heart breaking again and again...

working and living in south africa is never dull and just when you think you have seen it all life comes up and kicks you in the teeth again........even though we are working in some of the poorest areas of grabouw, and indeed south africa and see life in all it's different elements via our village of hope and thembacare projects.

boys mom, in his school shoes
with remnants of their home behind

today we resumed our sports outreach programme at iraq informal settlement, one of the seven different areas where we work each afternoon, and although i had heard that one of our boys families had been affected by a shack fire over the weekend i was unaware of the devastation that it caused.

it wasn't until the end of our sports session that he mentioned that he and his family had lost almost everything in a fire which not only burnt down his whole home but as his older brother had been in the home when it hit and he had been killed.

the only things that the family managed to save were a single divan bed, an old single bedstead, a small kitchen unit and the boys shoes, upon further questioning i found out that he hadn't gone to school today as he had lost all his school clothes, books, pens etc and couldn't attend without them.

creation of a new home.....to house 7 people!

my heart was moved to go and purchase him some replacement uniform, a shirt, jumper, jacket and trousers but this seemed so little when i took them to him and saw the effects of the fire for myself. the sight of his mother digging the foundation to the new home, which they had constructed out of a simple timber/tin structure, in his school shoes nearly bought me to tears.

the family has been supported by the local community who have helped with the building of the new home, in the downpours that we experienced over the weekend, and they, his mum, dad, sister and three other siblings (7 in total) have been sleeping with neighbours, however they will be moving into their 'new' home tomorrow.....

i'm not sure why i was so shocked, i have seen the effects of a fire on more than one family before, i have seen poverty, death and disease on a number of occasions.....maybe it was due to the fact that none of this will be reported to the wider world, be that via the wider TV and internet media or a simple mention in a local newspaper.......maybe it was the fact that if it had happened in a western home or town at least it would have bought up a topic of debate about the dangers of living with open fires/paraffin stoves in our homes.....

...or maybe it was the realisation that this wasn't the only event that affected this small and tight knit community this weekend that went unnoticed, be that someone dying of AIDS in their home alone, a child being abused but an alcoholic relative, a baby being born into a family living below the bread line, the list could go on and on and that is why i think i feel so bad.........

.......yes we were able to do our little bit but.............there's more to it than that and that is what i'm  battling with.