Cape Kids
The Cape Kids community account was set up to raise funds for children’s projects based in Cape Town. Michael and Karen Stewart began work there in 2008 concentrating on the poorer projects in the poorer neighbourhoods, working with abandoned and orphaned children. One of the projects, St.Kizito, has a presence in many of the townships, while two of them serve the township of Dunoon, a desperately poor, violent and dangerous district on the west coast just to the north of the City. Dunoon has a high murder rate and the physical and sexual abuse of women and children is rife.
Michael and Karen have spent over two years working with the projects, getting to know how they function, coming to understand their goals, as well as providing help from their own professional backgrounds in nursing, psychology, social work and management. During the six months of each year they spend there they have also come to understand the financial needs of the projects. At the beginning of April this year, they will be hosting Marian Hendricks from St.Kizito who will be here to help with fund-raising.
At the “after-school” project in Dunoon, children from the age of 4 or five up to the age of 18 are afforded protection from abuse by the men-folk in their family and community at a time when their mothers are out at work. This is a time when they are most at risk. To feed them all – around 200 of them - with a sandwich and a drink, food bought cheaply from the local supermarket, costs around £20. It was inspired by Mary Dell, a Canadian from Vancouver, who gave up a wealthy life style to encourage the poor to go to school. www.boostafrica.com
The nearby Zusakhe project, founded by a Xhosa woman, Patricia Fekema on a plot of waste ground previously used by local men for taking drugs and abusing young girls, provides schooling and food for aids orphans as well as hand-made uniforms for boys and girls attending local schools. Starting with one empty container, she has established a community centre, a quadrangle bordered by six more containers and a prefabricated classroom.
A distinguishing feature of the projects is that local people play a key role in their management and development. In the case of St.Kizito, it is the poor helping the poor. It is not uncommon for a desperately poor family to take in an orphaned child. Usually this means adding another mouth to feed to an already over-stretched family living in an over-crowded shack.
A typical shack has no running water and no toilet with a carpet or linoleum laid over rough ground. They leak when it rains and they run the risk of burning down because cooking is done in such a cramped environment; often a single fire in a shack will destroy many of the others. On the morning that Michael and Karen left, a dozen of these fragile dwellings were destroyed.
Despite these challenges, families live out their lives with hope and optimism. But like the poor everywhere they survive from day to day. The funds we raise will go to where they are needed – to protect, feed and clothe the children, to projects that are making a difference.
To make a donation please contact us on: stewart.m.f@gmail.com or karenexley40@aol.com
