TWINNING MEMBERS

Devoting hours  in contributing to development. Photo: Pauline Duncan

9 September 2009 - All packed, departing to Umzumbe

Ida and Sofia will spent the next 7 days at Child Welfare South Africa - Umzumbe. They will be staying with Mama Gertrude Lushaba, an active management committee member, a volunteer and community leader. She is also a Twinning member, been to Sweden and actively involved in the Global School Journey Programme.

Accomodation opposite the beach but a rural coomunity. They seemed  comfortable. They were introduced to the organisation , the staff and have assisted with administrative work. They made many observations and  asked relevant questions regrading child protection services and their work placement.

Sunday Visit by Members of Twinning - 6 September 2009

Judy, Tilana and I have visited  Dudu. Ida and Sofia. Mzi was also visiting with some of his friends. It was good to see that the Ida and Sofia were relaxed and interacting with members of the community. They are already at home in SA. Dudu and Mzi had taken them to the waterfall, they  also visited a sangoma . We  were informed of their exhausting adventure, the day before.

It is important for Twinning to support, engage and empower Twinning members. To understand the needs and extend a helping hand is a twinning mission. Uniting us as South Africans is a priority on our agenda. With the high rate of unemployment, poverty and HIV/Aids,communities have to find creative ways of sustainability. Dudu and Mzi have developed a tourist route. This must be supported ,  it might be  first steps to greater economic empowerment in this area.

4 to 7 September 2009

The students  were orientated about CWSA service delivery model.. Exposed to twinning by attending twinning meetings ( Time Travel and Global Supplement planning)  They have been  exhausted since their arrival and in bed by 8.30 pm. Their day yesterday included a 15 minute break. In between they grabbed FICA.

BACKGROUND - IDA AND SOFIA INTERNSHIP

Ida and Sofie are both final year social work students at Kalmer University. They were motivated to undertake their final year internship programme in Port Shepstone after having met Lynne , Christa and the two groundbreakers in Oskarhsman this May.Child Welfare South Africa within this context met the university requirement

Communication between the students and the university in preparation for the internship continued over two months. Tormod was involved in their orientation. They also read the various twinning blogs and CWSA website in preparing for this life changing journey. Permission was granted by CWSA- Provincial Office.

They were welcomed by Pauline and myself at Durban International Airport on 1 September 2009. We departed directly to Ekubusisweni where the students were exposed to the South African realities of a deep rural community. They met the management and staff, visited Mrs Mkize's home, where they were offered lunch. Once the students felt reasonably comfortable, arrangements were made with Mrs Mkhize, a retired school principal and Treasurer of CWSA- Ekubusisweni to accommodate them during their week long placement. This was to ensure that they feltl confident being left alone in a deep rural community.

An South African experience

When we, Ronja Malachowska and Katharina Stark went to high school we decided that we wanted to go to Africa and work with children. We started to look for organizations that need volunteers on the internet but we could not find anything that suited us. Katharina started to talk to her teacher; Gunilla about her plans and Gunilla told her that she just had come home from a global school trip to South Africa where she had met some wonderful people. On that trip she visited an organization called Ziphakamise and they also had a childrens home. Gunilla told us to e-mail Lynne Footit from Ziphakamise and ask her if we could come and work at the childrens home (Emseni) starting from August 2008.

Lynne told us that we could not come before the beginning of 2009 because they just received their first Swedish volunteer (Ulrika Ronmark) ever who also had gotten in touch with them trough twinning.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE SOUTH AFRICAN AND SWEDISH CULTURE



This is a subjective summary about differences between the Shout African and Swedish Culture, written on the basis of our own experience and meetings with people under our six months in South Africa. We want to emphasize that this is not any definite fact. Over the 45 million people that live in South Africa we have only meet a few and of the big country we have only seen a little bit, we have mostly just stayed in Port Shepstone a small town in the eastern Kwazulu Natal, so this country, whit its enormous amount of different cultures and people can hardly get a fair assessment/judgment from the basis of what we have seen.

Ronja Malachowska & Katharina Stark, 5 August 2009
The Social standards

In South Africa people are a lot more open and social than in Sweden. It is natural to talk to strangers, like the woman in front of you in the queue or the man on the bus. In Sweden you rather sit alone on the bus, you don not talk to strangers more than is necessary.

In Sweden if you want some on to do you a favor, you ask for it, for example you would say “Could you give me that book, please?” in the South African culture it is more common to order other people, for example “Give me that book, please.” In South Africa you go more directly to the point, whiteout beating about the bush, while in Sweden you could be a lot more indistinct/diffuse to get to your point, when you speak to one another. Like for example you and your friend are at a party and you start to get tired and want to go home, a Swedish person would say to his/her friend, “Is it not getting late, don’t you won’t to go home now?”, while a South African person would say “It’s way to late now, we are going home.”.