A Week in South Africa with SMRC

1
A Week in South Africa with SMRC

• Having been fortunate enough to receive the
  opportunity to travel to South Africa with
  Student Movement for Real Change (SMRC), a
  DC-based NGO, I was able to witness first-hand
  the incredible work that they are doing in
  collaboration with local communities in the
  province of Manyeleti. SMRC promotes cooperative
  projects between US undergraduate students
  interested in development and various villages in
  rural South Africa. By employing a thoroughly
  participative approach and establishing a
  consistent, long-term presence within the local
  communities, SMRC has been able to target their
  most urgent needs to provide those services that
  are in greatest demand.
• We stayed in the community for three days in the
  homes of the gracious residents of Utah and were
  able to tour various on-going projects in which
  SMRC has been involved. We visited several local
  schools to see if the libraries that had been
  funded were in fact being used. We went to a
  health clinic several villages away to observe
  the facility on which the local clinic, currently
  under construction, was being modeled. And we
  were able to meet with several local
  philanthropists and entrepreneurs who were
  working in conjunction with SMRC to fund
  projects, expand infrastructure, and improve the
  quality of facilities in many of the poorer
  villages. All of these experiences preceded our
  two-day visit to a nearby game reserve, where we
  were able to see and extensively photograph all
  of the big five of Africa (rhino, lion,
  buffalo, leopard, and elephant), and all the
  while being reminded of the glaring income
  inequality from our stint in the village not ten
  minutes away. In the final summation, it was a
  sobering but ultimately encouraging glimpse of
  the complex collage of race relations,
  inequality, generosity, disease, and joy that is
  modern South Africa.

2
Manyeleti Primary School

• The children of Utah were understandably proud to
  show off their school, where Nelson Mandela had
  visited along with several of the prominent local
  donors who have worked diligently with SMRC, in
  consultation with the local community, to improve
  the quality of the schools, health clinics, and
  other facilities.

3
Utah Bakery

• SMRC, in conjunction with Buffelshoek Trust,
  helped to build a bakery in Utah as a source of
  income and employment. The bakery manager
  reviews the days accounting with Saul Garlick
  (SAIS 06), the founder and Executive Director of
  SMRC.

4
Field of Dreams

• SMRC works in conjunction with local and US-based
  NGOs to find funding for community-identified
  projects such as leveling soccer fields.
  Dreamfields (a local NGO) and Fund-a-Field (a
  California-based NGO) helped clear, level, and
  provide a score board for this field at which a
  local tournament (organized by SMRC interns) was
  held.

5
Health Clinic in Lilydale

• The health clinic in nearby Lilydale is the model
  for the clinic currently being built in Utah.
  This facility was very modern, well equipped, and
  professionally staffed but was hampered in its
  mission to provide more extensive health services
  by having been stigmatized as solely an AIDS
  clinic rather than a general health facility.

6
Health Clinic in Utah

• Many of the lessons of the Lilydale clinic were
  being put to use in the construction and planning
  of the Utah clinic. SMRC and the Utah community
  were already brainstorming ways to ensure that it
  will be used as widely as possible and avoid
  being stigmatized as solely an HIV/AIDS treatment
  center.

7
Promoting Testing

• A health clinic worker in Lilydale proudly sports
  the free t-shirt given to all people who come in
  to get tested. It was hoped that the t-shirt,
  bearing the logo Know your status, big sigh of
  relief, would raise awareness and encourage
  other people to come forward to get tested.

8
Pandemic

• While awareness of HIV/AIDS continues to grow,
  the sad reality is that the infection rates are
  alarmingly high. This poster, prominently
  displayed in the teachers lounge of a local
  secondary school, serves as a haunting reminder
  of the prevalence of this pandemic in all walks
  of society in South Africa.

9
A Quick Study

• The local children were anxious to read any and
  all books that were made available to them. SMRC
  has funded libraries at several primary and
  secondary schools and, while stocking them with
  age-appropriate material remains a challenge, the
  access to books has dramatically improved the
  level of English of many students.

10
Absenteeism

• While student absenteeism can be a problem,
  teachers were out of the classroom for
  surprisingly long periods of time, often
  attending meetings during school hours and
  leaving students unattended. Teacher training,
  standards, and pay remain critical issues to
  improve the quality of education in South Africa.

11
Game Reservations

• While the obvious inequality on display at the
  adjacent five-star game reserve gave us pause, it
  was an important source of employment for many in
  the local community. Furthermore, many of the
  current and previous owners of the nearby game
  reserves were heavily involved in the funding of
  and advocacy for various ongoing improvement
  projects, including the Utah clinic.

12
Joy to the World

• My enduring memory of South Africa was of the
  dinner and dance that we were invited to by a
  local village. The love of and expression
  through dance and the joy of the people were
  visible reminders that while we need to continue
  to work to promote development in many corners of
  the world, you cant always measure quality of
  life by looking at the standard of living.