Drew's introduction to Reach for the Stars

This past Friday I went to my activist project location for the first time with Mariko and Amelia whom I am working with. I am working for an NGO called Reach for the Stars on their Prevention in Action project and on capacity building. The organization is located in Kuyasa, an area in the township Khayelitsha.

We arrived in Khayelitsha at 10:30am and were shown into a makeshift building with the words “Gogo’s Kitchen” painted in bright green and purple on the front. Inside there was one large room and chairs, some old office chairs, some plastic, some that looked like old household furniture rested along the walls. We were greeted by Mams, the woman who ran Reach for the Stars and had been doing so for the past few years without consistent funding. We each took one of the chairs and sat and waited and listened and Mams finished her breakfast and talked to her friends in Xhosa. In Kuyasa most people’s first language is Xhosa and many of the people we met struggled with English, not as badly as we struggle with Xhosa though. We were offered tea and sat and drank and listened and once everyone had finished their tea and their breakfasts and their conversations Mams told us we were going to see her container. We learned Gogo’s kitchen was the office of another organization, run by Gogo. Mams was using it until her container was turned into an office. This is the job we have taken on.

Mams walked us through Kuyasa to her container. When I was in Guatemala I was told that one of the best ways to see how a community is doing is to look at the dogs. If they are healthy and domesticated then the community is doing very well. If they are out on the street, are thin and dirty then the community was not doing so well. In Kuyasa many dogs were on the street and did not look healthy. The people in Kuyasa are as strong and capable as any others; they just don’t have firm, equal ground to stand on. But there are also people like Mams in Kuyasa who work for the better of the community with little support from anyone but the people she helped, and that was frequently emotional support. Emotional support is important but not enough to run an NGO or to eradicate poverty in a community.

Containers are like shipping containers that have been adapted to suit small business needs. Some have windows, plumbing, and electricity. Mam’s container was painted by UCT students and was one large, box shaped mural on the outside. On the inside it was two small rooms and a bathroom with a few boxes filed with books scattered about and a couch. Gogo provides many of the same services at Mams but is on the same side of town as her container. To reach new people and meet needs that aren’t being met now, Mams wants to move the container to the other side of town. We will also help with this.

We returned to Gogo’s kitchen and, looking for some direction, asked for directions. We knew we were going to turn the container into an office. We did not know what Mams wanted her office to look like or what she wanted in it. We also did not know what Reach for the Stars aimed to do, what its mission was, and how we can contribute in a way aligned with Mams’ vision. She gave us a copy of the organization’s constitution to read. Reach for the Stars aims to combat gangsterism and drug abuse in the community by empowering youth, provide artistic outlets and programs for children in the community, and help rape victims through support groups and by linking them to emergency services. This is a lot to take on. We all expressed a similar worry that the goal was large for a small organization and there were not many plans in place to address these issues in any systematic way. I am hoping we just didn’t hear these plans because of the language barrier and our questions were not fully understood.

We created our plan of action and now know how we will go about supporting her in what ways we can. Her work is ambitious but crucial. Lives’ trajectories depend on work like Mams’. Unfortunately work like hers is frequently brushed off as less important than the grand schemes, powerpoint presentations, and annual reports of well-funded organizations. But unlike many of those organizations, Mams plays a crucial and personal role in the lives of the people she works with and for. Everyone knew her and greeted her and invited her inside when we walked through Kuyasa. She understands the people she is working with and connects with them. Big organizations rarely can make those connections. This is not to say that people should stop supporting larger organizations. We should recognize the need for change at all levels and, in order to change all levels, the need people and organizations working at all levels.