Cycles of Poverty

A few days ago I met a young man from a township just outside of Klerksdorp; we had a conversation for about two hours while he showed me some of his community.

I have seen many townships in my life and have lived most of my childhood and teen years on the Cape Flats so I am no stranger to poverty and hardship however I found seeing it through his eyes interesting and more real than I had imagined.

This young man through his articulate words took me through a short journey of his life and daily struggle to keep his head above water; he showed me the outside taps and toilets his family has to share with 2 other households. He took me through the dusty streets so I can see where some of his neighbours need to leave their dirt because there hasn’t been refuse collection in years.

He showed me his neighborhood in the rawest form and after some prying on my part he shared with me his story of being raised by a single mother and how he has tried to get out of the rut he finds himself in. Work is scarce and he could not get into a university because his mother (who is the only family provider) cannot afford it. His family struggles to keep their house, pay their bills and still have a meal each night.

This young man has never heard of a study loan and before i came along no one has ever discussed FET options with him, he didn’t even know that there was an FET college 30 minutes away in the nearest town.

In the middle of this conversation I came to realise that he like so many of the other teens I have had the opportunity to engage with over the last few months were uninformed and left to fend for themselves in a somewhat unjust world. They are somehow set on cycles of poverty that they will not get out of unless they start to think beyond the borders of their safe communities.

Standing there in his community I couldn’t stop thinking of a quote by John Green, where he says “There is no Them. There is only facets of Us”. This young man and the many others i have met and know by name reminded me that there will be no great reward without taking great risk; so i hope that in the years to come i will get to see some of them again and they would have lived beyond the cycles.