A new project in South Africa offers hope for a better future to former
offenders in a country which has little to offer young ex-criminals
once they leave prison
Most
South African young offenders leave prison and find themselves on
the streets. They have little choice but to commit crime just to survive.
With little in the way of schooling or marketable skills, their families
tend to look on them as a burden.
While
Durban, for example, does have shelters and institutions, they tend
to be overcrowded, without discipline, individual support or many
purposeful activities. It is all too easy for the boys in the shelters
to fall back into their old ways of fighting and gang life.
The
Amanzimtoti YMCA decided that something had to be done about this
situation. They were able to get the lease on a site for a peppercorn
rent, and got local funding to prepare and renovate it, so it now
has bungalows, offices, training rooms, wash blocks and a kitchen.
The
Sakhithemba project now has 15 boys, and is waiting for an extra five.
Of the current intake, seven go to local schools, and four are training
with companies in the area, and this will probably lead to full-time
work.
Carol
outside Sakhithemba
Project
manager Carol van Zyl says “We can offer training in computers,
literacy, baking, woodwork, vegetable gardening, chicken farming,
and management. Wherever possible, the things we produce are sold
locally.”
The
project also aims to develop the young offenders’ life skills
– ranging from HIV/AIDS awareness to laundry and housework -
and eventually to find work for a third of them.
“We
can also provide equipment and material for anyone wanting to set
up their own small business.
“We
place a huge value on keeping the programme small and intimate. We
live with the boys, eat with them, use the same bathrooms as they
do. At night we sit around outside together – by a fire in winter
or just enjoying the breeze in the summer. We want to create a family
atmosphere.”
sweet
potatoes
Instead
of fighting over problems, the boys are encouraged to discuss any
difficulties with staff, and, gradually at first, they learn to trust
and open up about themselves.
“All
of them have had traumatic childhoods. Family relationships, if they
existed at all, have often broken down completely. We hope to restore
their ability to form relationships – it comes down to emotional
healing.
“We
teach them skills for coping with life –basic stuff like keeping
themselves and their surroundings clean, and just having a sense of
time. Some of these lads don’t even know when their birthday
is, or how old they are.
“They
get a small amount of pocket money each week, so they learn to manage
their own finances.”
Carol
and her staff also try to get the ex-offenders to start thinking about
their hopes and dreams for the future. For many, being able to contemplate
the future, rather than living from hand to mouth each day, is a new
luxury.
She
adds: “These young men are responding well to being cared for
properly for the first time in their lives, and we’ve had no
negative reactions. They are growing in themselves, talking to us
more, and becoming more and more confident and trusting. It’s
wonderful to see.
“Some
have even started to call us mummy and daddy – although we don’t
particularly encourage that. We also make sure the boys realise they
can’t stay here forever. Most will stay for a year, although
some may need to stay longer, others will want to make a go of their
lives before then.”
One
future path for some may be reintegration with extended families.
Ideally, the project aims to reunite half of all the boys with relatives,
although so many have run away from abusive situations that many would
rather be on the streets than go back home.
“We
look at the boys’ behaviour each month,” continues Carol.
“We use behaviour charts, individual interviews and group discussions.
There is also group and individual counselling : everyone has individual
counselling at least once a week – more if they are going through
a particularly bad patch. They love it. Just having someone taking
an interest in them and how they are feeling is a novelty.
“Above
all, we want to provide an environment where young people can be rehabilitated
in mind, body and spirit – we hope that after they have been
with us they just won’t want to commit any more crime. They
won’t need to, because there will be alternatives.”
Case
Studies
Skhumboso
Dlamini
15 years old
My mother, a domestic worker, died when I was just five years old.
My father is also dead – I only ever saw him for a few weeks,
when I was very young.
For the first ten years
of my life, my granny and auntie raised me in Mandeni, about 100km
north of Durban.
I only did two years at
school. After my grandmother died, my brothers and sister, who were
unemployed, could no longer support me. I had to fend for myself in
the city, and that’s when the streets of Durban became my home.
I stayed in one particular
corner for five years – quite different from most other street
children, who tend to move around a lot more.
The streets are awash with
alcohol and drugs – especially cannabis or ‘dagga’.
A lot of the street children are raped, nearly all of them by older
boys or men who have drunk too much. There are no rules – we
did exactly as we pleased. There’s also a lot of fighting –
I still have the scars from when I was hit one time.
Sometimes I’d sell
fruit and vegetables at a local market. The Indians who ran it would
give me food or clothes, and sometimes a bit of money.
Thankfully, I never got
into hard drugs or glue – I tended to stick to tobacco and cannabis.
Sometimes, I had to steal
just to survive. Things came to a head in November last year (2001)
when I was arrested and spent three nights in the cells at Durban
Prison, then a night at Westville Prison before I was sent to a holding
centre for children and young people awaiting trial. After four months
there, my case was dropped. The centre contacted the YMCA project
at Sakhithemba, and asked them to take me in. They did.
I admit that I didn’t
arrive there in very good shape. My skin is still badly scarred from
malnutrition, and I had lice.
After a couple of months
here, I think I have settled down. I think the routine and discipline
are good for me, and I want to learn. The volunteer who teaches me
English says I am quick to pick things up. She suggested I should
go back to school. I’ll have to miss a couple of years, but
it is better than no education at all. I hope to start soon.
What I would like most
of all would be to see my brother and sister. Like many of the boys
here, I long to have a family of my own.
John Winkinson
Age: 21
My mother is a prostitute,
a drug addict and an alcoholic. One of my earliest memories is of
her hitting my head so hard against a wall that I now have a plate
at the back of my head. I have never known my father. My two brothers
have different fathers.
I was in two different
childen’s homes until I was 12, when my grandmother took me
out of the senior home. After that, I lived almost everywhere you’d
think of in Durban – with my granny, my aunties, the streets,
shelters. I was constantly on the move.
At 18, I was crippled in
my hands and feet, due to sniffing glue. (The vast majority of us
did it.) I went to yet another home, where they sent me for hospital
treatment. Although they managed to straighten my fingers, I still
struggle to lift up my feet.)
When I was 20, I was looking
in dustbins for food in a shopping centre. I was arrested for shoplifting,
and spent eight months in prison before my case was thrown out.
It was then that I came
to Sakhithemba, and I’ve been here since the autumn of last
year (2001.) I did leave at one point – for a week, when Robert
and Carol, who run the project, were leaving to go on holiday. I felt
as though I was being rejected all over again, and that they wouldn’t
come back for me.
I went back to my grandparents
recently, and she was making excuses for the way my whole family has
abandoned me. She admitted that she herself has nothing to give me.
But I hope that one day
I will have money to give her, and I still pray for my family.
I’m now
working in a home for people with mental disabilities. I really love
the work, and being with the staff and the patients. My dream is to
be a child care worker – either with children who have special
needs or those who do not. I hope that one day my dream will come
true.
The
project is supported by Y Care International, the overseas development
agency of the YMCA movement. More information on www.ycare.org.uk
, or by calling 020 7421 3022. To donate to this project, please send
a cheque, payable to Y Care International, to Y Care International,
3 - 9 Southampton Row, LONDON WC1B 5HY, including a note to say that
you want the money to go the Sakhithemba project.
