Hi

 

Health warning first:  I am after your money (come on, I'm a lawyer so what's new?!) but for a charity (not me) and it will involve me in pain and degradation!  But it's only fair to let you have a bit of background before I try to persuade you to part with your cash. 

 

In February earlier this year I visited Johannesburg.  As a city, I did not think of Johannesburg as having a poor area, but I suppose when we use the word "city" we do not necessarily conjure up an image of deprivation - it just does not fit with what in this day and age we think of as a city.  But then, if you search hard enough in any city you will find squalor, deprivation and suffering;  in some cities it is just more obvious than in others.

 

I was out at the behest of the Footprints Foundation to see if BPE would support one of their new projects: an orphanage (called Zenzeleni) on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

 

We have all seen, read or heard about the extremes of poverty and suffering in various parts of Africa and they are all equally as deserving as each other.  What struck me in Johannesburg was the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty.  It's nothing new and there are more deserving cases elsewhere (we are not talking devastating famine and drought here) - it is just a matter of degree of dessert (I'm talking deservingness).  After all, a lot of us contribute to that well known charity, the National Trust, so why not an African charity?   In every city in the UK wealth and poverty exist cheek by jowl; again, it's a matter of degree, a question of seeking it out.  If you don't seek it out you won't find it and if you don't want to find it you won't seek it out. 

 

The problems they suffer from in South Africa are the same as ours, it is just that the extremes are greater out there and there are more people trapped on the extremes.  I saw a lot of wealth (mostly behind large walls and electric fences) as well as a lot of poverty, often less than a mile apart, and I was not even looking for it.

 

So what's with the orphanage I hear you ask?  AIDS and poverty in a nutshell.

 

Young children (if they are lucky and many are not) find their way to the orphanage and are provided with shelter and respite (see below).  Some are left at the gates in cradles or just wrapped in a blanket.  Why?  Well, either both parents have died through AIDS or they cannot support the child and just hand him or her over (either that or just up sticks and move on leaving the child to fend for itself).

 

I mentioned respite, but it is not respite from poverty or hunger or homelessness.

 

There is a big drive to educate the young in South Africa.  But you need a uniform of sorts and an ability to travel to school as the schools are not necessarily on your doorstep.  If parents (assuming they are around) cannot afford the uniform or the bus fare they encourage the girls to get a boyfriend who can afford it.  It's a capitalist culture out there and the concept of something for nothing just does not apply. 

 

If I was Rolf Harris I would be saying "Can you see what it is yet?".

 

Listening to a school counselling session while I was out there the girls admitted that there was only one form of payment that they could afford for the uniform or travel - that'll be sex then - and they did not really feel they could insist on their "benefactor" using a condom.  And so the HIV cycle continues.  At the school I visited  (1,400 pupils) there was an equal split of boys and girls.  "So how many are HIV positive" I asked.  "Over half" was the reply, "but it's mostly the girls".  You can do the maths...

 

As I said, they have the same problems as us - it's just a matter of degree.  The UK has its fair share of sex workers - it's just that those in South Africa start earlier and do it for their education.

 

Dickens would have had a field day.

 

I could go on about whole generations disappearing under a rising tide of AIDS.... or wonder why more is not being done by their own country (perhaps it's a collective (colour) blindspot)....

 

So, this orphanage, what does it do?   Well, it provides shelter for a start and a home and someone caring for the 40-odd children that it can house.   It provides them with a school uniform and transport to school, it feeds them, picks them up from school, puts a roof over their head and a bed to sleep in.  I suppose we would call it a family, a home.  Something that AIDS and poverty have deprived them of.  It also keeps them safe, off the streets, if you like, in more ways than one.   

 

"Can you see what it is yet?"

 

The orphanage also grows food to provide a lunchtime meal for those children at the local school who have registered for a free meal (and that's many more than the children from the orphanage who go to the school).  For some of them that will be their only meal of the day. 

 

BPE is hoping to raise £20,000 to enable the orphanage to continue to provide shelter, food and transport.  There are 10 of us and one of the main events in our fund-raising strategy is to do the Three Peaks Challenge in July - that's walking up Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in less than 24 hours.  I said there was pain involved.  For me it's not the ascent but rather the descent that will prove the real test for my ageing knees (they are already beginning to creak in anticipation).  Oh, and I am a beacon for midges and I am told July is a good time to spot midges on Ben Nevis - I can hear them sharpening whatever it is they use to bite with.

 

But it does not stop there - we are putting our money where their mouth is, so to speak.  In October we will be travelling to South Africa to spend a week at the orphanage decorating it, renovating some of the run down parts, clearing and cultivating some of their land on which to grow more food and installing an irrigation system.   There is a lot more to do to make it self-sufficient such as photo-voltaic units to provide energy when the central part of Johannesburg takes the power from the outskirts (a regular occurrence).  But that is a project for another year.  The travel and accommodation costs have already been funded by BPE and so the full £20,000 that we hope to raise will go to providing for the orphanage.

 

So, all you need to do now is decide whether this is a worthwhile cause.  We can all decide to do nothing on the basis that someone out there will stop by the wayside and lend a hand or we can all do a bit.  And a bit is all I am after.  If you feel like giving then here's the link:  http://www.justgiving.com/AnthonyRudge2012

 

Finally, one more story.  One of the little boys at the school I visited had lost his mother (she had died of AIDS) and he and his sister were now looked after by their step-father (the original father was long gone).  The boy returned from school one day to find his step-father trying to rape his sister.  He attacked the step-father, who turned on him and raped him instead.  That boy is now HIV positive.

 

The Rolf Harris Show is over.  You can see what the picture is.

 

Thank you for reading this far.

 

Anthony

 

 

PS Please pass this on to anyone you think might like to sponsor me or contribute to this cause!