Rondebosch to Khayelitsha

Yesterday I travelled a relatively short distance from Rondebosch to Khayelitsha - it might as well have been on the other side of the world. We were going to one of the schools in the townships, all the way down Lansdowne Road, a familiar landmark on the Cape Flats. We went on and on for 45 minutes or more, leaving behind the tree-lined streets and high walls of the Southern Suburbs.

To start off, the road was pretty good and then gradually became more chaotic – cows were spotted rummaging through garbage on one side of the road, while on the other side, live sheep were for sale. A little further was a big open area where fires were going in drums which had been halved lengthwise, meat on the grill, fragrant smoke billowing into the air.

Here and there patches of green grass with colourful benches and tables hinted at previous attempts to encourage a communal gathering place. Along other stretches of road, shacks threatened to spill over into the road, so close that we could almost see right into their living areas.

Everything could be bought – mattresses piled high next to second-hand furniture, pre-assembled shacks of corrugated iron and wood, haircuts, general groceries and medical care. Streams of school children were making their way home past a billboard warning against the ills of drinking alcohol during pregnancy: “Your child needs a mother, not a dop”. Hooting taxis packed with weary travellers were weaving through traffic. A group of children on the back of a bakkie, passed away the time playing cards.

We attracted stares from curious pedestrians, wondering what our business was. We stopped to ask for directions only to be told to keep going straight ahead. At last we arrived at Chris Hani School where seven young girls were rehearsing for their trip to Sweden to perform in front of HM Queen Silvia. I can’t help thinking that our trip to see them was almost as far as the journey that they will make from Khayelitsha to Sweden!

Children's Heroes

Cecilia, Murhabazi and Monira in the Town Square, Mariefred

Cecilia Flores-Oebanda looks like someone who you would meet in the supermarket. She has an open face which is often lit up with a friendly smile. You would be surprised to hear of the life of struggle that she has lived.  She is from an extremely poor family in the Philippines, and as a young child, sold fish that her father caught in the river and along with her 10 siblings, searched the garbage dump for things for her family to sell to supplement their income.

At a young age she became active in the struggle for human rights under the dictatorship of Marcos - a struggle that included living in the mountains as a guerrilla, and spent four years in prison with her children. After the dictator was overthrown, Cecilia continued to fight for the rights of children, specifically to end child labour and trafficking.

Cecilia was just one of the very inspiring people I met at the WCPRC awards this year. Cecilia was honoured for her 20-year struggle with the World’s Children’s Honorary Award. In her acceptance speech she said that she was ‘energised and ready for the battlefield...to wage war against trafficking”.

I was fortunate to sit with her at dinner that evening and across the table she shared some of her fight for the rights of children. Her warmth and passion is evident in everything she says and does. At first glance she looks soft around the edges but underneath is a steely passion for what she does and in her determination to take the struggle around the world. She has received numerous other awards and will be participating in the UN discussion around children trafficking.

Cecilia urged us to take the children from “exploitation to empowerment” and to fight for the dignity of every child. She reminded us that we are entrusting the future of humanity to children. 

Murhabazi Namegabe from the Congo has saved thousands of children who were abducted and forced to become soldiers. He has been imprisoned and assaulted and lives with constant death threats. His organisation runs 35 homes and schools for children.  Murhabazi was chosen as the Children’s Rights Hero for 2011. Accompanying him was Faida, a girl who broke my heart. She is barely 15 years old and yet has lived a life of horrendous suffering. Captured at 11 years by one of the many armed groups operating in DR Congo, she was forced to become a sex slave as well as a soldier. Murhabazi went back to negotiate with the soldiers three times before they released her. She says simply that “he did what a father would do for me”.

Faida arrived the day before the ceremony because of problems with her visa and standing up to accept the award with Murhabazi must have been completely overwhelming. Here she was in a Scandinavian castle in the presence of Queen Silvia, and unable to understand a word that was being said. Her eyes had the haunted look of someone who has seen too much.

Monira Rahman is a strong, confident woman from Bangladesh. She runs a foundation for people, mainly girls, who are victims of acid attacks. The children of the world voted for her to receive the Honorary Award along with Cecilia.

Magnus Bergmar with jury members Ofek and Hamoudi

The children on the jury are all experts on child rights through their own experiences. I remember Ofek from Israel the first time I went to the awards. Then, as a 15 year old he stood up along with fellow-juror, Omar from Palestine and together they told us that they were tired of living under conflict conditions. Now he is retiring from the jury and in his short but profound speech he spoke as “the Jewish grandson of Holocaust survivors” of his hope that “the world would find more words for peace than war”. “I tell you that peace is possible,” he ended.

These are real heroes - people who inspire us to live better lives, who teach us the true meaning of being compassionate and honorable. Follow these links to read more about them:


Cecilia Flores-Oebanda
Monira Rahman
Murhabazi Namegabe

Magic in the Music, for sure!

Gripsholms Castle

The imposing red-brick turreted Gripsholm Castle rises up beside the lake where it has stood for almost five hundred years. I am sure that the thick walls have withstood much and would have many stories to tell if they could. In recent times many performers have played within these walls, including the Swedish group, ABBA.  But I doubt whether they have been rocked by music like they were last Thursday when our young band from Cape Town burst into the jazzy rhythms from home.

After a more sedate start to the proceedings of the 11^th Annual Awards Ceremony of the World Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child, the seven teenagers took to the stage and ROCKED! They had hardly played the last note when the audience literally exploded into applause. I felt the first tears to prickle behind my eyes, I was so proud.

It is a long way from Delft on the Cape Flats to the picturesque town of Mariefred in Sweden. Golden yellow daffodils and crimson-red tulips bloom along the roadside and in pots in front of many doors. The castle stands on the edge of Lake Malaren. Beautiful parks and walks surround it. It is here that HM Queen Silvia of Sweden presides over the Awards, an award that she herself has called “a kind of Nobel Prize for Children”.

The ceremony is conducted in such a way that the very emotional stories of children’s rights activists and the experiences of the children themselves, is balanced by musical items by children. This year the children were from Brazil, Sweden and South Africa.

The Special Stars

The Cape Town band did us proud. Adelia, the pint-sized singer packed a mighty punch. Time after time they took to the stage to wow the audience. Every time they played they it seemed that they grew in confidence. They were clearly having such a good time that it was infectious.

Adelia signing autographs

Afterwards people flocked around them congratulating and hugging them. They appeared to be on such a high that I had difficulty gathering them for photographs. Everyone else wanted photographs and even a few autographs were requested.  At dinner, I was beset with questions about the group - everyone was talking about the energy with which they played, their confidence and their talent.

The next day I walked through the park to visit them in their hotel. I saw the (Portuguese-speaking) Brazilian children who had also played at the ceremony – they were humming a very familiar tune, occasionally I made out a few words. As I came closer I realised they were singing the Mafikizolo song, Hamba nawe... I think that sums up the impact our children made.

Visit World Children's Prize for more on the ceremony.

Magic in the Music Part 2

The little orange classroom was bathed in sunlight and vibrated with the sounds of old South African greats like Miriam Makeba and Hotep Galeta, as well as newer ones such as Mango Groove and Mafikizolo. The seven teenagers, with shiny faces and new hairdos seem to have grown in confidence and stature since I first saw them just over a week ago. They were smiling, animated and comfortable with their performance.


In smart costumes with a clever blend of traditional African and modern Western, they represented both the past and the future of our country. They debated whether the colourful collars of their white shirts should be up or down. The girls had braided their hair  and looked chic in their fitted dresses of many colours with beads around their ankles, wrists and neck.

We had come to see the dress rehearsal. The chief supporter, in the form of one of the grannies was in the small audience while Ian, the director, looked like a proud father.  It had been a challenge because of the age limit of 18 – they are the Delft Big Band beginners, but the performance was anything but beginner.

Yesterday my daughter and I went to wave them off at the airport. It was quite an emotional departure – many tears mixed with a lot of excitement. As they waved goodbye to the small group of family and friends, they were saying farewell to many familiar things – they were about to get a taste of the big world out there, broadening their minds along with their horizons – a story to tell their grandchildren. 

Magic in the Music

Right next to the Cape Town International Airport is a township known for its high crime rate, poverty, unemployment and controversial housing project. Curiously, it is named after one of the leading cities in Holland, well-known for its porcelain and famous painters. It is also known as one of the prettiest cities in Holland. The Delft that I visited this morning was anything but pretty. The wind swirled plastic bags around, people and dogs milled about on the streets, and informal traders tried to earn a living from their meagre stalls.

We found the grim-looking Voorbrug High School behind barbed-wired walls and tall gates. It looked safe enough, but I was wary – this was not on my usual route. We parked, wondering if we were in the right place as there was no other car about, but as we opened the doors the sounds of jazz beckoned. One of the classrooms is being used as a rehearsal room for seven teenagers who are about to embark on the journey of their lives. They have been chosen to perform at the Award ceremony for the WCPRC in Sweden at the Gripsholm Castle in front of Queen Silvia. None of them have ever been on a plane.

When I was asked if I knew of  a group who played anything jazzy to recommend for the WCPRC ceremony, the Delft Big Band immediately sprang to mind. I have been privileged to be in the audience on a few occasions when the band performed. The band is directed by Ian Smith who has been working with them for two years. Using hand-me-down instruments and a lot of passion and energy, Smith is giving these children something to aim for, to take them out of the cycle of gangs, drugs and poverty. I have written about the project in my blog on the Tenth Sekunjalo EduJazz concert. 

The seven teenagers have been chosen from this project. They are hard at work practising their repertoire of South African jazz and are promising to do us proud. I feel so privileged to have experienced the magic that is coming out of a township as bleak as Delft. As we left the school we watched an airplane come into land as another took off. Living next door to the third busiest airport in Africa, these children must see planes arrive and leave every few minutes. Next time they will be on one of them. 

Building Gardens of Hope

I have just been reading an edited copy of the 8th Nelson Mandela lecture given by Ariel Dorfman in Johannesburg yesterday. Unfortunately I missed it on the radio - I managed to hear his last few sentences before his voice broke and the crowd roared. He spoke about the gardens of hope that people like Nelson Mandela and others living in conflict, created. Nelson Mandela's garden that he created while in prison, brought him much hope, joy and dignity. He urged us to remember that gardens grow like justice  and reconciliation should, and that we need to sing to the earth to forgive us and continue to give us hope.

I have been thinking that the people around us who do good, who help others, who share what they have, who do what they can to in some small way make the world a better place, are all growing gardens. Planting seeds, nurturing and willing them to yield beautiful products.

From the  NGO's down to the little Gogo who takes children into her care so that their parents can earn a living, the projects that aim to get children off the street, the people who make soup to feed the homeless or the musician who gives his time to build a jazz band with borrowed instruments in one of the poverty-stricken townships, we are all building and growing. We need to know what people are doing. We need to peek over the walls and admire and copy what is being done. My "favourite" function that I attend every year, is the Inyathelo Awards for philanthropy, that identifies and celebrates the people who are building the spirit of ubuntu in our communities.

We have a friend, Bobby Sager, who travels the world with his family, from Rwanda to Bhutan, Afghanistan to South Africa, India to Palestine, doing good. We are fortunate to see them regularly and hear of their adventures. In between visits, he keeps us updated with mostly black and white pictures that he has taken of the places they have visited. Many of the pictures are of children and my favourite picture is of 2 young girls standing with their arms around each other, having a good laugh.

The picture was taken in Afghanistan in the middle of conflict and I have framed it and put it on my desk. It reminds me that children, no matter that the world may be falling down around them, will always manage to find joy. This is why I am so passionate about being involved with the World Children's Prize. The fact that the organisation is powered by children who at the same time, are learning about democracy and human rights, gives me immense hope for a better future society.

Everyday we are bombarded with negative images and stories, we absorb them and they become part of the very fibre of our being. We start to believe everything that we read and hear. Whenever we have been out of the country for a while, I find that the news feels like a physical onslaught on our return. It is as if I build up some kind of immunity to all the negativity when I am away. It hits you in the face when you come back.

We need to build a culture of hope. We need to start changing the energy around us. We need to start building hope and excitement about the future. We each need to find a garden to work in - one person can make a difference. As Bobby says, "Hope isn't just nice; it's a game-changer."