SALT/YAMEN!: Kindergarten Teacher & Peace Club Promoter - Hope Valley Farm School in Eston, South Africa
Term:
One year
Date Opened:
Wed, 2013-11-13
Date Required:
Wed, 2014-08-20
Synopsis:
Program details at salt.mcc.org or yamen.mcc.org
As referenced in SwaLeSA’s strategic plan, MCC SwaLeSA is committed to increasing its programming for peace building in South Africa with a special emphasis on schools. To that end the Teacher’s Assistant & Peace Club Promoter’s primary role will be to focus on the children of Hope Valley Farm School.
Qualifications:
- Ability to work with children, particularly in a setting where is English is limited.
- Exposure to, and preferably experience or studies in, peace building and conflict transformation.
- Keen motivation to want to make a difference.
- Ability to work in a relatively unstructured scenario.
- Ability to organize one’s own work load and create lesson plans.
- Ability to promote and develop the peace club in the Hope Valley Farm School.
- Ability to organize and /or conduct presentations on peace clubs with interested schools and community groups as may arise and as appropriate.
- Ability to document work.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate well in a variety of settings and work respectfully and professionally with people from a wide variety of backgrounds.
- Ability to work with teams as well as independently follow up on details.
- Ability to relate to people and organizations that may come from more oral traditions.
- Adapt to new cultural norms.
- Motivation to learn Zulu to support relationship building
Duties:
Primary Duties:
- Classroom instruction of Hope Valley Farm School during regular hours of instruction.
- Promote and facilitate the existing peace club as an extramural school activity.
- Assist with children’s camp associated with the school on occasional weekends and interacting with the young people attending these camps.
- Other duties that may be assigned from time to time that support the vision and mission statement of the school.
- Attend MCC meetings and events as requested by the SwaLeSA Representatives upon consultation with the school administration.
- Stay abreast and informed of MCC’s vision and operating principles. Be prepared to interpret these to the administration and staff of the school as needed.
With South Africa being classified as a ‘developing’ country, the province of KwaZulu Natal (KZN) is a province within the country that accentuates the great contrasts and clashes. Great wealth abounds side-by-side with great poverty. Hope Valley Farm School (HVFS) is set amid the forested hills and the rolling countryside of the agricultural lands of the lower Natal-Midlands. The city, founded in 1838, is the administrative capital of the province. As western consumer products, services and entertainment are readily available and prices are affordable the SALT/YAMENer will face lifestyle choices similar to those in North America.
South Africa has a combination of private and public health care facilities. Wherever possible, MCC volunteers are strongly encouraged to get private health care. HVFS is approx. 50 km from Pietermaritzburg, where good quality private health care is available.
Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has struggled to address apartheid-era imbalances in decent housing, education, and health care. The current government is besieged with capacity problems. South Africa remains a staggeringly unequal place. Twenty-five million South Africans – 85% of the total population – earned just 22% of the total income. Job creation in South Africa has failed to benefit and offer opportunities to the most needy, disenfranchised and frustrated. Unemployment is as high as 60% for black South African males particularly in villages and rural areas.
There’s growing evidence that the toll of the stunning inequality in South Africa is not just economic. The toll of the inequality is manifest in high rates of violent crime, high narcotics and alcohol abuse, high teenage birthrates and high sexual abuse especially of children. More than the level of crime, it is the sheer gratuitousness of the violence that is shocking South African society.
Given SA’s history, and experience of violence, there are disturbing indications that SA has begun to see violence as normative, as legitimate. The migrant labour system of apartheid fundamentally destroyed families. Mines were places where people learnt violence and that was taken into townships. Police harassment, imprisonment, and state sponsorship of violence in townships further contributed to a culture of violence that has reproduced itself ever since.
Challenges:
Personal safety should be carefully considered as in any other city. The crime rates in South Africa are high, but the situation in South Africa is not any different from other countries in both the northern and southern hemisphere that experience great extremes between the rich minority and poor majority. Almost all houses are surrounded by walls, fitted with burglar bars on all windows and doors, and most cars and houses have security alarm systems as a common feature. All precautions have to be taken in public spaces to ensure that one’s valuables are secure. The participant will need to look to local staff and MCC Reps/Connecting Peoples Coordinator for guidance on appropriate behavior and precautions. Personal safety should always be considered and not taken for granted.
Strong character and sensitivity is needed in light of the country’s history of apartheid and continuing lack of socio-economic equality between the races.
One of the greatest health risks facing the SwaLeSA region is the HIV/AIDs pandemic. Approximately 25% of all South Africans are living with HIV/AIDs. The socio-economic and psycho-social fabric of the nation is greatly affected by this disease.
Thanks for following me on this amazing journey! :)
