I arrived in South Africa in 2005 to volunteer, my first time on this incredible continent that I had been fascinated with since I was a child. The third day I was there I was taken to Klapmuts township to visit some of the people there. Klapmuts is one of the many townships in the Cape Town area. Unfortunately there are townships all over this country, a township is simply a poor area that people were forced into during the Apartheid government (for more info click here). Today they are the impoverished areas of South Africa.

Seeing the townships of Cape Town really shocked me. I thought that I had some grasp of poverty, but I had no idea. As we pulled up to the house of a man named Yellow and his wife Pasqueline, I looked to the right and couldn’t believe my eyes. What I saw was a squatter camp, which is the poorest of the poor areas. People have built some semblances of shelter from whatever materials they could find. There is no water, no electricity, and no plumbing. This is the case in many of the township areas, but the squatter camps are usually the most shocking. Pasqueline took me through the squatter camp and it was almost too much to bear. I began to imagine living there and I wanted to break down and cry, but I held it in because I didn’t want to be disrespectful, these are their homes. Someone pointed out to me a big container at the end of the road and said “That is where we go to the bathroom.” My first question was “How do you bathe?” He said that they walk and fetch water and use the water out of the bucket to bathe themselves. It is really hard to imagine never being able to take a shower or waking up in the middle of the night and having to walk down the road to use the bathroom. Unfortunately, the majority of the world lives in similar or much worse conditions. Something has got to be done.

As we walked I saw two small girls and smiled at them, they started giggling and following us. Every time that I turned around there were more children following us and the next thing I knew I was surrounded by these beautiful children smiling and hugging me. It was amazing to see the joy and hope in these people’s eyes although they have suffered so much. I remember looking at these children and thinking, how will they make it out of here? I made a promise to myself that I would help this community and give these children a way out.

We went back this year (2007) and brought sacks of food and sports equipment for this community. We also found some real ways that we could help uplift this community.

Sincerely,

Sarah Fennel
Founder of Restore Humanity