 I’ve been to South Africa a number of times now but I always seem to forget how intense this country is. Safety is the number one issue for us and the thing that stresses me out the most.
It’s mentally exhausting having to be on your guard at all times. Seemingly normal activities like driving, getting money from the ATM, and just walking around are magnified tenfold because of the high crime rates in South Africa. There were four of us from the TNHF team and we talked a lot about the poverty in South Africa and how it often feels worse than lots of places in the world, simply because the disparity of wealth is so extreme. I can’t imagine what it would be like to wake up in a one-bedroom shack every morning but go to work in a city like Cape Town seeing people driving sports cars and wearing designer clothes. It’s naïve to simply link crime to poverty, but with the income gap so large, you can’t help but wonder.  
(Shacks in the Cape Flats and Century City Mall Food Court. 15 minutes apart by car.) The flat where we stayed had a wonderful view of Cape Town but the nights kept us on edge. There was a break-in two doors down and another in the flat below us. Chase, our Board President, slept with a knife on his nightstand. But despite the challenges, it was amazing to see These Numbers Have Faces in action in the Cape Flats and seeing lives being changed. It was prolific for us to witness first hand the impact we are making with our students, their families, and the community as a whole. Connecting up with current students was a blast as was meeting and interviewing new ones, and seeing amazing athletic performances from JL Zwane Football Club and the Iintombi Zilapha Dancers.
The big goal for the trip was solidifying our Community Impact Model and tightening up the localized structure of our Education Program and TNHF staff based at the JL Zwane Centre. (Some TNHF students and staff at the JL Zwane Centre in Gugulethu) We had a number of incredible meetings with all our students, South African staff, and community partners. Hearing stories of lives being changed and young people empowered to improve their communities was pretty amazing for me personally. I’ve put thousands of hours into TNHF, and seeing it taking shape in an incredibly localized way that is uniquely South African was a defining moment of my life. Not to say all of this doesn’t come without challenges. International development is messy. Nothing is ever A + B = C because people aren’t products to be upgraded or easily improved upon. We’re dealing with real individuals who face their own struggles and on top of that are victims of apartheid, poverty, and inequality. The work is even harder because I’m not perfect either. Prone to over-analysis and intensity, I am easily swayed by my own emotional or psychological state.
Even though it was only 2 weeks. We definitely succeeded in our goal of re-structuring the TNHF Education Program. We’re thrilled to see it working better and are really looking forward to how we can begin adding more and more young people into the program. Our goal is to recruit 8-10 more students into our education program this year, with a special emphasis on women. (Vuyokazi and Zintathu, our two new female students in the TNHF lineup) We’ll be launching our new TNHF Internship program in a matter of days, and our new Womens’ Empowerment Campaign in April.
The World Cup in South Africa will keep us very busy and there is a lot of great stuff to be on the lookout for with ways to engage in our soccer programs and events centered around the tournament.
Thank you for your incredible support of These Numbers Have Faces. All of this exists because of your incredible partnership.
- Justin Zoradi, Director, These Numbers Have Faces. Email me:
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