Dispatches:
Sahana Prasad
Michael Williams
Jasmyne Jackson
Zakiyah Sayyed
Rocky Block
Mansi Goyal
Noelle Sanford
Porscha Kazmierczak
Raina LaGrand
Randy Dowding
Ann O’Neill
Sithembiso Nkosi
Jasmine Ishmael
Carson Phillips
Simisola Oyeleye
Rocky Block with Fazela Haniff
▸ Dr. Nesha Haniff Conclusion
We Speak the Names of the South Africans Who Enable Us
The 2012 Pedagogy of Action came to a close on the 5th of June. It has been a very good year for POA and we were overwhelmed with pleas, yes pleas to return. It is as though in its 11th. Year , POA is having a “wow” effect as one young lady from the University of Witwatersrand said on Thursday this week. You must come back, she says, you must come back, says the principle of Charles Hugo Primary School, you must come back says Love Life, and so says the peer educators at University of Johannesburg and so on and so on. I am HIV fatigued and so this is not a good moment to say such things to me. But thinking about this and all the very wonderful South Africans who are an essential part of POA , who welcome us, feed us, support us and show us love in so many ways, make leaving difficult. This year we had the privilege of working in Vulindlela a place where one in two persons between the ages of 25-30 are HIV infected. Fanele Ntombisela brought us there to work with the staff of the CAPRISA outreach team. This is a very important research and trial site and who comes in an out of this site is carefully monitored, and they say to us after we have taught them the module, next year when you come back. The work being done there is critical to the protection of women against HIV. We thank Fanele and the team there for allowing us to be a part of this effort. The video of her interview is attached to this dispatch. It is one of the experiences I cherish most this year because literally we were on the frontline of the HIV epidemic and we had a chance to maybe contribute something to at least reducing stigma. It was an honor for us to be asked and to be accepted.
I still cannot forget the impact of seeing Victoria falls which is actually the smoke that thunders. I was so drenched by the constant rain of its mist and the sound roaring in my ears for the forty five minute walk along its edge and we were also drenched by unending rainbows.I must see this again.
In the 2010 symposium clebrating 10 years of the Pedagogy of Action I said the following:
How can we celebrate the POA without the people who helped shape that transformation, who gave us new eyes to see Africa. In 2006 Medicins Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) conducted a self reflection and had to address the dilemma of their work. they became aware that their national staff comprises some 22,640 persons and filled 92% of all field positions, 2,206 were expatriate staff.
“despite their prevailing numbers, the national staff is not prominent in MSF’s public representations of its activities or in the popular understanding of how the orgaization works. More importantly, as some national members of MSF who participated in the Luxembourg conference pointed out, their knowledge and expertise are frequently undervalued within the organization itself” (Schevchenko and Fox Health and Human Rights V.10 #1.109 www.hhjournal.org)
And so this is true of POA as well. Yes we do come in and do innovative work but the infrastructure of POA in South Africa although not a formal entity is made up of a large team of South Africans who enable us. I want now to recognize them by speaking and writing their names for they are more than half of POA. Indeed while there may be 14 or 15 of us there are more than fifty people who make up the South African component of POA.Here are there names.
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FAZELA, LIZ OF LIZ AT LANCASTER, CATHERINE, ZAC, GERHARD, KENNY, MARK, ATHOLL, TEOLENE, TEBOHO, CLAUDIA, MAMA JUDITH, MAMA EMILY, RANGOATO, MALOSE, LE-ANDRE, LABETHE, GITA, MOKWENA, BELINDA, CLIFF, ANDRE, LABETHE, GITA, MOKWENA, BELINDA, CLIFF, ZETHU, ROSEMARY, TYLER, QUARRAISHA, FANELE, VIRAISH, INDRANI, SHAVANI, MR.WHITBY, LAVERN, THEMBA, BUKI, THABANI, GUGU, SITHEMBISO, TSHEPISO, NQOBILE, ALFRED, VIVIAN, LOUIS, JOHANNES, Mr. KATHRADA.
There are others but these are the people who have worked with us over the last 11 years and have welcomed us with warmth and affection each time. We thank them for their contribution for this is also an important part of the legacy of POA in South Africa. They have not only given us new eyes to see Africa but new eyes to see ourselves.Enkosi.
Nesha Z. Haniff
Johannesburg, June 2012
To view an interview with Fanele click on the link below:
