“Pick It Up Or Lift It”—The Wandering Teachers of Phakamisa

There is no money in Maphumulo, a Zulu-speaking community in South Africa where water comes from a communal standpipe and most of the adults are unemployed. Many are sick with AIDS. Most of the houses are made of iron sheeting. Snakes slither through the gaps. Young children scratch in the rubbish heaps for bones to eat. Nutritious food is scarce, and they are hungry. The long-term effects of apartheid are still obvious in Maphumulo.

Class Under a Tree
Sheila Sdu Mkhize lives in Maphumulo. She is a "wandering teacher" sent to communities like Maphumulo by Phakamisa to provide free pre-school education for destitute children. Ms. Mkhize teaches her classes in gardens or under trees.

In an interview for Phakamisa's newsletter, Ms. Mkhize told about her teaching and the children she sees each day. "In my class the children are learning. They get food, clothes and help with illness.

Khanya's Story
"Khanya, aged 7, came to school wearing adult's clothes. I thought she was being silly, so sent her home to change. She came back with newspaper around herself-she had absolutely nothing to wear. I lent her my own child's clothes, and now Phakamisa has given her clothes. Her mom has died and she stays with another woman five kilometers from Maphumulo. The woman cares for seven orphans altogether. None of them have birth certificates or immunization cards-so they're ineligible for government grants. Now they are all in my class. At least they are learning and getting bread each day. 

"Many of the four-to six-year-old children are teaching the adults new things like washing your hands and saying thanks to God before you eat and praying before you go to sleep."

Phakamisa has trained some 1,500 people to care for abandoned children like those in Ms. Mkhize's class. And, besides wandering teachers, Phakamisa fields nearly 297 teachers in its Educare Centers. Every day 15,000 children attend school in the centers. Caregivers and teachers alike learn how to grow vegetables. Their vegetable gardens feed 850 families. Water tanks provide irrigation, necessary in the harsh climate.

Phakamisa, an UMCOR partnership administered by women, is living out the meaning of its name-serving to uplift and pick up.