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Postcard from South Africa   
Mary Ellen Duke, CEDPA Senior Technical Advisor for Education and Youth, writes from South Africa, where she visited a CEDPA partner organization in Seshego Township. Empowering Girls in Soshego October 30, 2007 — Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Seshego Township which is about 20 kilometers north of Polokwane, the capital of Limpopo Province in South Africa. The township suffers from the same ills that plague other townships here – street crime, car highjackings and few people leave their homes after 6:00pm. In Zone 3 of the township, there is a small community-based organization run by Mushi Phihlela, a CEDPA alumnus working hard to improve conditions in the community.The Seshego Youth Development and Empowerment Organization (SYDEMPOR) is one of our partners in the Towards a Better Future pilot project. Last month we trained 18 peer educators to be facilitators in the program which targets young girls in Southern Africa between the ages of 10 to 14 years old. The peer educators are in secondary school themselves and are dedicated to project and to their organization.
While the facilitators are confident in their facilitation skills, the pilot is not without challenges; many of the participants are part of a school-feeding program and some need transportation to the weekend sessions. Peer educators have dipped into their own stipends to buy food for the young girls. SYDEMPOR is now feverishly raising local funds to meet these unforeseen needs. Regardless of the ups and downs of the pilot, SYDEMPOR and the peer educators are in this for the long haul and committed to making a difference in their community. |
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I spent the afternoon with them discussing their experiences in facilitating sessions using the version of Choose a Future! that we have adapted to the southern African context. These young ladies enjoy what they are doing and see it as a very positive experience. Even though the pilot sessions began in mid-October, school principals and parents are starting to notice a change in their daughters since beginning the after-school program. Participants have also begun to confide in the peer educators. One young girl has already come forward to confide that she had been raped. The peer educator acted quickly; soon a community social worker was on the scene. 
