Tuesday's meeting cleared some of the mud away, and this is what I think. I think that the LEAP Schools are at the root of the project. John Gillmore, headmaster and founder of LEAP, began the schools in 2004. There are now three schools (in Cape Town, Langa, and Johannesburg.) He has partenered with US-based non-profits, such as Teach with Africa, to bring educators, psychologists, and MBA's to South Africa. The educators, of course, teach or co-teach in the schools. The psychologists work with the students and faculty - I can imagine with the high rate of HIV/Aids both in students as well as their parents, that there is an unending amount of work here. The MBA's go out into the communities and work on projects. I am not sure where these projects come from or how they get to us.
Sabine was one of the people at the meeting on Tuesday. She was a 2009 TWA Fellow, and will be returning this year as well. She will be our "lead" contact person, sort of our boss, for lack of a better description. She described these projects as being possible for our time in SA:
(note to readers and self: I am probaby going to be embarrased when I look back at my spelling of some of these places and townships, but what the heck, eh?)
Something else I am missing. I am big on Google maps (thanks, Jim :)) and every time someone mentions a place or township, I write it down and Google it. But what I see on Google is nice homes (homes with swimming pools in the back yards) and nice-looking neighborhoods. I am not seeing the level of poverty that people talk about. Are those sections just not showing up? Are those sections the big, what looks like grassy areas on the maps??
Oh, hang on. Not Kraaifontein, but Kalfontein.
Oh, even more. I Googled that. There are no swimming pools in this neighborhood. What I can see are small "houses" crowded into every available inch. I also couldn't get zoomed in enough to get a street view, but that could be my software.
This photo is one I found of Kalfontein at night.
This is a street scene that I found. MUCH more what I was thinking it would look like.
ISO LEZWE HEALTH CLINIC, KALKFONTEIN. Couldn't find a photo. This is a project that was started by the 2009 MBA Fellows. The clinic does not yet have non-profit status. The paperwork has been filed, but is either imcomplete or lost. Until the paperwork is complete, the clinic can receive no funding or donations. According to Sabine, the clinic is located in an area that has an incredibily high rate of people with HIV. There are few services available to the sick. Our task would be to get the paperwork in order, then research grants and possible funding. Also, submitting as many proposals as time allows. Further, there have been no tracking of metrics, so we would need to possibly go through old records to show number of people served, success rates, death rates, who knows what. This is a project that I can get my head around.
This was only one of about 10 different projects that we talked about. I was so jazzed up about the potential with this that I sort of stopped taking notes on the rest. What it DOES tell me is that while I was starting to worry about - will there REALLY be tangible work for me to do for two months, that yes, there is. Real work that I am good at, and know how to do.
The bad case of nerves that was with me earlier this week have (somewhat) subsided. At least for today.
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