup) sultanas (golden raisins)
50 g (1 ½ ounces) slivered almonds, roasted in a dry frying pan
6 lemon, orange, or bay leaves
Topping:
250 ml (1 cup) milk
2 eggs
2 ml (½ teaspoon) salt
PREPARATION
Set the oven at 160°C (325°F). Butter a large casserole. Heat butter and oil in a saucepan and fry the onion and garlic until translucent. Stir in the curry powder and turmeric, and cook briefly until fragrant. Remove the pot from the heat.
Mix in the minced meat. Mix together the crumbs, milk, lemon rind and juice, egg, salt, pepper, apricots, apple, sultanas (golden raisins) and almonds and mix in. Pile into the casserole and level the top. Roll up the leaves and bury them at regular intervals. Seal with foil and bake for 1 ¼ hours. Increase the oven temperature to 200°C (400°F). Mix together the topping milk, eggs and salt (you may require extra topping if you’ve used a very large casserole), pour over and bake uncovered for a further 15 minutes until cooked and lightly browned. Serve with Yellow Rice and Blatjang .
The goal of the project is to prevent HIV infection, discrimination and stigma and mitigate the impact of the epidemic among those affected and infected. All Volunteers will be directly involved with HIV prevention and mitigation activities targeting vulnerable populations.
This week two young colleagues and I have worked with a
community to construct 4 Perma-Gardens.
We’re demonstrating how to build these efficient and productive small
gardens. I think we’ve now come up with
a workable process. We work with all the
members of a local neighbourhood to build one garden from beginning to end,
planting the seeds. Then, we lay out the
other gardens and let each family or their neighbours dig the other
gardens. These small gardens are fairly
complex for it involves digging water collection holes, berms and swales. The main garden beds are dug deeply, 50cm/30
inches and the berms are dug 30 cm/18” deep.
We have now built six of these gardens.
A year ago, I never thought I would be promoting the
building of vegetable gardens! The Peace
Corps has changed my life. I tend my Perma-Garden
daily and check on the other gardens we’ve helped build. It is like having a lot of children to keep
track of!
“This was taken as I was walking home from school. I let my little host brother ahead to walk with his grandfather. This was completely candid and I thought it showed beauty and love within a family, despite the long walk between home and school.”
“On February 14, 2014 I went to visit my friend at her site in rural South Africa. Her next-door neighbor, who was curiously spying on us as we were taking pictures, was delighted when I invited her over to take pictures with us. She appeared to be nervous as she had a tumor on her stomach, which she was clearly very self-conscious of. She put on a large skirt that could cover the tumor and I took a few shots of her and showed her the elegant beauty that was captured on my camera. At this very moment a whole new confidence emerged from her, and she kept posing for me, I was amazed by our connection we made through this session of photographs.” -Peace Corps South Africa Volunteer Laura Jones via Instagram http://bit.ly/1RS5Xvx
“Local children in South Africa participated in an AIDS Candlelight Memorial event in 2008, organized by Elizabeth Ditsela (school teacher) and Rachel Johnson (RPCV). The event involved short speeches from community members, music and dance, and a moment of silence for those whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS.”
