Umthombo Arts Project: November 2008

The Arts 2nd Edition By: Mxolisi Sithole

Why would an 8 year old child run away from home? Why would a 14 year old girl get involved in prostitution? Why is crime so high in our country? These are the questions that would go through my mind while interacting with the children on the streets. You would be amazed by the respect that these children have, I never thought somebody from the street would actually refer to me as ‘Sir’. I still couldn’t get it- why would these loving and caring children leave their homes and come suffer here on the streets. These are all the questions that are left unanswered.

After spending some time with the North Beach group doing painting one of the boys had actually wanted to go back home and with the help from the outreach team we eventually took the boy back home to Isipingo. The boy had told us he runs away from home because his step mom abuses him when his father is not home. We promised the boy we were going to go talk to his father about this and it will come into an end.

For the first time in my life I have witnessed true disappointment, I have spent my entire life without my father and I always thought that was the toughest thing, but what I witnessed that day was even worse, it was depressing. When we got to the boys father he told us he didn’t want his son and we should take him back where ever we had found him or even send him to jail if we don’t have a place to keep him. We should only bring him back home when he is over 25 years, maybe that time he would be ready to be a man and work for himself.

I wanted to hit the boy’s father for saying all that in front of the child, even worse for rejecting his own 14 year old son. If I had a way I would send him to jail for rejecting his own responsibility. I could see the disappointment in the boy’s eyes; I could feel the feeling of rejection. Right in that same moment you could tell that the boy had lost hope, he had lost his father too. He had no place else to go except the streets. I couldn’t believe my ears; I couldn’t believe what was happening in that moment. What kind of a man would tell his own son and blood to disappear?

In the end a stranger had just answered all my questions, the reason why most children would run into the street and leave home is because of the lack of love within their homes and society. Because of this lack of love the children run to streets and form a group of support, where they look after each other and help each other to survive.

The North Beach, South Beach, I.C.C Robot, Drop-in-centre and Pizza Group

Because of the lack of support and love from the society some of the children end up doing bad things to survive. This leads to people calling the children names such as Amaferanji and Omachola amongst many other names, some even told me they don’t like to be referred to as street children because it makes them feel as if they not part of the society. So I asked the children to look at themselves and think of a symbol or anything that they see themselves as since they are on the street, each person had a choice either to look at him or herself as an individual or as a group.

From our discussion regarding the symbol giving of street children beautiful paintings were born, and the children had to tell me why they drawn those symbols.

Painting By: Senamile

‘I see myself as a pig, because on the street I eat anything to survive hunger but still I don’t die’.

Painting By: Mbali

‘I see myself as a clown because when ever people come across me they laugh and it seems like my mouth is zipped because people turn to think and talk for us, I wish they could give us a chance to talk for our self’.

Picture by: Siye

‘Street children are like bees because we all aim for one goal to have a better and sweet life. We normal children like any other human being but people are scared of us. This is because some of us do bite when they irritated, but it doesn’t mean we bad. Like bees we always stick together no matter how bad the situation is’.

Picture by: Smah

‘I see myself as an owl because I sleep during the day and at night I have to watch my back, because older boys rape us and police come take our clothes’.

Picture by: Amand

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‘I see myself as a monkey because people see us as dirty, that make us half human and half animal. We always on the run because of the police [the dogs] and the older boys [the snakes]’

Picture by: Nana

‘I feel like a drunk because people always look at me as if I’m stupid and I can’t think fo myself’

Picture by: Nokuthula

‘I see myself as an elephant because I’ve got such a huge baggage [lot of problems]’

Picture by: Slender

‘Like snakes we live in the dark corners and when we do go out most people run away and the police always try and capture us’.

The images below the artists where shy to talk about them, but it is always nice to leave your artwork open for discussions. So it is up to you as a viewer how you understand these painting and how you relate to them.

Picture by: O.X.M

Picture by: unknown

Picture by: Mfundo

Picture by: Thobani & Mxo

The dreams and goals with the I.C.C Robot group

Every child has a dream; one thing I have noticed about the children is that they all have a reason why they are on the street and they all have goals and dream. The common goal to all of them is to find a job and live their own life. Through painting the children had to tell me their goals and dream, which led us to this:

Picture by: Linda

‘I would love to be a truck driver and travel around South Africa’

Picture by: Samkelo

‘When I get my I.D document I will try find a job that pays good, that way one day I will have a car and a big house at UMhlanga’

Picture by: Njabulo

‘I wish I could get a job at UMthombo and drive a white van like sir Njabulani’

Picture by: Ngalo (Nick name)

‘I love trees and plants; I wish I could work where they plant trees’

Picture by: Franca

‘I love BMW cars, and my dream is to own one some day’

Picture by: Joe

‘My dream is to find a job and go back home to build my house next to my dad’s grave’

Picture by: Sandile

‘I wish to become a police man and protect all the children like BAT MAN’

Pictures by: Sosha
‘I wish to have four houses in the farms and have four wives who will love me and look after me’

Picture by: Lindani

Picture by: Mxo

Picture by: Njabulo

Picture by: Anna

The Girls Bead working

The girls bead working started with a very small group of girls and the number kept on increasing. Now the number is decreasing, the reason being that most of the girls who were part of the project have gone back home [Some still visit on Fridays]. Bead work is one of the most successful projects within our organization. We have made a whole lot of jewelry for our supporters: which include the Amos Trust and Trust Greenbelt. Most of the bead work is being sold to the staff members, our visitors and also being given to some of our volunteers. The money they make from the beads they use to buy clothes and food.

Normally the bead working will be practiced on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but since UMthombo Arts has been growing we only practice it on Mondays and Fridays. This doesn’t mean that the girls can’t do the bead working on other days, but it means I’m not there because I have to reach out to other places where other children hang out.

Our Visit to Inanda

We went on to collaborate with Isilwane Primary School at Inanda, where they run the Room 13 art project. I took 18 children to the Room 13 launch there as we going to be working in partnership with them in a couple of months.

It was nice seeing the children interacting with other kids from different schools, they had children’s plays, dancing, singing, visual arts and poetry. After the session two of our boys wanted to go back home, so I referred the case to the outreach team: and it went successfully because the boys went home and have not come back.

A week after the Inanda trip we got an invite from the Create Africa South organization that they would like to welcome us as one of the schools at the Bat Centre during the Poetry Africa festival, luckily we do have street poets and it amazing how people think UMthombo is a school. During the seminar we had readings, performances, music, slamjam and workshops for poets and writers. Mdu and Njabulo our street poets will be performing during the UMthombo new space opening, if they will be still around.

Visit to Pietermaritzburg

In preparation for the 2010 street child world cup and art project we went to the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg to see a show titled ‘Tapestries Telling Stories’, I felt it would be good for the children to see the show as it was about the KZN artists telling their community stories of change and development: which is similar to what we do. In 2010 street children from all around the world will be competing in the first street child world cup. They will also work with specially trained artists to develop creative ways of telling their own compelling stories.

For more information please visit www.streetchildworldcup.org/ e.mail: info@streetchildworldcup.org

UMthombo staff and Children do battle outside the Centre

I decided to organize a soccer tournament, which was a battle between the UMthombo staff and five other street teams from different groups. We had six teams in total, which was the Drop-in-centre teams x2, the Passage team, the Point team, UMthombo staff team and the Nest team. UMthombo staff team was beaten 3- 1 in the first round by the Passage team, thanks to Mxolisi for diving in the penalty box and thanks to Eugene for scoring the penalty awarded: otherwise the staff would have been beaten 3-0. I would like to thank all the staff members who participated- that includes Sipho and Donation our key players, Lindelani and Eugene our Strikers, Siyabonga our defender, Biza our goalkeeper, Siya our referee and myself. Not to forget our supporters Miss Thulile, Zamo, Slie, Osaviour and all the girls amongst many other people who were there.

The tournament was organized so as to reach out to the older boys and some of the children who don’t like art, because not all children are into art: but the art program is for every child on the street. So if it means using soccer to reach out to them, so let it be. I must say The Nest team deserved to win; they are very organized just like their mentor Biza. All the teams played very well, especially the young team from the Centre which was lead by Lucky: they even made it to the finals but unfortunately they lost 4-3. The tournament was good for both the children and staff because in a way it built a good relationship between the two teams and was good team building for the staff.

We are hoping to have a big match next time, have almost all of the UMthombo staff participate. Maybe by then the staff would be fit and they would actually make it to the finals.

The Christmas Cards

Currently we are working on Christmas cards for the children to send home to their families together with the beads. I will post all the cards for people who know their home address: otherwise the children can make for their fellow friends or UMthombo staff to say thank you for all the help they have given us. I have already got two sweet ones from different kids who enjoy my program.

Again I would like to thank all of our supporters for supporting UMthombo, the children for participating, the staff for loving the program and participating. Special thanks to Donation, Annabelle, Osaviour, Franca, Sosha, Robyn and Eugene, I just want to say thank you guys for all your help.

Some more pictures