Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Here is just a bit more about Masiphumelele, the informal settlement from which almost all of our learners come. In the photo, Beauty and Khumi and I are outside the shack where Khumi lives. I am moved to share this with you because the women and men associated with this ministry live in a constant state of ferment. I live in an apartment that faces the street and have become accoustomed to the sound of the ambulance since the hospital is the next street away and then to either the police or firefighters almost always headed to Masi, as we say here. Last Friday I turned on the news to hear there was yet another protest there, this time for housing. Perhaps, more than any other problem, housing is the number one challenge for the local and national government in this country. Masi is just one hot spot and these statistics will show you why. Originally founded or started in the early 1990s, Masi then had about 10,000 residents. Since then the number has swelled to more than twice that. Some argue this has been the result of the policies of the ruling government that encouraged people to flood to the Cape. Today there are more than 25,000 people in Masi and they are jammed into perhaps no more than two or three square miles. Much of the land is wetland and some of my former students lives in these shacks that are soaked with water. I have visited them there. The people here long for better homes. So much of the soil is sandy and I hurt for the children who play in all of this dirt and consequently have so many problems. The truth is, most people flock to the Western Cape, an estimated 100,000 people every year from the Eastern Cape to find jobs, any job that will help them take care of themselves and their families back home. Added to this are thousands of 'foreigners" from other African countries and these informal settlements are powder kegs that take little for them to blow up.
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