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FROM THE FIELD

"They left their country to come to South Africa to make some money. Sadly their timing got them caught in the middle of all of this."
29 May 2008 10:50:00 GMT
 Source: World Emergency Relief (WER) - UK
Gary and Marnelle Helling (Monte Christo Ministries)

Website: Website: http://www.wer-uk.org

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Background

•  South Africa violence

•  Children

•  Zimbabwe crisis

•  AIDS pandemic

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Xenophobia. It's a word that many of us hadn't heard before. It means "a fear or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown, especially of strangers or foreign people." The world press has now and for a long time to come tied the word to South Africa.

Let me explain. Here in South Africa we have what is an increasingly volatile problem. Unemployment exceeds 30% and, due to the many known problems in many of the African countries to the north, we have a large illegal immigration problem. Many of the immigrants are men seeking gainful employment and/or safety. They are from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Somalia, Congo, Nigeria and many others. Many of them are also trained with job skills (teachers, retail sales, engineers, professionals, etc.) and are hard workers.

Frustration and anger have been building among the local unemployed South Africans and much of that anger has been focused on these foreign nationals, considered by some as illegally stealing the work that is available. All that is background to the violence that has sprung up around South Africa. Beginning about two weeks ago, shops and homes of foreign Africans were attacked in Johannesburg. The news reports of these attacks spread around the country slowly triggering like actions in townships and informal settlements throughout South Africa. We, in our community of Paarl, thought it would never happen here - but last Friday it did.

First a shop in Fairyland was looted and then the mobs grew. The police responded wonderfully by evacuating everyone before they could be attacked, so only property was the victim. But now we had a camp outside of town with a growing population of frightened people. What to do?

Monte Christo Ministries (MCM) responded quickly. Our new food centre, with equipment provided by World Emergency Relief (WER), had its grand opening a week ago and we happened to have a large batch of soup and some bread available. We agreed to provide the food. Team members were called in on Saturday and we quickly made plans to go up and feed everyone... which were reported at 250 people and growing. We got lunch up at midday and began making another batch of soup for dinner. The crowd was growing.

On Monday morning the camp had swelled to 650. We served Pap (corn meal) that night by popular request of the Zimbabweans - and it was a much bigger hit than the soup.

By Tuesday the Municipality had finally been able to make arrangements with some local catering companies, as well as providing cooking facilities to the refugees. This means that our emergency food provision is no longer needed, for now, and life isn't as frantic as it was over the weekend. Last night our team went up to the camp and we spent time talking to a young 20-year-old Zimbabwean woman name Isabelle. She has been in South Africa for 3 months with her husband and had a two month old baby girl named Cynthia whom she delivered while here in South Africa. She told her story about being the youngest of 6 - she has 5 older brothers. She and her husband left their country to come to South Africa to make some money. Sadly their timing got them caught in the middle of all of this. Her family must be so worried about her. She is younger than our own children.

This tragedy has started to provide names of people to us. Real people with their own lives. For the moment we are visiting the camp every day to try to encourage them during these desperate days.

Words by Gary and Marnelle Helling of Monte Christo Ministries, WER's local partner organisation in South Africa.

Monte Christo Ministries (MCM) was established as a South African charity in 2004 and works with disadvantaged communities in Paarl East. Their programmes include community sports, HIV/AIDS education and leadership skills. For more information on their work, please visit www.montechristoministries.com

World Emergency Relief (WER) is an international relief and development charity and was established as a UK charity in 1995. We work with disadvantaged communities in over 20 countries across the world and support a range of projects, including education, healthcare and orphanages. For more information on our work, please visit www.wer-uk.org


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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