The Tale of Two Worksites

The following post is by Marcayla:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, my original worksite assignment at the Wentworth Victim Friendly Centre has evolved to include a few days a week at Ocean View Place of Safety in the Bluff area also.  To begin, I’ll include a bit of background information about each worksite.

Ocean View Place of Safety is a government-owned residential facility normally housing between 30-35 court-appointed children from various backgrounds.  It was established well over 50 years ago and houses boys ages 7-12 and girls ages 7-17.  Its location was previously a military facility, as evident by bars over many of the windows and doors.  There is a primary school on the grounds, ensuring the younger children can continue their education while there.  Unfortunately, there is no secondary school, though.  This leads to many of the older teenage girls not attending any form of school while awaiting court dates. 

I’ve worked with Christy throughout much of my time there.   We planned a series of holiday programs during the three week winter break from school, ranging from reading with them to creating homemade masks.  In addition, we’ve spent a lot of time with the older girls.  Lacking school, they have so much free time during the day and really seem to appreciate just talking to us.  With their help, we also created 10 goals all the children agreed to abide by to make Ocean View a “Violence-Free Zone.”   It was fun tweaking the goals to be appropriate there; for instance, a general “no gangs” goal became “no cliques” in that setting.  Finally, Ocean View has all volunteers who spend time there create a banner to leave as a type of keepsake.  We decided to focus on a diversity theme in ours, painting a border of flags from all over the world and children of varying races holding hands.  It’s nearing completion – all we have to finish now is the children’s faces and possibly decorating the background.  

The Wentworth Victim Friendly Centre (or the Trauma Room, as often referred to) is composed of a team of 5 volunteers who work endlessly, assisting with cases including domestic violence, indecent assault, rape, hijacking, and alcohol or drug abuse.  They intervene and counsel in numerous situations, often offering counseling to both victims and perpetrators in an effort to bring about peace and reconciliation.  In addition, they are active members of the community by providing necessary items to those in need and holding awareness workshops in schools to educate students about abuse. 

While there, I’ve devoted much of my time into developing and implementing a winter holiday program for local children, in addition to helping distribute items such as bread or blankets.  I also generally help out wherever needed.  A resource centre and safe house are soon to be opened to the public, so I’ve helped some in that regards. 

One day while helping clean the safe house, Otis Redding’s song “A Change is Gonna Come” started playing in the background.  This really prompted me to think about South Africa and its adjustment in this post-apartheid world.  Much of the change many South Africans desire has not come quickly enough.   That system and its repercussions weren’t simply things that can be patched up quickly in less than 20 years.  I’ve noticed in Wentworth that there are numerous resources available for people, yet many of these resources seem underutilized.  This consists of both physical capital and human capital.  Finding an equitable way to overcome this challenge indeed is not a simple, straightforward path.

We were lucky enough to have a local businessman, Collin, over to discuss similar issues last night.  He works down near the South Coast as a human resources manager in local industry.  He spoke of the many barriers he faced in both preparing to and entering into the workplace.  Numerous universities denied admission to anyone who wasn’t white, so he finally ended up earning his degree in Lesotho through a scholarship sponsored by the United Nations. 

He provided an interesting prospective to the issue of race issues in South Africa.  Though whites only comprise 9% of the population, they possess 73% of upper-level positions.  To this end, there has been a Black Economic Empowerment program established to ensure that everyone receives similar opportunities.  Not everyone has taken well to this implementation though, as some cry reverse discrimination.  He attempts to overcome these obstacles with openness and clarity.  That openness and clarity he described has been a refreshing part of my stay here.  People generally seem to be very open about their opinions in regards to race or politics.