2009 Rotary Club Group Study Exchange

This was our first opportunity to take part in vocational visits, and I was not really sure what I was going to see. I was taken out to the Motherwell township, just outside Port Elizabeth. If you have an image of townships from books or TV, then you probably have a pretty good idea what Motherwell is like, visually anyway. The houses are pretty solid, but small, and very close together.

I met with Ms Leo who manages the services of the Department of Social Development in the township - this is the equivalent of our Social Work department. We had many discussions about the similarities and differences between the systems in Scotland and South Africa, which were most revealing. She was very excited about some of the things that I told her about, and I was certainly very impressed with some of the processes that they have in place.

The real highlight of the day (for me) was being taken out by a Social Work Auxilliary called Monde to visit some of the creche facilities that the department helps to fund. These are really nursery schools that are set up by people in the community, who manage to achieve a standard that means the department can register them and help with funding. The schools really have very few resources, but I was impressed by how much they do with so little - looking after the children all day, from 7:30am to 5pm.

I got a real feel for these children, who were basically joyful, smiling, singing and enjoying themselves. I got some fantastic pictures, and the kids really touched my heart.



The creches also do some very impressive things - for instamce, they build music and active learning into all the daily programmes, and they often grow their own vegetables to cook for the meals - something we should definitely be doing back home.

I also got the chance to speak to Mr Api who is in charge of the fostering services, and again there were some clear similarites, but also some clear differences with the setup that I am familiar with in Scotland.

The evening was a session of African Drumming led by a great guy called Fraser from Glasgow. He took us through our paces very carfeully, and everyone joined in to create some really quite impressive rhythms. The evening was rounded off with food and wine, and great company. The hospitality shown by our South African hosts continues to impress me, and is making me feel very at home :)