Our 2001 Lent Project
at

St Francis Church

"Build My Church"

At Khayelitsha

The informal settlement of Harare, Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa is part of the enormous legacy of poverty inherited from years of racial segregation under the system of apartheid.

Imagine living here             

and still making it your priority to build a Church to the Glory of God

Over 25% of the parish of St. Michael & All Angels, Khayelitsha, is a shanty town with:

Here is an Update for Spring 2002

Dear friends;

I wanted to give you a bit of an update on what is happening at Fikelela Childrens centre. We have 11 children at the moment, I have attached a picture of the big ones, the little ones were all sleeping! 

I shared with you our desire to expand with a day care facility next door. A wonderful church in Washington have enabled us to purchase the land, and we are waiting for the transfer to go through. Last week we recieved the amazing news that we have a sponsor who is going to make a sizable donation to the building! God is wonderful. We are looking at the possibility of building through Habitat for humanity, which will both bring the costs down and also allow more community participation in the building process.  Watch this space.... 

Concerns for prayer : one of our little ones Simone - (see the bottom of this page if you want to cry. Ed.) - is really not well, these tiny ones who are born so sick often do not thrive at all and it is a concern to all of us.

We would love to take on a full time social worker, we have a part time one at the moment, but we would love to develop a foster care program, whereby local church members can be trained and supported in a foster care program.

Thank you all for your prayers and love. God bless.

Rachel

THESE ARE OUR GOALS...

In February 1997 St. Michael & All Angels started a pre-school, called Sophumelela  (meaning We will Succeed) where the children are taught in both Xhosa and English. This enables the parents to make choices about where to send their children to primary school. We have 75 children at present and a long waiting list but more space is needed.

Through our work with the children, we have come face to face with the issue of child abuse. With the help of our social worker, Biffy Clack, a community child abuse action group has been set up, called Simamelela, (meaning Listen to Us) which has been running workshops in the local schools, and follows up on individual eases. In July 1999, we decided to open an after-care centre, in order to provide a place of safety for the children after school. This runs from 2pm to 7pm. Many of the parents who work arrive home very late, since we are 40 km from the centre of town.

We are also involved in skills training, through an organisation called Triple Trust, which trains local people in sewing and leatherworks skiIIs. This created a new challenge. We now have to market and sell the handiwork, so in September 1997 we started the Khayelitsha Craft Market, which provides a venue for local people to sell their crafts to the growing number of visitors to the township.

The congregation presently meets in an old prefabricated building, and as the numbers have grown, this has become too small for our needs. Hence our plans to build a multipurpose centre which will be used for church services, pre-school and after-care. Our target is Rand 1,200,000 (£120,000 or $190,000) to build and equip the centre. To date (September 1999) we have Rand 650,000 and will start building in October 1999. Our dream is to complete the project in one go, so that we can accommodate the growing numbers of children who would like to come to the pre-school, and to enable the church to grow.

HOW YOU CAN HELP...

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP...

Please contact:

WE HAD THE FOLLOWING FROM RACHEL RECENTLY

A friend shared her feelings after attending Simone's funeral, and I would like to share them with you, with her permission, I think she sums up beautifully the sorrow and the hope of the morning. God Bless

Today...

Dear Elmarie

Today I was fetched at 8:30am and taken by Reverend Rachel Mash to the Fikelela Centre in Mandela Park in Khayelitsha. We were to attend a memorial  service for little Simone who died last Sunday morning at some time between 6:30 and 7:00. Simone had been in the centre for the best part of her short life, having reached the age of three months. When we got to the centre I was greeted by various women, offered coffee or tea...and we sat chatting for a while. Reverend Thobela came in, and . . . the singing began. I looked towards the little playroom area and noticed for the first time, the tiniest white coffin with shiny handles, a lovely bouquet of flowers and a photograph of a little child. The woman next to me shifted closer and as I looked around I noticed that there were mainly women and a few men . . . we were of all race groups, some could sing the Xhosa songs . . . the rest of us hummed or stood in silence.

Reverend Thobela spoke to us in Xhosa and then he spoke to us in English. He told us of the hope that there was in our being there, together, standing together, in community, against "the new struggle". He said that looking at us all there, he saw the whole South African nation, and he believed that if we stood together as we were there today, that we could bring hope. I was deeply moved by the way in which he made me feel welcome by including me in the common spirit that we shared as South Africans . . . and by the common spirit that we share as women, for he said that they have a tradition of saying that "a woman does not have a child . . . the community of women have that child." It was so true for today. He said that we must not judge people whose lives have come to what they have come to...we must know that what we see is often at the end of a very painful road . . .

After a while, he said that unfortunately the birth parents had not arrived and we would have to go on to the cemetery. He reminded us again not to judge, but to remember that this may be because they can't face this final thing . . . The social workers present had gone to try to find them. We got into the cars and proceeded to the Khayelitsha Cemetary. In the car with us were three older women. I later learnt that they were women from the neighbourhood who had come along to support the people of the centre as they
buried this little child. They chatted about how good it was that the centre was there and that these women are able to care for these children in the way that they do. 

When we got to the cemetery we waited again . . . next to rows of little crosses, all recent burials . . . we waited and we sang . . . Reverend Mash tried to contact the parents on a cell phone while we waited and sang . . . eventually they arrived . . . a very young coloured woman, her husband and a granny. Clutched in his hand was a little fluffy bear . . . when Thobela had given the father an
opportunity to speak and the grave was covered over, the mother's distress became evident. Rev Mash spoke so gently and lovingly to her, encouraging her to not give up hope for her life, and thanking her for giving baby Simone to the centre for other people to love and care for . . . the Teddy was placed into the grave by the young father . . . the first visible action that made the personal history between these three people, Simone and her parents, evident. 

I wanted to tell you about today's experience in my life for so many reasons . . . but the picture that will stay with me forever are the tears of a young mother holding her baby on her lap, watching the funeral of another baby in process . . . as the young mother cried, her little child was trying to catch her tears and give her kisses on her mouth in the way only a mother and a child can kiss . . . as she cried, I wept . . . for I felt so closely connected to the horror of this devastating illness . . . the horror of waiting in line to bury your own child, the horror of waiting in line to be buried before your own child . . . the sound that will stay with me forever are the voices of the women singing . . . singing for the child they had cared for, who was not their own child, but who was . . . a child who was not to be cared for by her birth-mother, for her birth-mother suffered from psychiatric illnesses that made her unable to care for her . . . the feeling that will stay with me is the sense of belonging in a common humanity that surpasses languages, cultures, backgrounds . . and that they are doing hope in Khayelitsha . . . at that tiny place of Fikelela . . . amidst the hopelessness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic . . . they are doing mutual care and hope . . .

Just thought you'd want to know. Take care.
Linda

Here are some of the Children and the Staff who care for Them