‘There’s no hurry in Africa, we are two hours infront of
you’
This assurance came from a smug twenty-something from
Plumtree, a border town in South West Zimbabwe. I had been living here for
about 6 weeks now, and already the pace of life had me walking slower and
slower… something that was sure to piss off the fast-forwarded way of life back
home. I was starting to come to terms with ‘Africa-time’, but my recently
awakened patience was still being pushed to the limit.
What bothered me most was not the hours of waiting to fill
the already full combi, or the predictable 4-hour lag on every meeting or
event. It wasn’t even the police road-blocks every few kilometres which left
you delayed and money-less. No, what was really exasperating and left me
feeling uncomfortable was the general acceptance of the immorality and
wickedness that went on in plain sight. It was the complete normality of
prostitution, of child abuse, of teenage pregnancy, of ‘sugar daddies’. In every class of the secondary school we
taught at, and even some in the primary school, students were pregnant.
Everyone knew it. Everyone knew that rape and ‘sugar daddies’ were the main
causes. Everyone acknowledged it and spoke openly about it, but there was no
hurry to do anything about it. Almost, I felt it had become ingrained into
their culture so much that it was accepted as part of the life there. It was on
the agenda to ‘sort out’- but that agenda was under a pile of tatty school
bills and trashy magazines and probably some chicken poo.
That’s not to say that no one is trying to do anything about
it. I met some of the most inspiring and talented people out there, eager and impatient
to bring about change. But these are the fastest in the race against injustice
and their team members are restricting them with their lack of urgency. They
are incapacitated, without the tools or a means to fight an overall desperate
situation.
It’s all too easy for me to judge. Having spent nearly 3
months out there, it wasn’t hard to become absorbed into this slow-paced and
idle culture. In the middle of it all, sometimes being passive is the easiest
(and safest) option. But one thing I’ve realised is that this way of life and
thinking is often so slow, it is almost backwards.
This brings me on to an idea that my Ivimila partners and I came up with whilst out on placement. After the initial shock of realising that development work wasn't bringing about the change we had (naively) anticipated, we were trying to come up with an alternative that would help the children of Ivimila. And so we thought back to what we thought was the root of the problem: transport. If schoolchildren caught lifts from strangers and couldn't pay with money, then they would pay with their bodies. This increased rates of pregnancy and HIV. And for the children opting to walk the long commute each day (sometimes 30km), they would be exhausted and ill, jeapordising their education.
So what to do about it? Well, if transport was the problem, then why couldn't we bring transport to Ivimila? We had heard that a school down the road in Plumtree had received a school bus from a charitable organisation, which helped their students safely get to and from school. So we figured, why couldn't we try and provide the same for Ivimila? The teachers and parents' association of Ivimila were thrilled with our idea of acquiring a school bus and we discussed the long term maintenance and logistics. We collected case studies from students who had to travel long distances each day, and they described the impact of this on their health and education, as well as the dangers of trying to catch lifts from strangers. All we had to do, once back in the UK, was to raise the funds in order to actually acquire the bus. This bus would ensure the safety of the students of Ivimila, their health and education would not be put in so much danger. Suddenly, the desperate situation out there doesn't have to be so acceptable. Change can actually happen, because we can give them the tools in order to make it happen.
If you have been moved by what you have read and would like to help, then please feel free to contact me (alice_barber@live.co.uk), or donate to the cause.
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