Joyful African Orphans? The Power of Making a Difference

In May, I visited Gumboots Orphanage in the poverty-ridden Alexandra section of Johannesburg, South Africa, with trepidation. What would I find? Would the children be clean? Would they wear shoes? Would they fear the tall white woman from America, so far away?
The invitation had come from travel consultant Suzy Prangley, organizer of the JvR International Psychology Conference I attended in Africa. After learning that I work with children and families and train international colleagues, Suzy generously invited me to visit Gumboots with Jenny Prangely, a board member. Jenny reported that the home was under reconstruction. Might I like to visit and spend time with the children? I was eager to learn.
Gumboots is named from tall rubber boots worn while dancing. Gold miners from Johannesburg had danced the Gumboots dance, which has infused the local culture. The Gumboots orphanage project is run by a registered South African public benefit organization (PBO). It provides support to community-based projects in Alexandra Township, with a focus on improving lives of underprivileged South Africans by raising money through donations in South Africa, England and the U.S.
I felt an immediate kinship with Jenny, who invited me to stay at her charming cottage in an affluent, largely white, part of Johannesburg. Driving into Alexandra, Jenny volunteered her reluctance to drive me alone into this part of the city. A young black male staff member from Alexandra would be driving us. As we entered the province, I was suddenly awash in broken down homes and stores, children biking dangerously in the streets, store fronts looking dangerous to enter, carrying produce of questionable cleanliness.
As the car stopped, Jenny pointed to the Gumboots house. I was stunned. Before me stood a newly renovated home with crisp concrete walls and new fittings. Inside I was surrounded by about 10 adorable children, ages two to 15. Each well dressed, their smiling faces and shyly curious expressions bid me a warm hello. I was flooded with relief as I began to internalize the magnitude of this project.
Next to me an exquisite 10-year-old girl who had placed herself nearby. I said, “My name is Judith. What is your name?” Shyly, her huge deer eyes met mine briefly as she lowered her head and mumbled something. Wanting to win her trust, I bent to hear her voice and said softly, “I am sorry but I did not understand. Could you tell me again?” Her reply was a word in Afrikaans that I could neither spell nor pronounce. “I really want to know your name. Can you tell me again?” She did. “Oh dear, I still have not understood. Can you say it slowly?” I deeply wanted to make contact with this beautiful child, if only briefly.
Her voice was soft and husky, a bit reticent but clearer the third time. “I need to get it right, I said. Can you tell me once more? What is your name and what does it mean?” She told me that her name is Kgaogelo, which means “Mercy.” I repeated it softly. “Is that right?”
Her face broke into a gentle smile that gave her deep brown cheeks a luminosity that transcended the moment and created a brief bond between us. “What a beautiful name.” I meant it. She took two steps towards me. “I have a granddaughter near your age. She is eight but you are taller. Are you older than eight?” She beamed proudly and told me she was 10 and it was her birthday. I felt complete. We had created a bridge between us.
Given my ignorance of what constitutes a South African Orphanage, I encountered many delightful surprises. I found a crisp glass ceiling that allowed the omnipresent sun inside. I found bunk beds and soft hand knit blankets and Disney comforters in the communal girls and boys bedrooms. I walked into handsome new showers, an efficient modern kitchen, a computer room needing many more computers. I met Peggy, the omnipresent director, whose 24×7 dedication to her children and to her community has created a safe presence for endangered children, many of whom lived with successfully managed HIV.
My too brief visit led me to research other orphanages throughout the beautiful country of South Africa. Had I been so naive as to believe that the ravaged health I had heard about was grossly overstated? UNICEF provided me with a useful perspective.
The AIDS epidemic in South Africa has created 3.7 million orphans in South Africa. About half have been orphaned by AIDS, many have watched their parents die. Many communities need financial aid to afford needed child support. UNICEF supports safe family environments, often provided by foster or adoptive parents. Gumboots is one small model of quality care and protection for the most vulnerable children. Putting these seemingly contradictory facts together, I finally made sense of the jumble of the emotions I felt:
• I felt terrified by the huge numbers of HIV positive children managing this lifelong illness
• I shuddered at thousands of children watching their parents die of AIDS.
• I shuddered at the abject poverty, next to the stylish affluence in Johannesburg.
• I felt buoyed by my first hand evidence that the Gumboots children’s lives had been turned around. I, a total stranger, had been welcomed by beautiful and curious children with smiling and open faces.
The colors, sounds, smells and images of Gumboots remain with me, powerful truth of the magnitude of change we can create with a few dollars we don’t spend on luxuries. “Making a difference” is not just nice words. The vision of the beauty of these faces has helped me to understand that giving back, for those of us who are able, is as large a gift to us as to the recipients. And just what could make us all the richer than that?
To consider: How might you use your earned dollars to turn around a life or two? And what might that mean to you?
To review: The UNICEF website: http://www.unicef.org/southafrica/protection_6631.html. And, please do go to Gumboots for a few moments of delight at www.gumboots.org.uk, http://www.justgiving.com/gumboots/raisemoney/
Dr. Judith Coche teaches and trains colleagues locally, nationally, and internationally. Locally, she owns The Coche Center, LLC, a practice in Clinical Psychology in Stone Harbor and Rittenhouse Square. Find her at www.cochecenter.com.