Elizabeth did not expect saying good bye to be so difficult

I did not expect that saying good-bye would be as difficult as it was on Tuesday. The day was pretty slow, but I had another great chat with Pastor Engel. We discussed a lot of the reasons why the violence continued in Hanover Park, as there had been a shooting the night before and there had been a critical injury sustained. This was an accidental shooting where one of the gangs currently involved with the gang war shot a member of a gang not involved in the conflict.

The young man that was shot was 17-years-old, my sisters age who is a senior in high school, and has been involved with the gang his whole life because of family involvement and connections.

He had been a shooter for the gangs since he was 13 and tried to get involved in the Ceasefire program earlier but was unable to because he was under 17. Pastor said that this kid had seen over 20 murders right in front of him and was pretty rude and disrespectful.  Although he is rude and a danger to society, knowing this kid’s background is so important to not judging his actions as a reflection on him as a person. If I have learned anything in Cape Town it is that we all come from different places and are impacted by life in different ways. With this knowledge, we should keep in mind that we cannot place judgment on people in the same way.

We also talked a lot of indoctrination, which I think is an interesting concept that these people are so indoctrinated with the hate of gang violence but then the cure seems to be indoctrination in Christianity. I think it is interesting how there continues to be this divide between religion and gangsterism where the individuals have to be gangsters or churchgoers, there is no in between. Pastor talked about about rewiring the way in which these gang members think, which reminded me of “A Long Way Gone” book published by Ishmael Beah, who was a child soldier in the Sierra Leone. After he was taken out of that situation he had to undergo intense mental health care to reverse the sustained impacts of warfare on his brain. I think that if we were to implement something like this with the gang members of Hanover Park and those back home we would be able to reverse that indoctrination and provide a ground that does not necessarily require the church or a religious organization if that person does not want to be involved.

In working with FCRC and associated projects, I have been able to see the root causes behind a problem and how holistic approaches can be achieved even if there are not always the funds to do so. The work that these amazing people have done is on such a shoestring budget and there work with mediations, classes and rehabilitation may not pay off in two years, but the change in culture will definitely be something that will cause great impact for the years to come.