NEIGHBOURS
  • Home with us
  • Neighbours Music
  • Teaming with us
  • Donate
  • Counselling
  • Counselling Resources

Blog with us

All members of the Neighbours community share their experiences here 

The city heard us

28/6/2012

0 Comments

 


After calls, letters, emails, discussions with Joburg Connect, the Health Department, Ekhaya City Improvement District, the City Environmental Agency, the Area City Counsellor, Pikitup, Selby Depo and then finally the Municipal Manager, they heard...




 

No items found.

 ​

After calls, letters, emails, discussions with Joburg Connect, the Health Department, Ekhaya City Improvement District, the City Environmental Agency, the Area City Counsellor, Pikitup, Selby Depo and then finally the Municipal Manager, they heard...




 

No items found.

 



After calls, letters, emails, discussions with Joburg Connect, the Health Department, Ekhaya City Improvement District, the City Environmental Agency, the Area City Counsellor, Pikitup, Selby Depo and then finally the Municipal Manager, they heard...




 

No items found.

 

0 Comments

Kids' Week: 26 - 30 June

27/6/2012

0 Comments

 
Our 4 kids went to Kids' Week today ( first week of the July school holidays) hosted by MES Aksie at the Lutheran Church in Hillbrow. The programme starts at 9 each day from Tuesday to Saturday with tea and biscuits, followed by activities in the hall together, then lunch, then craft and drama, ending at 3pm. Kids' concert on Saturday...


Hannah waiting in the queue for morning tea...


Jordan and Daniel loving all their new friends!
0 Comments

The Lady on the 17th Floor

21/6/2012

0 Comments

 
Met a lady this week from the 17th floor of the building opposite us. The lifts no longer work. She has a 6 year old daughter living with her, barely survives every month on a very small disability grant (R1050) for a medical condition. It takes 30 minutes to walk up the 17 floors with her daughter. She does this twice a day, once to take her daughter to creche, and once to fetch her...Hard times!


0 Comments

Hillbrow Clinic Thank you Party

20/6/2012

0 Comments

 
This morning the Hillbrow clinic OT and physio section (2 blocks away from our flat) threw a thank you party for all those who helped paint and furnish their paediatric rehab room, to which we were invited! Hannah also gave them her wooden rocking horse (from her 2nd birthday) which a friend kindly fixed up. It was amazing to be part of it all and join in a class with the staff for about 7 children between the ages of 2 and 13 with cerebral palsy! These 3 young ladies are so motivated!


​
0 Comments

Dangerous fumes... please respond City of Joburg

20/6/2012

0 Comments

 
Fire truck has responded to the burning rubbish across the road from our flat


0 Comments

Soweto Day

16/6/2012

0 Comments

 
Jordan, in front of the "Simakade" (forever standing) monument where we laid some flowers this morning, while on a tour of the inner city remembering June 16, 1976. The tour was arranged by Past Experiences, and looked at apartheid resistance in the city. This monument is outside the Joburg Central Police station (formerly John Vorster Square). Many children who participated in the June 16 protests were imprisoned, questioned and tortured here. It is also the police station where Steve Biko died. The monument remembers those who kept standing against apartheid in spite of the incredible difficulties they faced.


0 Comments

Video on my visit to Sharpville today

16/6/2012

0 Comments

 
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVQbv6BWing]
On 21 March 2012, Human Rights Day in South Africa, our family visited Sharpville to learn more about what had happened there. On the 21 March 1960, 60 people were killed and over 200 people injured as police opened fire on a peaceful crowd who were coming to hand themselves over to the police as they has left their pass books at home as a non violent protest action against caring pass books.
What we found on our visit was a community who felt neglected. The SA government has moved the commemoration of the day away from this historic site to Soweto. The people we spoke to were still deep in poverty and many not part of the economic mainstream. The PAC has arranged it's own commemoration with the community.
I spoke to a man who had lost his uncle in the masacre. He said that no one has apologized to him or his family for what happened on that day.
Our family was quite touched by the events and left wondering what our role could be in the new South Africa. Surely we, as white middle class South Africans have a role to play in breaking these chains of poverty, in speaking up on behalf of the poor and the oppressed and in ensuring that we have a more just and equitable society.


No items found.


0 Comments

A world class african city???

14/6/2012

0 Comments

 
​I have just written a letter to the Johannesburg Municipal manager to ask him to remove the rubbish on the plot of land opposite where we live. This is after first reporting it to Joburg connect on 25 March, and then to the pickitup local depo, and then to the city health department, and then to the city environmental agency. No one has responded yet.
Apparently the land is owned by the city. People are trying to get rid of the rubbish by burning it which is very unhealthy for the nearly 10,000 people who breathe in the air directly around the plot of land. In addition we have a massive rat infestation caused by this which is also a public health risk. The city has not replaced the pickitup waste removal vehicle for Hillbrow which apparently broke down a long time ago which is also why waste on the streets is left for days. We now share a vehicle with another neighboring suburb so waste collection is irregular to say the least.
This is all happening in the most densely populated part of South Africa where the poorest of the poor live. If anyone should have a clean environment, it is areas like this where huge numbers of people are affected.
0 Comments

A Music School across the Road?

13/6/2012

0 Comments

 
In 1999, a group of concerned musicians came together to uplift a community by sharing their skills with some children on the property of a Lutheran church. The city was Joburg, the community was Hillbrow and surrounding suburbs, and the music school was the one right across the road from where we now live! Today we met most of the music teachers, perused their daily music teaching schedule, enrolled two of our kids to start lessons there next term, and attended a concert this evening in which their students performed together with about 5 other schools at a nearby, affluent Joburg school...inspirational they were!
(We also decided I would volunteer as a music teacher at the Hillbrow Music school every week on a Wednesday afternoon starting on 20th June...)




0 Comments

Blanket Donations

8/6/2012

1 Comment

 
Today we went out to Trinity House where we collected scarves, baby clothes and blankets that some classes of boys and girls had knitted together with baby food and supplies that they had collected for our work into the Inner City. These will probably go to the Central Methodist Church to help them with the many poor foreigners they house within their walls. What is most amazing about these gifts is the great love that has gone into each item. "Not all of us can do great things, but we can all do small things with great love" Mother Theresa.


1 Comment
<<Previous

    Archives

    October 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    August 2015
    February 2015
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    June 1976

    quick links

    All
    Colonialism
    Death Penalty
    Dignity
    Employee Responsibilities
    Employment Rights
    Empower
    Equality
    Exclusion
    Funny
    Greed
    Inclusion
    Inequality
    Justice
    Living Wage
    Love
    News
    Power
    Racism
    Reflections
    Support
    Video
    Workers

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Events

Blog

Partner with us

© COPYRIGHT 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home with us
  • Neighbours Music
  • Teaming with us
  • Donate
  • Counselling
  • Counselling Resources