Getting To Know Your International Connections

With much joy, I was able to get in contact with a relative that has been studying in Africa for the past 2 years. I asked her several questions about the poverty in Africa. She is located in South Africa in city called Cape Town.

Me: How is poverty in Cape Town?

Relative: When I first landed in Africa the airport was beautiful but when you got on the road it was a township in the center of all this beauty and modernization of South Africa. The poverty is right in the middle of progress which is very shocking. There are three major townships; Langa (which means “Sun”), Nyanga (which means “Moon”), and Gugulethu (which means “Our Treasure”).  Townships are homes that all of the poor Africans live in. Townships are homes that are built out of tin majority have no electricity or water. When visiting these townships you should have an escort because there are no street signs, so you need to be accompanied by someone who knows their way around.

Me: How does this affect the children?

Relative: There is no playground or grass for the kids to play safely. The kids do not have a place to study and they live in a place of filth and they are prone to more diseases. Even though the kids are poor and they do not have much at all, they seem really happy playing with their stick and rocks. : Children ages 0-4 years top 20 reasons of death is because of HIV/AIDS. In 2007 60% of children were dying because they were underweight for their age and 50% was because they were in stages 3 and 4 of HIV.

Me: Are there any improvements?

Relative: The Government built an Apartment Building. These buildings are very old and rundown but it is a step up from the shacks. However, they are still located in the townships. In one apartment there are three rooms with three beds in each room. It is not setup where one bed is for one person, one bed is for one entire family. Some of the apartments are still without electricity and running water.

Me: How are the schools?

Relative: The schools are only three mini buildings. The school that I visited was a secondary school with only three rooms for fifth, sixth, and seventh grade. There are not enough desks, the books are few and outdated; there are no windows and nothing to protect them from the rain and winter. There is no cafeteria, no playground, and no gym. There are a lot of students because they are eager to learn. Parents are expected to pay for their child to go to school, which is hard for many because they are ill and have AIDS and other diseases.

Me:  How do you fix poverty?

Relative: Fix the family structure. There needs to be health care coming to the family regardless of their current health situation. There needs to be education provided for these parents and job placement programs. A lot of children drop out of school after secondary because they need to help support the family or raise their younger siblings because their parents have died from either curable diseases or they cannot get access to HIV care.

South Africa has nine provinces (communities) for a total population of 47 million people. Of those 47 million 86% are African, 9% are Colored, 9% are White. All of the resources and funds are going to the two 9% populations. So the question is, how are you supposed to bring them out of poverty when most of the funds and resources are going to the minority and not the majority. If the cycle is not broken then poverty will never improve.

 From this conversation I was able to get a better understanding of the poverty level in Africa. I realized that the people that are well off are never going to struggle but the ones that are struggling will continue to struggle with minimum assistance. The children seem happy with what they play with but what happens when their parents die. They are left to become orphans and drop out of school.


Picture of the Township homes