By Louise | Managing Director
Avuxeni, minjani, Mfekile minjane!
We have entered the rainy season here in Tzaneen, ordinarily the rains come in November till February but this year they have been late, we started having rain, I mean real rain, in February. WE have had nonstop rain for at least the last 2weeks. Cloudy, overcast, drizzly around 20C. Usually we have hot, humid tropical thunderstorms but that is not what we have now, it is cold and wet with little thunder and lightning.
This affects the kids coming to school, to the children’s project, to after school activities in general. Most villages only have the main road tarred, if that, the rest is just dust roads or in the case now, mud roads. Everything is labour intensive because you have to trudge through the mud, imagine losing your shoes to the sucking squelch of the mud.
Uniforms for school are stuck in the dark ages, it is not yet time to swop to a winter uniform, even though it is 20C the poor the kids cannot change to a warmer uniform. They spend the day wet at school in summer clothes. Common sense does not prevail over bureaucratic red tape.
This is just one example of the things we as KTD196 are trying to address through Child Participation and Children’s Rights education and promotion. We are working with the children as I shared last week but we are also working with their parents, teachers and Induna’s (Village Chiefs).
What is really heart warming is that the Induna’s, despite culturally children not being considered to have the intellectual capacity to contribute effectively to adult discussions, over 20 of these village leaders have started conversations with groups of kids and building relationships. KTD196 has been asked to help facilitate the difficult discussions between the children and the leaders so that their views will be considered at the adult community meetings. This is a huge step forward in the right direction.
We are gaining momentum with our training, people are talking about Children’s Rights, parents are creating platforms withing their families to listen to the children. It is all exciting. Parents are letting their children decide their academic futures, their careers more and more rather than dictating that their child will be a doctor even if their grades are not acceptable, enormous amounts of pressure are put on the children to go to university when in reality very few actually make it to university and then the drop out rate in the first year is horrific especially for rural children. In 2000 42% of first year students drop out of university, in 2024 25% for African students enrolled in diploma studies drop out.
Bit by bit we are making a difference, through your support. We are steadily bringing change to the lives of children. Families are reconnecting, difficult conversations are being held. I love the work I do because I hear about the change we bring almost every day. You can be proud of the support you are giving to KTD196, we are having wonderful impact, real impact in the lives of the children and young people we serve.
Thank you and God bless you
Louise
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By Louise | Managing Director
By Louise | Managing Director
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