African Solutions to African Problems (ASAP) a 501 © 3 in the US with an office in South Africa was started in 2003 to assist the women to care for the orphans and vulnerable children in their communities.  The challenges of poverty and HIV/AIDS strip communities of their ability to provide well-rounded care for children.

Since 2003, at the initiative of the East Woods School in Oyster Bay, New York, ASAP has been running ‘School to School’ – an innovative campaign that connects fund-raising school children in the USA with their counterparts in South Africa as beneficiaries.  We believe that education is fundamental to a child’s welfare; how a child performs in school can be an important indicator of their overall well-being.  School is potentially a community ‘safe place’ where responsible teachers can monitor vulnerable children. Children not enrolled in school are more vulnerable to neglect and abuse, and to developing and expressing anti-social behavior.

The School to School Program was set up to provide school fees, uniforms, and basic learning materials to orphans and vulnerable children in the ASAP programs.   East Woods School designed a strategy to help U.S. students find creative ways to raise money to provide funds for the neediest South African orphans and vulnerable children.  Every child deserves an education, and every child deserves a chance to fulfil their dreams.

Every year the women assess the children to see what item of school clothing they need. The outgrown items are handed down to a younger child in the community care centre.  A significant impact was made in the lives of these OVC with the supply of school uniforms and shoes on their self-esteem, as these children can go to school without fear of being teased by other children for wearing torn clothes.  The uniforms motivate children to go to school and this increases attendance records.  Without these uniforms, many of these children would have dropped out of school.

100% of all School to School donations go directly to school fees, uniforms and learning materials.  ASAP does not deduct any overhead or administrative percentage from monies raised through this campaign.

Based on practical experience, ASAP has developed a 6-year dynamic Model and Strategy, which builds the capacity of emerging groups to provide broad-based care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children; access to education, nutrition, health and social services, psychosocial support and youth development.  This model empowers women to establish a community care centre in rural areas to provide care for increasing numbers of orphaned children.

One of the Drop-in Centre board members Mr John Ntshalla who has been engaged and active in Mamohau, reported;

“There is a big difference from before.  These children had many problems and now they live a better life.   They have uniforms and can go to school and they are healthier.  These Community care centres are playing a big role in the community.”

Early Childhood Development

In 2011 and 2012, Early Childhood Development (ECD) Training was conducted by 2 members from an ASAP funded Community-based Organization in Qwa Qwa, where there are 78 pre-schools with 5085 children.  The teachers at Itekeng and Mamohau Drop-in center nursery schools had no information on programs and learning activities, and were not playing with the toys and books donated, because the teachers had no idea on how to use them. The basic objectives of the first training were to set up a well-organized educare program; to identify what material and activities participants can use in their centers and to make and improvise toys and equipment using scrap materials.  They made a classroom layout and taught the teachers how children develop and learn through educational toys and through make-believe play.  This is an on-going peer exchange training and at the end of the first module the participants had a basic knowledge of Early Childhood Develpment and the classrooms were transformed.  Another training focused on outside play and story and music time, learning children’s songs, rhymes and games, as well as health and nutritional needs, and making educational toys.  They learned how to handle the daily routines and how to keep administrative records such as the daily attendance register and fees register.  

School Libraries

There are 24,699 Public Schools in South Africa, 1,903 schools have functioning libraries with only 2.9% of schools in the Eastern Cape with a library.  Although there has been a lot of talk around education and literacy by the South African government and the Department of Education, the establishment of school libraries and provision of library books remain in the domain of the private sector and Non-Government Organizations, like ASAP. In 2011, with the generous support of the Bradley Family Foundation, matched by ASAP donor funds, we installed libraries in two schools in the rural Eastern Cape, St. George’s Junior Secondary school (800 students) in Mt Frere and Maria Linden JSS (538 students)  in Matatiele.  By getting the schools involved in the selection of books, which are aligned with the national curricula, they are now equipped with 2,000 books each to support their education, ranging from fiction to non-fiction, dictionaries and other reference books in both English and local languages.

Installing libraries in the local village schools where we work, provides these isolated children with a chance to read in both their mother-tongue and English, thus laying a foundation of literacy to better their lives and escape the trap of poverty.

In 2012, our research in the small local village schools, brought to light that due to overcrowding and scant resources, most of the schools do not have an extra room to allocate to a library.

The schools near the drop-in centres where ASAP works, are very rural, under resourced and over-crowded and did not have the ability to allocate one room for their library.  After discussion with the school headmasters and headmistresses and talking to other library organizations, i.e. Room to Read, it was determined that the best possible solution to get books into the schools, was to do individual classroom libraries.  The school preferred that the books be 50% English and 50% Xhosa.   Training on libraries would be done for the school on delivery of the books, two teachers from each grade would be trained.

Three schools were identified and it was agreed that each school would receive 1500 books.  These books will be kept in each classroom in a lockable steel cabinet, for use in that particular class suited to that specific age and grade.

In November 2012, with the installation of the libraries, Pakama Ncume, our teacher librarian, who with her wide experience in school libraries, selected the books in line with the National curriculum.  Pakama, who had previously trained the librarians at Maria Linden and St George’s, also organised a comprehensive series of three-day teacher/librarian workshops, for staff at each of the three schools.  This created a platform for the teachers to get the best out of the libraries and promoted competent, confident teacher-librarians, to bring these books to life for the children, and to inspire a lifetime of reading.

The topics covered included – the definition and importance of libraries, the roles and  responsibilities of teacher librarians, book classification, library activities, the role of learners, their families and communities and making sure the library is fully resourced.  Everything, in fact, needed to maximise the power of the written word in helping to transform these young lives for the better.  And throughout, the teachers showed great enthusiasm and understanding of what was discussed, and a training manual was provided for future reference.  

Miss Mnwabuka, teacher at Njijini JSS:

 “The books are very useful and they will be fruitful because they are appropriate to class and age”

Miss Mqina, a teacher at Mgodi JSS:

 “Pakama is very good at what she does. We knew nothing but now we have an idea of what a library is. We would like to Thank ASAP for the libraries and the training that we receive”.

A teacher at Galilee JSS said,

 “The school has a reading period after lunch- it is called “put Down Everything And Read”- (DEAR)

  In his book, Long walk to Freedom Nelson Mandela wrote, “Education is the great engine of personal development.  It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mine worker can become the head of that mine, and that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation.”   Images of Library Cabinets and libraries in operation

Psychosocial Support

This year at the drop-in centers we brought in Touch Roots Africa from Lesotho to equip the women with Psychosocial Support Skills so they are able to provide emotional and social support to the children.  ASAP has employed a local Sotho woman who has had extensive training and experience working with psychosocial support through play therapy and storytelling, and is educating carers on how to help children cope with the loss of parents.   In the training, the women found the session on ‘Helping children Understand Death’ an eye opener in that “they have been ignoring  children because they assumed that children are not affected emotionally and were too young to be informed and be involved in bereavement and grieving when they lose their loved ones.”  With grief counseling, children create a memory box in which to keep their memories or memorabilia of the person who has died.

“My name is Yonela Mkubukeli. My home is at Mmangweni in bhaca area. I was born by parents who are no longer with us in this world; I live with my grandmother at home.  My parents died when I was very young and that was very hurting to me specially when I reached the age of 12 years because that’s when the fact that my parents had gone for good started to feel real to me. My heart was so hurt when I came to the terms that they are really dead.  I am someone who grew up living with my grandmother and I became happy as I decided to accept my situation. My grandmother loves us a lot as we are her grandchildren. We are always happy.   Another thing that makes me happy is the fact that as we are these orphans we get a lot of love from the caregivers at the drop-in center and they are caring so much for us, they visit us to check up on our living conditions.  At home we are always happy and it’s like we are not orphans.”

Art Holiday Workshop

The Art holiday workshop kept the children in the drop-in centers busy and happy throughout the coldest school holiday, with snow on the Drakensberg Mountains.  A brilliant creative art project for the younger children 6-13 years old, held at the Drop-in centers each school holiday.  With 3 days in each center, the workshops encourage children to participate in interesting and enriching artistic activities.  Many of the children have never used paints and Mandi brought fabrics and glitter and glues and the drop-in centers were a hive of colourful activity.  The children engraved images into wax crayon on paper and they loved how magical it was to transform an ordinary A4 piece of paper into their very own works of art.  Learning about how to paint with both primary and secondary colours, they used toothbrushes, plastic bubble wrap, wool, string, straws and paint brushes.  Presented with a treasure trove of interesting materials, the children also made their own masks. Creativity soared as they transformed wool and raffia into colourful locks of hair, and bottle tops and corks into noses.  They also drew self-portraits to allow the children to reflect inwards.  After looking in a mirror, the children drew pictures of their own heads and shoulders, and then added colourful and unique decorations to their work.  

Above: Images of the children’s art work

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This year we will be launching our Holiday Giving Campaign, a chance to brighten up an orphans day, and bring comfort  and joy to the Gogos (Grandmothers) who care for them under very difficult circumstances.

 https://africansolutions.org/donate/

In addition, please email your request of ‘Buckets’ and ‘Boxes’ to: marion@africansolutions.org

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Lynne is recognised as the UK’s leading Women’s Empowerment Guru. She is a successful business women, author, broadcaster and speaker. Lynne has become a champion of women’s empowerment, ethical business practices and social justice issues.   She is the founder of SEED, an acronym for Sustainable Enterprise and Empowerment Dynamics, as a model for using principles of femininity, sustainability and social responsibility in business. In 2009, she launched the SEED Community Site, a social networking website to connect women entrepreneurs around the world.

Lynne Franks facilitated the workshop

Singing, dancing, talking, laughing, sharing and just letting rip

The SEED Tree of Hope full of wishes and dreams after the first day of the ASAP gathering.

It was with great excitement that Priscilla introduced Lynne to a group of 36 woman attending the ASAP workshop. These woman make up ASAP’s task-force of warrior women and include Caregivers, Managers and Board Members of our CBOs in the rural Eastern Cape, Free State and Cape Town. Several of ASAP Trustees and office staff from the Cape Town and Eastern Cape office were also privileged to hear the words of wisdom and experience the transformation, energy and healing that took place over these magical 3 days.  Adele Marais from UNISA, (Africa’s leading open distance learning institution) presented their courses, giving the women the opportunity to further their own education and others within their community.

Each day, the morning started with an optional yoga session led by Marion and quiet meditation time and then transformed into a vibrant burst of song and dance as everyone connected with each other and opened themselves up to exploring so many new concepts and generating ideas on how each one, as individuals and collectively, can bring about positive change, personally and in the communities in which they work.

It was an emotional journey as we heard individual stories of hardships and adversaries and shared values which are important to us. The workshop focused on health and well-being – what each one of us can do to improve our own health and of those being cared for in the CBOs. Traditional medicine (plants and herbs), applying organic permaculture principles and sustainable practices were shared.

With the workshop being held in such a beautiful setting, the group took the opportunity to do a silent walk through the forest to a waterfall where many felt it was time to not only soak in the beauty of the place and to give thanks in united prayer but to also leave behind the hurt and anxiety being carried. Each person came back lighter and uplifted, carrying a symbolic item from the forest. One such item was a lily and it’s collector explained to all that these lilies grow in such muddy soil and yet are so pure and white – we too are like this – able to bloom despite our  surroundings!

A beautiful setting

The deep serenity of the space upheld by the silence of the trek

Each person came back from the walk lighter and uplifted

An excellent session focused all on creative leadership and building communities which led back to their own community based organizations and their vision beautifully conceived as flourishing gardens and orchards nurturing the children’s health and well-being.

In these short 3 days, the tears of an emotional journey were replaced with laughter and love and the sound of the most beautiful African voices rising in harmony and prayer, dancing and rejoicing in everything we have to be grateful for and knowing that each one is now on a stronger path in life – able to connect with their inner feminine self, be true to their own personal values – strengthening the amazing human beings they are and more able to continue the incredible work to support the orphans and vulnerable children in their Community care centres.  A new SEED Circle has been born and ASAP wishes to thank Lynne for donating her time and sharing her incredible experience with us.

To read more about Lynne and the amazing work she does, see http://www.lynnefranks.co.uk/ For more information about SEED, see: http://www.seednetwork.com/php/summary.php?id=1&ID=

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We caught up with her during one of her quarterly visits to the ASAP head office in Cape Town, and this is what she had to say about her life, her work for ASAP, the latest news from the field, and her hopes for the future –

Sindiswa Mabhija

Tell us about your background?

Sindi: I was born in the Eastern Cape, the same town where ASAP is working. I grew up, left Matatiele, and then I came back in 2011 when I worked for the ASAP Foundation. Before that I worked for SOS Children’s Villages. I do have a bit of a background with the orphaned and vulnerable children, and some experience because of that.

And what are your main strengths would you say?

Sindi: [laughs] My main strengths I would say.. I love working with children. I think I get along very well with the people that I work with, and that makes me be able to get along well with the women, the care givers. I’m thorough at what I’m doing, I’d say. That makes me to be able to do my job very easily because I follow through with what I’ve started and what I’m doing. I think those are my strengths [laughs].. Yeah.

You come across as a very positive person. In photographs you’ve always got this wonderful smile.

Sindi: [laughs] I like to think of myself as a positive person, yeah.

We are in Cape Town, you are in the Eastern Cape, there are all kinds of activities going on, and specific stuff that you have to deal with. What are the challenges that you face in your work?

Sindi: At first I think that the challenge was that the feeling of being isolated out there, on your own, and the office is this side. But I think ASAP is supporting me very well in that aspect, because we interact and communicate so often with the office. They know exactly what is happening out there. Even if there is a challenge that crops up, they are always there to assist and to help. And the challenges that are there are not very, I would say, challenges that can not be dealt with. Its minor issues like, okay, there is a gap somewhere there in the work that is being done, there is an intervention that ASAP has to do, whether it is a project management issue or an organisational issue. Maybe there’s a child that needs something to be helped with in the office, whether to be referred to a government department, or cases like that. I’m not sure whether to call them challenges or part of what we are supposed to be doing and something that is happening.

Is ASAP widely known about in Matatiele?

Sindi: It is becoming known, I’d say that. As it is we have so many organisations that come to the office and ask for assistance, and when you ask, “How did you find out about us?” They’d be like, “Okay, we know that you are working in this particular village. We heard about those women, and that’s why we came.” So, there is a lot of people that do come to the office lately. ASAP is becoming more and more known in the area.

So, it’s a good reputation that is being built up?

Sindi: Yes. I don’t think that they would come to us to ask for assistance [laughs] if there was not a good reputation about us.

‘I like working with people. I’m a people-centred person.’

What’s the latest news from the field?

Sindi: The latest from the field.. People are raving about I’d say the community care centre that is being built at Sakhikamva. That’s the second newest community care centre that we’re working with. People are kind of raving about the style of the building that we’re using. We are going back to the roots using the mud bricks and thatch, and all that. And the builders were telling us that people would stop by and they would admire, and ask, “If you could build something similar at my house, how much would you charge?” So it is something that people have looked at and they marvel at, and have liked. The material may be old fashioned, but the way that it’s been modified by ASAP is kind of refreshed. It looks like a modern building, but built with materials that we regard as being old fashioned.

The mud bricks on the new community care centre called Reahasetjhaba (“building a nation”) have been put together.. Are they actually building now?

Sindi: Yes, they are already roofing already. Other news I would say is the progress that ASAP has done with the drop-in centres. When I came in 2011, they had just started with this community care centre at Sakhikamva, and one of the youth that is there is at Fort Hare University. So it makes you feel good that the work that you have seen started, you see the results. And it is quite an achievement for a girl child to be in University and studying towards a degree. So that is quite nice.

And also one of the latest news is that cabinet libraries that have been put into two schools at Gudlintaba and Khashule J.S.S  We visited one of the schools a week ago and we actually, in the class that we were in, we saw the teacher actually issuing the books to the children.  So, the whole purpose of that is to make sure that the level of literacy is improved in schools.  And we are hoping that it is going to make a very big difference there.

Do you enjoy working for ASAP?

Sindi: Yes, I do [laughs]. I do. I think I enjoy a job where I provide service. And with ASAP, we’ve been doing that, and I’ve enjoyed it very much. And I’m learning a lot. I like working with people. [laughs] I’m a people-centred person. So I’m enjoying it here, and I feel that I am growing also in the skills that I’ve acquired since I joined ASAP.

What have been the highlights for you during the past two and a half years?

Sindi: Getting more drop-in centres.. [laughs] ..and expanding in the Eastern Cape. Those are the highlights, yes.

And your hopes for the future? Personal hopes?

Sindi: I think I should grow more and more as a person. Get more knowledgeable, and use my skills for the benefit of the communities that I’m working with, and hopefully will continue to be working with. And for ASAP, I think to meet the goals to get more drop-in centres in the next few years and to see the work progressing and going.

What’s your favourite proverb or saying that you live by?

Sindi: Proverb? Probably – one day at a time.

Any last thoughts from you? Anything else you want to say?

Sindi: Well.. What can I say? I’m enjoying what I’m doing. And hope to really continue doing it, to the best of my ability.

Sindi, you really are a Warrior Woman.

Sindi: Thank you [laughs]

The post Meet the Team – Sindiswa Mabhija appeared first on African Solutions To African Problems.

How would you say it went this year?  Because you do this every year, don’t you?

Mandi:  Yes.  This is my fourth visit.  It was actually magic.  Our theme was love and friendship and Ubuntu, inspired by the fact that Nelson Mandela is in his space.  We had quite a lot of fun with Africa’s, which we tried to do as a happy place.  Africa as a feeling, loving, wonderful place.

Mandi takes time out to strike a pose with some of the kids

And the Africa’s in particular, you say that some of the children didn’t recognise the outline?

Mandi:  We had a long conversation over whether Africa first was a continent or a province or a country.  And then Sindie, who heads up ASAP’s Eastern Cape office in Matatiele, explained that it was in fact a continent, and they talked about the size of it, how many different countries, who lives on it, where the food grows, doesn’t grow, deserts, all of that sort of stuff.  And then we just got into the drawing and filling in of them, and creating a happy Africa, with it as we would like to see the whole continent.  And these are the results.

Mandi:  And then on the second day we used the clay, which for me was the best.  And the children absolutely loved it.  It was our first time to use clay.  So we started off just pushing the clay, and they felt the feeling of it, and the temperature changes and stuff like that with their eyes closed.  Some of them had cheated, it was really funny.  So they had created a real thing.   And then I made them open their eyes and look at the shape, and so they had to roll it up again.  So that was a nasty shock to the kids that had peeped, you know, and made their own creation.  So then they all rolled it back into a ball, and we made a pinch pot, which everyone took some time making.

Creating ‘pinch pots’ – a place for happy thoughts and good memories.

Mandi:  And the whole idea of that was that you had this pot, where you could keep your happy thoughts, and good memories, and everything, into the little pot.  And the rest of the day was just creating what you liked with the clay in the theme of love and friendship.  And they put it onto two trays that we’d painted from the supermarket and stuff, and they could create a picture around that with the clay.

Some of the superb clay creations

Mandi: And then on day three we did the snapshot paintings using these canvas panels, and they created a picture of themselves with a friend or just two friends as if it was a snapshot.  And they loved that!  They had so much fun and there was laughing, and giggling over that.  And altogether, all three days in each centre was an amazing success, I think.

And you love this work obviously?

Mandi:  Yes, I love what happens for them.  And as I was saying, we picked up a lot of stuff out of three or four children, and almost every-time I could see that there was a problem with a child I said to Sindie, “Tell me about this child?” And there was always a story that needed looking into, in terms of who she was living with.  What was happening with the grandmother, or the Granny had left and gone to Joburg, or they were left alone with Grandpa, and one child was really acting out and was obviously feeling the loss of his Granny.  And nobody had picked this up until we said, “What’s the problem?”

Because it’s coming out of their imagination, their inner world, isn’t it?

Mandi:  Yes.  And you can see sometimes, well, how they react in the group, and also how they scribble stuff.  It comes up.

The art of fun and lasting friendship

How would you like to build on things in the future?  Because the process is growing and changing each year, isn’t it?

Mandi:  It’s growing, yes.  I’d like to take more time over it I guess.  I think it’s very difficult because coming from here all the way up there, time is never enough, it feels like for me.  And I would like to try and do smaller groups so that we do one group in the morning and another in the afternoon.  Something like that, so it becomes more workable, because it becomes quite chaotic.  And then I let go of a lot of stuff because I think it’s a holiday, and it’s fun, and that’s the key.  And I think that that is the key, because they do have a lot of fun.  I mean, one morning we did a laughter thing because we couldn’t go outside.  So to warm up we laughed.  We laughed like a donkey, and we laughed like a chicken, and each other, and we sort of made it how do you laugh, and you can pretend to laugh to get over problems, that sort of thing.

Art on the Go 2013

Back in Cape Town at the ASAP office.
Mandi, with Priscilla Highham (Left) and Linet Dube (Centre), look through some of the vibrant ‘Africa’s’.

The post The Art of the Matter appeared first on African Solutions To African Problems.

Our literacy drive to create school libraries close to each of our drop-in centres has grown from strength to strength, bringing a wealth of knowledge and imagination to scores of classrooms across the Eastern Cape.  Just this last month (July 2013), thanks to you, 16 brand new cupboard libraries were delivered to 2 schools near our Sakhikamva community care centre.  That’s three thousand two hundred books carefully selected from 10 publishers, with titles in English, Xhosa and Sotho.

Cupboard Library Love. With carefully selected books in Xhosa, Sotho & English

As with the three other disadvantaged schools that were transformed back in February, thanks to a fantastic donation of $25,000 from Patricia Blanchet of the Ed Bradley Family Foundation, matched by very generous ASAP private donors, the amazing Pakama Ncume has once again provided comprehensive librarianship training to staff members to help bring out the very best from this precious resource.

Our 2011 Christmas Book Campaign managed to secure an entire library’s worth of books

Of course, one of the main forces behind our literacy campaign, has been the Ed Bradley Foundation, set up in memory of the legendary CBS award winning journalist Ed Bradley, who once recalled, “As a child, I loved to read books. The library was a window to the world, a pathway to worlds and people far from my neighborhood in Philadelphia.”

‘My friend, the late Ed Bradley, used to be a teacher before he rose to the top of his field as a television journalist, ‘ Says Priscilla Higham.  “Through his widow, his Foundation now funds the libraries.  His favourite painting by Jacob Lawrence, the renowned African American painter, depicts an old man surrounded by children, reading a book.  I like to think that Ed lives on teaching African children to read and promoting literacy in the Eastern Cape.’

Hundreds of children now benefit from Ed Bradley’s powerful legacy.

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“I followed Priscilla Higham (ASAP’s Founder and Programme Director) around for 3 days  and witnessed an electrifying injection of energy into the dusty lives of these communities,”  Says Dame Janet.  “She and her lieutenants are doing an amazing job of pointing the gogos (grandmothers), the life-givers, towards more intelligent management of their desperate lives.  ASAP really does make a difference – I have seen it with my own eyes.”

ON THE ROAD – Dame Janet with one of our many Warrior Women – Sindi Mabhija, who heads up ASAP’s Eastern Cape office in Matatiele.

Enjoying a boogie with the women of the Itekeng Drop-in Centre.

In May 2012, Dame Janet, the niece of the highly respected and much loved anti- Apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman, took to the stage at our bi-annual Fundraiser in London to introduce Priscilla Highham, and to give a rallying cry to the guests; urging them to ‘be useful’.

With 18 year old Nonceba Patience Tenza, who recently won the Itekeng and Mamohau Poetry Competition for her extremely powerful poem, ‘Death be not Proud’.

A long and distinguished career. Janet Suzman became a Dame in 2011.

Here’s a great article about her preparations for ‘Solomon and Marion’, and her career as a Shakespearean actor, and here’s one of many rave reviews of the her play at the Baxter Theatre.

The post A Visit from Dame Janet Suzman appeared first on African Solutions To African Problems.

The man behind the ASAP plan, Noah Fischel. “It feels amazing to be back in South Africa!”

Noah: [laughs] Oh, it feels amazing to be back in South Africa! It’s been a number of years since I’ve been here. And just to see the growth of ASAP and the new offices, and the staff, and how well they’re performing. So many new drop-in centres, so many new children being served, so many new women being uplifted. It’s very exciting to see the growth. You know, ASAP started off out of a suitcase, and then an office in America, and now went from there to Priscilla’s home in South Africa, and now a real office in Cape Town. And so to see the development has been very rewarding.

Noah shares a laugh with the Mamahau Youth Group girls after a fun session with Xola Yoyo, ASAP’s Youth Development Officer.

You first volunteered for ASAP back in 2004. What attracted you to the cause?

Noah: I met Priscilla through a mutual friend, and I was so inspired by the concept of a listening organisation, an organisation that goes in and asks more questions than it answers. And I think it was this quality that first inspired me to start volunteering for ASAP. I had been aware of so many funding organisations that had come up with a sort of magic formula, or a five step programme, or whatever you want to call it, for success. And I suppose it was more our adaptive qualities, our ability to shape our programmes around what was already happening on the ground. Rather than just shape what was happening on the ground around our programmes. And I think that that, for me, was the main reason why I got so passionate and started working full time right away.

The organisation certainly started off very tiny, and so it felt like there was a lot of opportunity to be a part of the growth of something, rather than just sort of a functionary in something that was already fully grown. So that was really exciting to me to be a part of the growth and the development of ASAP as an organisation.

Standing in front of the orchard at the
Mamahau Drop-in Center garden

And I suppose it’s that empathy with their situation that allowed me to appreciate the fact that these women were already doing things to help these children. And that they didn’t need to be told the five steps to success to how to help children. They were already helping children. It was us who had to learn from them, and then build a model around that learning. And so to me, helping ASAP maintain its integrity by continuing to listen, and continuing to adapt around what was already happening was a very powerful opportunity.

In the Early Childhood Development center with the little ones of Itikeng

Describe your relationship with Priscilla in the early days. She has described herself as ‘this crazy woman’ back then, ‘driving around and around the Eastern Cape’ connecting with communities. How would you describe her then?

Noah: [laughs] I would also describe her as a crazy woman driving around and around the Eastern Cape. But I would also describe her as a woman who initially went to Africa to document the good work that women were doing with children, originally in the slums of Nairobi, and I would describe her as somebody who was not satisfied simply to report on the good works of other people, somebody who was overcome with a need to support that good work rather than just document it. And that didn’t mean that she had any experience, or any more right to start a foundation than anyone else, but she had the guts to do it, and she took the time to do that, and she was willing to make that commitment. She may describe herself as crazy. I would describe her as very brave, not just in the fact that she was driving around the Eastern Cape on her own trying to find groups of women, but also brave in that she was willing to tackle a problem that she didn’t have a lot of expertise in, and that she was willing to take on the challenge of learning herself, and willing to take that risk. And so, I wouldn’t describe her as crazy, I would describe her as brave.

You created this six year community-based intervention model for orphans and vulnerable children, how does it feel to finally see it working?

“I was so inspired by the concept of a listening organisation, an organisation that goes in and asks more questions than it answers.” Noah with the Mamohau management team.

Noah: I am very humbled by the work that is being done on the ground by these women who are working with the model that we have developed, using the insight and experience of course of women who have come before them. But, you know, it’s one thing to take theory and put pen to paper and develop a model, that’s all well and good. It’s an entirely other thing to actually be doing the work that it takes to help these children. And so I would say that I take no credit for the success of this model. I am extremely in awe of the work that these women do. I know how hard it is to come together and be activists in my own community, just to get things done in my own town, with my own set of legislators, and my own community members with their various conflicts. So I am in admiration of their ability to work co-operatively and sustainably together as a group. I think that’s very very challenging, and so I really admire that.

ASAP is ten years old this year. How does this landmark feel to you?

High Ten! Noah with the Cape Town office team. (From L-R Noah, Bulelwa, Priscilla, Linet & Admore)

Noah: The landmark for ASAP celebrating its ten year anniversary is unreal to me. The world of NGO’s and Not For Profits.. There are fickle funders out there, it is filled with challenges, and many do not survive the challenges and obstacles that are placed before them. And so for ASAP to have survived, grown and developed to this point over a ten year period, really speaks to the good work that we are doing, and really speaks to the cohesiveness of this team that has come together to do this good work here in cape Town and in England and the United States. We’ve had an incredibly committed board in the UK, South Africa, and the United States, as well as incredibly committed volunteers and staff members, and to me this ten year anniversary speaks to the commitment and dedication of everybody working on behalf of this organisation.

What have been some of the highlights of the past ten years?

Noah: Some of the highlights for me was when a group would show signs of independence from ASAP, and seek external funding, either from government or from other community organisations or from funders that we sort of nurtured a relationship with on their behalf. Whenever I see a group reaching for independence from ASAP it gives me hope that what we’re doing is helping create groups that are going to be able to continue to do this work in the future without us. And I have seen that several times throughout the years, and every time it just thrills me.

Catching up with the latest news with Xola Yoyo, ASAP’s Youth Development Officer.

Another highlight happened today actually. We met a funder called the deVere Africa Foundation, who has committed to ASAP for a three-year large grant to support a new community care centre called Reahasetjhaba (“building the nation”) in the Eastern Cape. And when we asked this funder how they found us, they said, “We found you on the internet.” Which means that our visibility has grown to the point that a large funder like that can find us simply by typing in the words ‘orphans and vulnerable children in Africa’ and come up with ASAP’s name. And that our website was able to speak for itself enough to attract that kind of support.

Taking a stroll through the play area at the Itekeng Batswadi community care centre

And the team that created the content for the website, the volunteers who collected the stories, and the photographs, you know, all the work that’s gone into creating that presence, that is a team of people. It’s not just one person. It’s the guy who helped us use our Google grant to its maximum capacity, and use our Google ad-words to the best of their abilities, so that when that person typed in that name they were able to find ASAP. And it’s that collaborative team effort that has brought the visibility of ASAP up to a point where a funder can find us online and be attracted to our organisation enough to come to the ground and see the good work we are doing for themselves, and choose to fund the organisation. It didn’t take me or Priscilla going to conference or a meeting or having to lure them in, they found us. And that to me is a real paradigm shift in funding for ASAP.

And dare I ask – what have been some of the lowlights of the past ten years?

Noah: [laughs] Oh, the low lights! Well I have to say that without the lowlights you wouldn’t know when you were experiencing a highlight would you?

Hooking up with US Board members and Brooklyn residents Alex Richards, Andy O’Neill, and their two year old daughter Trixie.

So, you know, frankly the path to this point has been littered with pitfalls and obstacles and points of hopelessness and fear. One of the lowlights I remember was once early on, Priscilla and I looked in the bank account and we had less than ten thousand dollars, and yet we had committed to these groups to help them with their children for years. And it was a certain faith in abundance, and faith in the good work that was being done on the ground that carried us through that difficult time. But I certainly wouldn’t call having less than ten thousand dollars in your bank account a highlight. It was a real low point and certainly something to which we can compare ourselves and our bank account to now. But, you know, a nice contrast to where we stand today.

What are your hopes for the next ten years of African Solutions?

Noah: My hopes are very high indeed. It’s been amazing for ASAP to get to this point of celebrating its ten-year anniversary, and I hope that we get to a point where we are celebrating our 20th anniversary. And at that point, you know, we’ve had so much experience under our belts working with women and helping orphans and vulnerable children, and we’ve really, as I’ve said in the beginning of the interview, used our ears more than our mouths, and done more listening than lecturing, and really tried to codify a model of intervention based on experience of the women on the ground, not based on theory, or based on funding theory, or based on what’s trending in the world of NGO’s, but really based in the reality on what’s happening on the ground in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

Building the Nation. Noah and Priscilla sitting with the members and board of Reahasetjhaba, one of the brand new Community Based Organisations that will take the team well into its second decade of African Solutions

And I would like to use that experience to grow ASAP to yet another level where we have a broader impact, and we’re providing broad-based care to orphans and vulnerable children, not just in the Eastern Cape, but perhaps elsewhere in Sub Saharan Africa, or perhaps just more in South Africa itself. But to really put that experience to good use, because we have a responsibility to the women and children of Sub Saharan Africa to share this model of intervention so that they can replicate this successful model of care.

What’s next for the US office? Is there anything coming up in the US?

We’d like to increase our fundraising activities in the United States, specifically in New York. We hope to host a New York fund raiser sometime in the future, and we are just in the developing stages of trying to do that. And for the US we would like to really support the development of ASAP on the ground here. So, as ASAP goes through its next stages of transition and growth we would like to support that both financially and administratively.

Finally. If you had to pick an African animal that best captures the spirit of ASAP, what would it be and why?

Noah: Oh my god! Okay. Well let’s see.. If I had to pick an African animal.. Well, my name is Noah. So I’ve got a lot of experience with animals, so this should come easy to me. [laughs] Erm? I would choose a giraffe. Because a giraffe has its feet on the ground and its head in the sky.

“It’s the slow growth that really shows itself in the ASAP drop-in centers; the slow steady growth and training. And it’s that investment that will yield sustainable organizations who put children first for a better future for South Africa.”

The post Meet the Man Behind the ASAP Plan – Noah Fischel appeared first on African Solutions To African Problems.

Helping to improve many young lives. Maxine at her work station.

Recently married, Maxine graduated from  the University of the Western Cape in september 2012 with a BA in Social Science.  Originally from Pietermaritzburg, all the way over in KwaZulu-Natal, she now lives in Cape Town. 

“I enjoy working for ASAP,” says Maxine.  “I feel like I’m making a difference, that I am working on my skills, and it just compliments what I have learnt in theory at University.  I enjoy the company.  I enjoy the staff, my colleagues, and Priscilla [the founder and director of ASAP].  She teaches me a lot.  I just like to gain strength and knowledge from those around me. 

Open for business. One of 24 cupboard libraries installed throughout three rural schools in the Eastern Cape.

“The fact that I can use opportunities that were given to me to help other people.  I think what motivates me is to see a difference, to see a change, either by what I can contribute, or by what others do and being a part of that.” 

“I am working on the research for the new libraries that we will be putting into the schools, and I am trying to gather some more information and statistics, and to get a better understanding of them and what they need, and how they see the project, or the value of the project.

“I think what motivates me is to see a difference, to see a change.”

” I would say that I hope ASAP grows even bigger, and that it becomes more well known, and that it continues to make such a big difference, as it has already in such a short space of time, in the future.”

“I can use opportunities that were given to me to help other people.”

The post Meet the Team – Maxine Begbie Khan appeared first on African Solutions To African Problems.