This is the informal settlement area known at Joe Slovo, located in Port Elizabeth, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. It is home to about 6,000 people, most of them children. Most of the students we work with at the Sivuyiseni Intermediate School call Joe Slovo their home. There has been much progress made to Joe Slovo since we began our projects in South Africa. The government has started building cinderblock homes and hopes to see an end to the many shacks in the next five years or so.
It has been a goal of ours to secure our very own site in within Joe Slovo. We will be within a very short walking distance to our students. Our numbers can increase, the amount of girls specifically, a goal of ours for the last three years. That our students live so far from school, one to two hours, presents a safety issue for our girls. Girls also have more responsibilities at home.
The Future
Having our own site will also mean that can work with children outside of Sivuyiseni. It is also difficult to have a mobile program. It is time we have a space that is our very own.
ArtWorks for Youth has been with the Council of Joe Slovo during our last three visits to the country. During our visit this past summer, the Council offered us free land and a structure. This means that if we don’t raise the funds to build a site on the land, we can at least focus on renovating the structure, then build onto it as we are able.
We are very excited about this growth. To that end, we are in discussion with a law firm within South Africa that we hope will work with us probono to draw up a contract for the location as well as help us to secure non profit status within South Africa. While we have non profit status here in the states, this move will allow us to take advantage of funding opportunities within South Africa. It is also a necessary step to becoming a program that operates year-round, not just every four months as we do now.
Our goal for beginning a year-round program is August, 2009. Our goal to operate year-round makes our other goals that much more obtainable.
We would like to increase our feeding program to include more nutritious meals more often. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich and fruit that we feed students now is, for many, the largest meal of the day.
ArtWorks for Youth 226 North 5th Street, #5 - Brooklyn, New York, 11211
(917)376-0571
Executive Director - John V. Lombardo
We would like to improve by purchasing burners to offer a grain and a vegetable each day prior to art instruction.
We have had a friend and volunteer offer to fund our sewing room and resource room once we have our own site. The resource room will hold encyclopedias, books to lend, and will offer homework help and tutoring.
Two doctors that we often send our students to have agreed to be at our site one day a week to tend to our students who are in need. We will hire a nurse to screen them so it is determined which of our students need to see the doctor.
While we are first and foremost an art program, we also realize that our students have many other needs. Needs that are easily met but not by the limited resources of our students and their families. We gather new ideas and see new needs with each visit to South Africa. Some of these needs can be met merely by an increased presence in South Africa. Others will take some more work. But we are confident that the needs of our students can be met. We’ve met so many already.
Please let us know how you might help us reach these goals.