MUCPP Day 1

Today, I started my last week of the internship and it was definitely a culture shock. We spent the morning in the townships around Bloemfontein going from door to door doing malnutrition and diet history screenings. It is absolutely breath taking and eye opening to see how these people live. It definitely made me appreciate the life that I live and the country that I come from that much more. Tomorrow I'm learning a little more about what exactly they do while there in the townships, but unfortunately, I won't have the same experiences as the other girls during their time at the MUCCP. This Wednesday we are attending a special lecture and so I will not be given the opportunity to actually work in the clinic and on Thursday, the woman in charge is retiring so there was talk today about going to get a celebratory coffee and cake instead of going through the townships. 

Unfortunately, it was raining outside, so I couldn't get a very good picture of the township. But here's a general idea. 

Townships begin as part of the government's RDP (relief and development program...I think). What happens is once a squatters camp (hundreds on "houses" made from scrap metal) becomes large enough, then the government will start to build RDP houses like the ones pictured above. Each plot has its own electricity and water supply. Ideally, the plot owners are supposed to tear down their makookoos (the scrap metal homes) once the RDP home is built, but most of them will leave the standing on their plot and use it as a source of extra income from renting it out). The makookoos do not have water or electricity and are not nearly as well insulated as a RDP house (which is not well insulated either). 

RDP houses are designed with a kitchen/living area and two bedrooms for the entire household to share. So, as you can imagine, they are often times quite crowded and overpopulated. 

In addition to learning about the different types of houses, I learned that the family unit is often difficult to understand because you have grandmothers/aunts/great aunts/cousins etc. caring for children who's parents didn't want them or who have passed away. 

Families are often subsidized with a government grant for each child under the age of 14 (only 250 Rand/month, which is about the equivalent of $35), for adults and children with disabilities, or from a pension given to adults over the age of 60. Needless to say, there is not much money flowing through these townships and even though the government has amazing relief programs in place, there is not always enough tax payers' money to fund them.  

I'm hoping to learn a lot more about the townships tomorrow and hopefully I'll get the opportunity to do some of the work that the other girls got to do!