Darrell vs The World

I thought I should write one last blog, mainly because the previous one isn't a nice place to end, with its description of the shooting I witnessed. No need for an update on that business - I'm fine and feel really comfortable, and I visited the site of the incident a few times before I left South Africa, and had no odd feelings. I'll finish my 2009-10 trip blogs with a brief account of the film I made with Justice and Women in the final week of my internship in Kwa-Zulu Natal. You can see it here or at the bottom of the entry. Yanguye High School is plagued by violence, and it has become a pretty bad environment for learning and feeling safe. So JAW's plan was to allow youth to speak on film about their thoughts about what is happening at the school, and what they see as the sources of the violence, and what can be done about it. We wanted a fair representation of different types of students, not just the types who would normally volunteer to come to a workshop abou...

Since my last blog, a few things have happened, mostly building up to making the documentary about youth and violence that we hope to complete by next week. I’m only here for a week and a half more, so we have to move quickly to get it done, but I’m confident we will. There was one incident, though, which deserves a blog entry of its own, and I’d like to share it with you, but at the same time let you know that I’m feeling totally fine and there is no need to be concerned about me. Last Friday, I witnessed a fatal shooting in a supermarket carpark. There are some areas in South Africa where you can sense the dodginess - there’s something about the way people are dressed, about the loitering young men, the rubbish around the place, and general disorder. Such areas are the kind of places I’ve learned to spot since being mugged in one back on Christmas Eve, and the places that I stay clear of generally when I can help it. Melmoth is a small town where the organisation I am working with ...

I’m now three weeks into the Monash-Oxfam internship program in the South African province of Kwa-Zulu Natal, with another three weeks to go. I’m based in the city of Pietermaritzburg, and working with Oxfam’s partner organisation Justice and Women (JAW), a small NGO that works to transform power relations and gender injustice in rural and urban settings here, through HIV/AIDS support groups, an Access to Justice program, particularly for victims of abuse, and a youth program. I’ve been assigned to the youth team, who work in local schools in the rural community of Yanguye to try and encourage dialogue about gender, power and HIV/AIDS. I’ll be training the team in basic filmmaking skills and making a short movie with them and the youth of the high school to encourage debate about schoolyard violence (which is quite severe at this school) and its sources. That’s exciting for me, because the more I think about it, the more I want to shift from my pursuit of a career in straight aid wo...