The Price of Big Dreams

The road to Democracy ends here.

South Africa stands at the brink of a new dawn on 7 May 2014, twenty years after our first democratic election, and it will not be as exciting as that day on 27 April  in 1994, if at all it will be a sad day for many of us. 

Many who stood firm in  their belief that the Party we held dear to our hearts will take this country forward in a way that would benefit all its people, no matter what party they voted for.  For that is what democracy is about, "A Government of the People, For the People, By the People". 

 

Democracy is not a slogan to use loosely, because it sounds good, it is a powerful word which should be respected by all, whether you are a leader or someone aspiring to be one. 

 

I joined a hike organised by Keep on Moving www.facebook.com/groups/210709115769040

in collaboration with various other hiking groups from Cape Town with its main purpose of giving children from disadvantage communities an opportunity to experience Cape Town's natural beauty, something children like this group would perhaps never get to experience growing up. 

The hike was specially organised for a group of children from a tin shack township called Valhalla Park who had never been on a hike before (except for hiking to school every day). 

I awoke early on Saturday 26 April 2014, on the eve of our 20 year anniversary of Democracy and I was all excited about spending the day with the group of children who I knew would be just as excited to experience something new.

I had offered to lift some of the children from their home to the starting point of our hike up the mountain in Newlands Forest.  Six excited children sat comfortably in my car while three other cars accommodated the remaining 12 children.

My special passengers could not stop talking, but I managed to get to know a little about each of them and what they wished for themselves.  One wants to be an engineer, another a social worker, a teacher, a mechanic so that he could fix my car when it broke, another wants to work for the City and I think one said they want to be a fireman.  I must remember to check the next time I see them. 

Here were these children with big dreams for their future and I wondered to myself how many of them were going to get to achieve this. 

These dreams they have for themselves is not going to happen if they don't have the support from their parents firstly (who unfortunately are not by the financial means to do so).  Although there is assistance out there in terms of bursaries, these children still need the proper infrastructure to be able to study.  Their current living conditions consists of a tin shack without running water and electricity. They barely get any food to sustain their health and are exposed on a daily basis to the crime factor of unemployed men wanting to make money out of them by getting them to sell drugs on their behalf.  When we arrived in the location, the community was trying to apprehend one of these criminals who we learned later was stealing the money from the children who were "employed" to sell drugs.  God alone (well including the community) knows that the young girls are most likely subjected to in terms of the sex trade. Sad very sad.

The abject poverty that these children suffer on a daily basis does not go down well when we have a leader who gets to spend hundreds of millions of Tax Payers money on an estate with two fences so his family can live large.   

One little boy, Mogamat was asked by one of the volunteers if he wore socks, and his answer was "Oh Yes!", "I have one pair which I wear to school and then I wash it when it is holidays".  He sounded very proud that he owned a pair of socks.  He is clearly grateful for what he has.  I wonder how many times the President gets to wear his socks, socks which he clearly needs to pull up if he wants to earn the respect of this nation.  Mr President please don't let our children pay a high price for their dreams.

These children were so excited about this hike that they borrowed shoes from cousins or friends, or just wore what they had. One little boy (left in the picture) with the red takkies, squeezed his feet into those shoes, as he was not going to miss out, he did not complain about how tight they were.  This sight got me thinking that I need to change their situation just a little and I would like to ask you all if you can to assist me in buying hiking shoes for these children.  If you can't do it on your own, then get together with some of your friends and do a collective buy.  I will arrange for the shoe sizes. You can inbox me on FB, or email me at cecileannp642@gmail.com - Your assistance will be much appreciated.

This is not a once-off hike for these children.  They are going to be going on many more so that they know that there is more to life than what they are faced with.  Help them to climb many more mountains until they reach their dreams.

"Climb every mountain, forge every stream, follow every byway, till you reach your dreams."

 Life is sometimes a hard road – lets make sure we travel in comfortable shoes.