31 May 2012
To all my friends, Colleagues and Fellow Activists
Today I turn 40!
This day gives me an opportunity to reflect on my life and to articulate my wishes for the future. As I attempt to do that, many thoughts flood my mind. What is in store for me beyond forty? Is it a new career path? Is it renovations for my house? Is it acquiring new assets for myself and my family? Is it private schooling for my baby girl, who joins high school next year? And yes, like any other parents, my wish for her is that she can have access to the best schools in Gauteng. And yet this morning, as I seriously reflect on my greatest wish on this important day of my life, I could not help but think of the women in Maile, a rural village in Sekhukune district in Limpopo. I realise that all this time, most of my life and choices have been about me and my own challenges. But today, as a mother who was herself born by a rural young mother 40 years ago, I find myself engrossed with the plight of the women of this village. I particularly think of a pregnant young woman who as the D-day draws nigh, she wonders in her mind – “who is likely to be available in my village to help me deliver my baby safely? Will I have enough strength to walk through the hills and across the rivers to a place where I can get a car to take me to hospital?”
You see for me, when I gave birth to my two babies, the question was never about whether I or my baby will make it, for I had plenty of choices. Where I lived, I was surrounded by two private hospitals, five minutes away from home. Besides, I had a medical aid that would enable me to get to any hospital facility of my choice. I could choose whether I wanted a private ward on not. It did not matter whether the baby came in the morning or the night, for I had a car. Anyway, even if I did not have one, I had many friends who had cars and who could easily take me to the hospital. I even had a choice of whether I would want a natural birth or caesarean one, an epidural or not.
In sharp contrast, the young woman in Maile village has none of these options. Her greatest fear is whether she would have a safe birth, for no ambulance could even dare come close to her home. How could it when she knows there are no roads to her village? Whilst there may be old wise women in the village who know how to assist during labour, the concern is that even they fear for their lives. One of these women is today on ARVs after aiding one of the younger ones with her bare hands, for she had no first aid facilities.
And so at 40, as I begin my life as the saying goes, my greatest wish is not for something more for myself. Instead, I long to see the young woman in Maila village enjoying economic and social choices that many of us enjoy. I wish for her to enjoy the right to dignity that so many of us who are privileged speak so casually of; that her child, will suffer no more discrimination but will exercise her right to education without worries of how she will get to school when the clouds in the skies gather.
And so I invite you my dear friends, my colleagues, my fellow activists, buy me no gifts on this important day of my life. Whilst I am overjoyed by your birthday wishes, I invite you to join me as I strive with others to be in solidarity with this community. Consider making a small personal gift to ESSET (The Ecumenical Service for Socioeconomic Transformation) the organisation I work for, who together with SACC (South African Council of Churches) in Limpopo is seeking ways of being in solidarity with that community. Your gift will be used solely to support ESSET’s activities and those of the community aimed at bringing an end to their plight.
Should you have an interest, our account details are given at the end of this letter together with a reply slip that will help me thank you for your great gift on this day of my life. Please contact us if you want to know more about other ways in which you can support the community or ESSET in its work towards social and economic justice.
May the great God who gives us all the great gifts of life bless you in your gesture of love!
Yours in His Service
___________________________
Thembela Njenga
ESSET Executive Director
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ESSET BANK DETAILS:
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Ecumenical Service for Socioeconomic Transformation
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1004984928
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Nedbank,
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