Children depend on adults and the system to guide them in their formative years.  It’s a big part of what makes adults, adults and children, children.  The system is supposed to, in theory and practice, instruct a child to learn X material, do Y work, in order to become an educated, self-reliant adult. But what happens when adults don’t give proper guidance and or the system is ineffective, broken and just plain non-existent?

In many ways absente describes a lot of our community’s parents and ineffective, broken and non-existent describes the local school system in which many of the black, Xhosa speaking children we work with go.  As of late, I’m beginning to realize that if a child does exactly what the system asks of them, it still may not be enough.  And while we’re proactively supplementing the school’s curriculum (if one could call it that) through daily tutoring, we are on a never-ending quest, not to do what is good, but what is BEST for these children.

Let us not talk about the problem, but rather BE ABOUT a solution.

Ithemba, in conjunction with Brand On Screen Printing, is pioneering a program to develop marketable job skills for some of our youth.  That is, to engender niche skills that will help differentiate them in a when job hunting.   For starters we have put together a seven-week course to teach the basics of screen printing; from creating and preparing art, all the way to printing and finishing a product.  We are stating small with four boys enrolled in the first trial run, but we hope to offer more courses in the future, and eventually an apprenticeship program.

(pics from week one)

The plan doesn’t stop with screen printing.  Our hope is to take the model and apply it to carpentry and other trade skills, as well.

Give a man to fish, and you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Or as I’ve quoted before, “When we invest our money in the poor, we make the poor into beggars; when we invest in programs for the poor, we turn the poor into beneficiaries…” –Jakara Christian

So may we be a people who fight against systems that perpetuate dependence by empowering people to depend on themselves.  And as we seek to supply those in need, may the need we seek supply be helping the poor to supply for themselves.

LOVE. JOY. PEACE.
Zach