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Publication

SATURDAY STAR

Page

9

Date

Sat 28 Nov 2020

AVE (ZAR)

46973.69

KEVINRITCHIE

PORTIA Mmbidi was 14when her lifefell apart. It was2006. First, her motherdied in a bus accident, then her fatherdied shortly afterwards from a combi-nation of TB and a broken heart.

Suddenly, she and her little sisterand her older brother were orphans.They soon realised the hard way thatall the platitudesfrom their relatives atthe graveside were worthless.

"Your family tell you, they'll bethere for you, but soon they get tiredof you," she says.

The turning point came with heryounger sister. One of the unclesoffered her money - if she slept withhim. Shewas9 years old.

Mmbidi brought it up with theelders in her family. No one acted. Itmade her incredibly angry and bitter.When Mmbidi finished school, shedecided she would make it her life'smission to help other girls in Kagisotownship on the West Rand make themost of their lives.

She began in 2017, but only man-agedto registerher foundation, Educa-tion of Hope Africa, in 2019 asa non-profit organisation (NPO). It took thatlong becauseto start with, she didn'tknow how to go about it and then,every time she needed a copy madeor a document printed, she had to godown the road to the internet café.

She's the executive director andfounder. She is helped by TimothyZulu, a Zambian-born social activistbased in the East Rand who travelsthrough every day to help her. Shecreditshim with guiding her to registerthe foundation and helping designthe coursematerials for their outreachprogramme.

Their key focus is protecting vul-nerable girls caught in the twin viceof poverty and underage motherhood.Many of them missup to five days ofschool a month because they cannotafford sanitary pads.Many of them aremothersof children while still childrenthemselves; many of their children'sfathers are their own. Many of themare HIV-positive. All of them are onSassagrants, but it's not enough. Allof them are hungry.

It's dire."We have three children, sisters,

who share children with their father.Their mother saysnothing becausethefather is the soleprovider," shesaysofsomeof the people they assist.

"Now you find a broken motherat an early age. The very samepeoplewho are drinking and giving theirbabies alcohol to make them sleep sothat they can go out drinking. We arelosing kids because of these brokenrelationships; this iswhat is damagingour communities."

Zulu agrees: "Every day we hear

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TIMOTHYZulu and PortiaMmbidi in front of Mmbidi'sfamily home in Kagiso,which has becomethe base of operations for Educationof HopeAfrica. | KEVINRITCHIE

AMID A SEEMINGLY NEVER-ENDING WAVE OF DESPAIR, ONE WOMAN AND HERCOLLEAGUE ARE PILLARS OF SUPPORT FOR MANY GIRLS IN KAGISO

Portia's mission toprovide hope

about gender-based violence on theTV, the radio and in newspapers asif it was an abstract concept. Spendsometime in the townships, and you'llimmediately understandwhy it ishap-pening. The hunger, the hopelessness,people stuck in a shackwith nowhereto turn and nowhere to go - and theviolence that erupts.

"There's rampant abuseand ahigh

prevalence of HIV because womensimply don't have a say."

The desperatechild mothers cometo the foundation in the Mmbidi fam-ily home in Kagiso for food, sanitarytowels, clothes, even old toys to dis-tract their babies, anything that canhelp alleviate their desperatesituation.

They're not alone. Their grand-mothers come knocking on the door

for help too."They come to the door. 'Portia,'

they say, 'I don't have food in thehouse.' I don't have formula for thebaby, and if I've got, I'll give it to them.Otherwise, I'll phone around to getdonations," saysMmbidi.

Hunger is a critical issuebecauseitmakes taking the all-important ARVdrugs that prevent HIV from develop-

ing into Aids very difficult."They'll tell you the pill is very

strong, and that if I'm not taking itwith food, it burns my tummy," sheexplains. The answer for many then isnot to take the drugs - with obviousconsequences.Feeding them isvital togetting them back on track.

"It's heartbreaking," saysMmbidi.Her foundation helps 75adolescent

girls with sanitary padsand a place todo their homework - and be tutored- after school and over weekendsbecause there isn't any opportunitywhere the girls live. Another 56youngmothers and grandmothers arehelpedwith nappies and food parcels; theyoung momswho have dropped out ofschool are helped to apply for learner-shipsand internships, even if it meansMmbidi hasto dip into her own pocketfor them to print out application formsat the local internet café.

"We need them to break theirdependence on grant money," sheexplains. That's part of the outreach.The other is actually going to schoolsto speak to girl pupils about livingwith HIV and Aids, about not fallingprey to the sexual predations of men,of knowing their rights - and of theimportance of getting an education tobreak the clutch of poverty.

But it isn't easy.There's no money.They have a laptop between them anda group of volunteers who give theirtime for free. If it hadn't been for theSouthAfricanJewishBoard of Deputiesand the Angel Network, they wouldhave had to stop altogether this year.

"We saw a story about the AngelNetwork on eNCA during lockdown,sowe decided to write to them. Theycameright back to us, they've been anabsolutelifesaver," saysZulu. "We havenothing left ourselves, only the skillsthat we have and our time."

They are resolutely not a foodkitchen or a food relief organisation,says Mmbidi, but one dedicated tofreeing girls from a life they neitheraskedfor nor deserved.

What the foundation needs mostof all is the equipment to do more:another laptop, a printer so that shedoesn't have to spendmoney on cop-ies or printouts, a projector and asound systemsothat shedoesn't haveto keep shouting in school halls, and abakkie sothat shecan reach out to theneedy and vulnerable who contactherfrom even further afield via Facebook.

"We want these young women tobe able to stand up against the abuse,to standtall and say 'I can do it, I don'tneed to depend on anyone else'," shesays. If they can manage that they'llbreak the spiral of abuse,and exploita-tion - starting in Kagiso.* If you would like to help, write to

office@educationofhopeafrica.org.zaor WhatsApp 073 885 2437