ANSA International Program Blog

When working with children in Africa, the kids often want to hold your hand or be carried as you walk around the program sites.  They giggle as they try on your sunglasses, tug at your shirt sleeve, smooth down your hair, ask you to take their picture.  I love this.  To share a happy moment with a child is a beautiful thing, especially when that child is living in extremely difficult, risky and isolated conditions.

One particularly beautiful moment came on a nondescript day in Namibia when I walked to the rental car to get some water with nine-year old Vivian in tow (pictured below).  In broken English, she told me that she lived in a shack nearby and was learning to write her letters at school.  Giving her a piece paper and a pen, I asked her to write out her name and she carefully wrote V-I-V-I-A-N in neat block letters.  I wrote my name below hers and asked her if she could write that, too, so she started sounding it out...Mmm...Maaa...Maarr... Mary?!  With great excitement, she said, "Are you Mary?!  Mary from America?!  I know you!  You feed us, you feed the children!" 

After I choked back my tears sufficiently enough to speak, I said, "Actually, I just make it possible for others to do that, honey.  You have a lot of people looking after you." 

Kids are not the only ones who can, without warning and without pretense, surprise you with their open and gracious African spirit.  In Rwanda, a  genocide survivor I had barely been able to spend time with put her hand over my heart just as someone snapped our photo.  Afterwards she said, "You have a very warm heart, Mary.  I wanted to get that in the picture."

And in South Africa, on my last day of work with ANSA in Africa, a granny took me by the shoulders and looked me squarely in the eye with tears brimming.  With a look of great determination so that I heard her clearly, she said, "We LOVE you."

These are the kind of moments that stay with a person for a lifetime. 

While I was an active participant in the mutual admiration society that evolved with the African partner communities over the past two years, I did not by any stretch of the imagination stir up all of this love and respect on my own.  As I've mentioned in numerous blogs, the American partners brought a sense of hope and possibility and compassion that will last as long as, if not longer than, the technical assistance they so generously provided...and will continue to do so.  They have represented the best in America's spirit of helping others and the best in ANSA's spirit of growing through collaboration.  I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with them.

As I leave ANSA now, I am proud to see the Namibia and South Africa partnerships strong and healthy.  I look forward to reading this blog in the years ahead to find out what the African and American spirits weave together for the welfare of people on both sides of the Atlantic.

Peace - and thanks - to all...Mary

In Khayalitsha, South Africa, Johanna walks from shack to shack identifying orphans and vulnerable families in some of the poorest areas in the Western Cape.  She walks slowly and gingerly side to side in unbuckled black sandals, her feet swollen and sore from complications of diabetes.  In her 60's, Johanna is one of the youngest of Ikamva Labantu's "door to door mamas", a feisty and determined group of grannies taking care of their community one step, one household at a time.

With a long history of poor access to healthy foods, diabetes is common among township residents, so it was an appropriate focus for the first nutrition workshop given for the mamas this month by Ikamva Labantu's fabulous new Health and Nutrition Manager, Lulama Sigasana. 

Global agency Community Servings' Director of Operations (fabulous guy shown here assembling food parcels) and I attended the workshop and witnessed Lulama's brilliance in delivering culturally-appropriate nutrition and health information.  The mamas first got an overview of how various food groups benefit younger and older bodies, using only realistic, locally available food options as examples.  The women then received excellent information about their own health, including what exactly is going on inside the body when a person - like Johanna - has diabetes.  The women also received valuable knowledge to share with vulnerable individuals they encounter every day.  Eager for more information, they asked if Lulama could return every fortnight!  

The workshop was the ideal first step in an extensive nutrition education and enhancement program now being rolled out in 17 townships served by Ikamva Labantu.  This work is made possible by a partnership between ANSA international partners and the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), enabling the strategic integration of nutrition into the continuum of care for individuals and families living with or affected by HIV and other health concerns at both the community and the provincial service levels in South Africa.  And anyone who has been to South Africa recently can tell you that if you want to make a real impact on health issues in the townships, the best place to start is with the caregivers, the foster mothers, the creche coordinators and the community angels...in other words, the grannies.

Peace to all...Mary

In late February, Doug Gosling of ANSA global agency Food for Thought and Steve Bolinger of ANSA supporting partner Development in Gardening (DIG) stood in a rarely-visited informal settlement in central Namibia studying a hopelessly rocky, slanted plot of land.  Looking out over the grounds of ANSA's Namibian partner Hope Initiatives' new home, the two garden gurus saw what no one else could imagine: fresh food, and lots of it. 

Over the next two weeks Doug and Steve inspired nearly two dozen staff and volunteers to dig, rake, till and sew until the seemingly impossible patch of earth was made into a welcome space to grow fresh produce and offer education and income opportunities for the local community.  The garden was designed to be not only functional but beautiful, working with the natural slope of the land and making use of the rocks for pathways, row markers, shading and even benches.  Fourteen plastic-lined, in-ground beds were dug and planted, and an array of "garbage to garden" seedling nurseries were made out of plastic bottles, bags and tires.

Jonathan Norton from Operation Lionheart added a wonderful container garden element with a generous donation of six Earthboxes, and another 122 boxes are due to be added in April. 

Four Hope Initiatives staff - nutritionist Amkelani, gardener Petros, support group facilitator Cecilia and youth mentor Lucas Sem - and a community team of 14 men and women were trained on all key aspects of gardening, including plant selection and placement, fertilization, composting, irrigation and use of area grasses and plants.

The garden will be used to feed the hundreds of orphans and vulnerable children cared for by Hope Initiatives and to teach community members in-ground and container garden techniques.  Eventually the garden will also provide a local market option for fresh foods within the settlements.

Doug and Steve generously donated their time to share their years of expertise with the Hope Initiatives community.  We are deeply grateful to them and to Jonathan for their extraordinary contributions and we look forward to their return visits to Hope Initiatives over the years to see - literally - the fruits of their labor.  

This unique collaboration between ANSA, Food for Thought, Hope Initiatives, DIG and Operation Lionheart provided more than just an opportunity to create something useful and beautiful for people in severe need in Namibia.  It provided an opportunity for all of us to increase and strengthen our own capacity and expand our network of valuable partnerships with people and organizations doing outstanding work in Africa.  Together we and the informal settlement communities will be reaping what we've all sewn for many years to come.

Peace to all...Mary

Yesterday I bought five extra copies of the post-election edition of the Washington Post; big, bold headlines blaring, "Obama Makes History."  I bought one copy for myself and one each for my neice and nephew who proudly voted in this presidential election for the first time in their lives.  The other two collector-item copies are going to friends in places where it seemed everyone, everywhere kept a close watch on the campaign and the votes: Namibia and South Africa. 

Just weeks before the election, two ANSA teams visited our partners Hope Initiatives in central Namibia and Ikamva Labantu in the Western Cape of South Africa.  Even though we were at the bottom stretch of countries far, far away, the ANSA teams couldn't escape the ubiquitous election chatter.  Hotel staff, taxi drivers, kids and seniors alike in the cities, settlements and townships - many without electricity, television and newspapers - all wanted to talk about the American presidential campaign.  In a tiny corrugated metal shack on a dusty hillside in central Namibia, a teenager wanted to know if most Americans thought "the beauty queen from Wasilla, Alaska" was smart.  At an upscale reception in Cape Town, a well-heeled woman said she had set her alarm for 3am so she could watch one of the presidential debates.  Everywhere we went excitement and nervousness were palpable.

The excitement was of course in large part due to the historic "first black, first woman or oldest" status of the potential winner.  The possibility of America voting for their first black presidential candidate had particular resonance in South Africa given the worldwide attention they received when Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected black president after apartheid ended in 1994.

But it was more than that.  The impact of the American economic crisis was coming down hard on Africa right at the time of the ANSA teams' visits.  The South African rand and Namibian dollar had for years held steady at around 7.5 to 1 U.S. dollar.  Within days of our visit their currency went to 8.5, then to 9.25, then to 10 to 1, spiking as high as 12 to 1.   

The difference in the value of that rand would be felt immediately in the cost of gas, food and any other imported products or services Africans have to purchase.  The townships and settlements are not communities that can absorb this kind of sudden financial shift easily.  The ANSA teams watched in real time as two African countries felt the weight of our American economic crisis come down in their corner of the world. 

Economic stability goes hand in hand with a country's ability - and a community and individual's ability - to manage the spread and treatment of HIV and other diseases.  Desperation increases the chance of risky behaviors, increases the likelihood of poor adherence to medical therapies, and increases the number of competing priorities for dollars and human resources.  Our American president sends signals of either hope or worry to places like Africa where the ripple effect of our economic policies can feel more like tidal waves. 

Both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu praised America for electing our first black president.  But no doubt along with that hooray-for-us cheer, they and the rest of Africa are holding tight to the signal of hope that President-elect Barack Obama will parlay his chance at the White house into positive change for the world.  The tone and scope of that change has nothing to do with the color of his skin and everything to do with the character of the man inside.  Our Africa partners have a lot riding on that character, and so do we.

Peace to all...Mary

Turn up your speakers and watch these moments from our partnerships in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlJll1jsnBw