Room to Read Blog

In Observance of World AIDS Day: Introducing An Unlikely Heroine for Children in South Africa

World AIDS Day was established by the World Health Organization in 1988 to raise awareness of a disease that has devastated generations worldwide. Every December 1, as we observe this solemn day, it’s hard not to be completely overwhelmed by the staggering statistics: 1.8 million deaths from AIDS in 2009; 2.5 million children worldwide infected with AIDS, and 30 child deaths from AIDS every hour. Of those infected by the disease, nine of every 10 live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

And while the numbers are daunting, one little hero is making a big difference to children in South Africa whose lives have been shattered by this ravaging epidemic. Her name is Thandi, and though she doesn’t have the notoriety or spell-casting powers of Harry Potter, her story is very powerful and has brought hope and comfort to some of the millions children who are ill or have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

Thandi is the heroine of a series of books produced by Catherine Groenewald and Room to Read’s Local Language Publishing program in South Africa. Thandi made her debut in I Could be Anywhere, written by Groenewald in 2004 after working with her friend, Sarah Oosthuizen, to establish a women’s sewing collective for an impoverished community in South Africa.  The local women learned sewing skills by making ragdolls, named Nosipho dolls, from scraps of material. It was here Groenewald and Oosthuizen met Gogo, a grandmother who was the sole bread winner for a large family in a community ravaged by HIV/AIDS, TB, poverty, illiteracy, teenage pregnancies and alcohol abuse. Groenewald remembers, “Forming a friendship with her, and seeing her daily life, the children around her and her personal struggles, made me want to tell her story.” 

In I Could Be Anywhere, Thandi, an orphan who has lost both of her parents to AIDS, moves in with her grandmother, Gogo, and together they make a doll named Nosipho from the scraps of Thandi’s deceased parents’ clothing. Through Nosipho, Thandi finds comfort and healing, and the two become inseparable. The second Thandi book, Nosipho Comes to Stay, written by Oosthuizen and illustrated by Groenewald, was published by Room to Read in 2007, translated into 11 South African languages, and distributed to Room to Read libraries throughout South Africa. 

Groenewald later produced three more books in the Nosipho series, two of which are Room to Read publications: Jingle-jingle in My Pocket, published in 2009, and The Big Secret, to be published by the end of 2010.
In addition to having the books about Thandi in our libraries, Room to Read South Africa partnered with two local non-profit organizations, ABC Stories and Siphosenkosi, to have the books and handmade dolls distributed to orphanages and children’s clinics throughout the country. Groenewald notes, “While speaking to a doctor, who works for Kidz Positive, an HIV/AIDS Clinic in Kayalitsha, Cape Town, I was struck by the huge burden HIV-positive children bear. They feel they must keep their status secret for fear of family scorn, reprisals and rejection by a sometimes uncompassionate community. The Clinic Sisters and counselors comfort and counsel these children - hopefully with the doll (as a tangible comfort) and book (gentle education about the truth) these children feel heard and less burdened.”

We all anxiously await the day we can close the book on the tragedy of AIDS, but until that day, we’re honored to be part of an effort bringing some comfort to children coping with extreme loss and sadness.  

Meet Thandi personally by reading Jingle-jingle in my Pocket via Scibd (and also check out Scribd's Read for a Cause promotion benefitting Room to Read).

Visit our website to learn more about our Local Language Publishing program.  

 

Age of Enlightenment in India: Muslim Village Breaks the Illiterate Cycle for Girls in their Community

On the border of the Indian states of Haryana and Rajasthan sits a small, rural and very remote village of Mirzapur that claims they found enlightenment -– enlightenment from education.   I was fortunate to visit this village last week.

It’s a 5 hour drive to reach Mirzapur from Delhi along the highway and dirt roads packed with cars, trucks, 3-wheeled “autos”, motorcycles, bicycles, cows, camels and many, many people.  We are being taken into this protected Muslim community with Room to Read’s partner organization Alwar Mewat Institute of Education and Development (AMIED) who encouraged this once illiterate and uneducated community to support education and particularly, girls’ education.  They have found success -– since India gained independence 60 years ago, this will be the first generation of girls to attend school in this community.

In Rajasthan alone, Room to Read’s Girls Education program works in five districts and supports over 800 girls through five partner organizations.  In partnership with AMIED, Room to Read helps close to 200 girls remain in school -– some of those girls attend a pilot “bridge course” which tutors those forced to drop out of school and helps assimilate them back into school by catching them up with the mainstream curriculum.  When we visited the Mirzapur bridge course, we met over 40 young girls who are desperately trying to find their way back into school.

I saw one girl -- possibly 12 years old with a small infant and wondered if this was her own.  No, it was explained: this girl brings her baby brother to the course because she is responsible for taking care of him and if this means she has to bring him to school, that is what she does.  The teachers in the course encourage this; they encourage anything to help these girls transition back into the school system.

It’s not just the financial struggle for the family that keeps girls out of school.  Even more so in Rajasthan, it is cultural barriers among the Muslim communities that gave this community a statistic of a 0% literacy rate among women.   Girls are not encouraged to study and if there is school, it was typically taught by religious leaders outside of the mainstream school system.   But AMIED would not hear of this and a few years ago began an underground movement to ingratiate themselves into this community and start a “wave of enlightenment” -– starting with the men of Mizapur and teaching them the value of education.  AMIED felt if they could just convince one of the stronghold Muslim communities to change their ways, they would act as a model for others in the region who would want to follow their lead.  And, it’s been working! 

 

We sat with the men’s educational council who explained after many years they have recognized the value of education and feel comfortable with girls attending school because they have trust that it will help their community in the long run.  Just four years ago before the campaign began, only fifteen children attended the local primary school – all of them boys and since 1952, only 20 men in all had graduated.  Now, after AMIED’s campaign and with Room to Read’s support, there are 575 children in the school and 275 of them are girls and with so many students attending, they built a secondary school so students could continue their learning!  In fact, we met Rajbala, the first girl ever in this community to complete 8th grade and she is now being treated as the local celebrity.   She told us, “when I graduate, I hope to become a teacher and give back to my community who has provided me this opportunity.”

-- Rebecca Hankin

India: Shobha has a story to tell us all

DELHI, INDIA -- We walk into a class and hear a lion roar!  At the center of the room stands a petite looking young girl with her eyes wide open and hands spread out. There is a pin drop silence as she takes a deep breath before walking with measured steps towards a small boy and looks him straight in the eye. The child cringes, and moves back…

Obviously this is Shobha at her best, telling stories like only she can.  Her narration is packed with drama and action and it is amazing to see that every child in the class listen in rapt attention.

The twenty-minute session is exhausting and she wipes the small beads of perspiration from her face.  She joins me with a big smile.  “How do you manage this?” I ask her. “Well if you enjoy something then you give your all” she says still out of breath. “The secret to good storytelling is that you have to ensure the group is engaged – use simple language, modify our voice, maybe mimic at times and make it participatory by asking a question or two.”

Well, theoretically it sounded brilliant but to practice that and to work with children on a routine basis is certainly not that easy.  Shobha agreed and explained, “I actually plan my story sessions in detail. I read a few stories and mull over them. Then I short list at least three stories, keeping in mind that the story should appeal to both boys and girls. I then read it out loud, and put in the right expressions and keep a track of the time each story takes.”

I am curious to find out if she has a theater background. Shobha clarifies, “My family is very conservative and even in my school days I was not allowed to participate in such activities. I do get to watch plays and soap operas on the TV now and my skills for acting are all self-taught.”

Shobha added “Perhaps what really helped me was the training I received from SAKSHI” (Room to Read’s  NGO partners).  “The training helped me to get over my inhibitions and also understand how to take this exercise forward.”

Shobha is enrolled for a correspondence course and is also a volunteer at SAKSHI.  She visits this school each week to conduct story telling sessions. “The idea is to encourage children to read story books. Sometimes I narrate a story and just as we are close to the dramatic end, I stop the narrative and ask a child to read and finish the story."

-- Reena Luke