Download PDFOn 11 June 2022, Khanya College held a political education session at the House of Movements (in Johannesburg). The morning session focused on malnutrition and the working class. The afternoon session covered the ‘See, Judge, Act’ method of liberation theology, games and an article writing exercise.
There were a lot of activists and members from different organisations.
Some of the activists were from Dirang ka Kagiso, an Orphan and Vulnerable Children Centre in Bophelong (south of Johannesburg). Many OVCs around Gauteng work with communities, orphans and vulnerable children. These centres provide study and educational assistance and they offer food parcels to the needy families. Activists from Rena Le Rona Creative Centre from Soweto were also at the workshop session.
There was also Community Healthcare Workers (CHWs) from different provinces like North West, Mpumalanga and Gauteng. There were also schools learners from Yeoville School, Malvern and Phoenix.
In the morning session, first we split into two different groups and we read together on the topic of malnutrition and how it affects the working class, but especially looking at how it affects children. After reading the articles, we discussed some questions that helped us understand the topic more. When we were done we came back together as a big group and the smaller groups each shared what was happening in their groups and what their discussions were about.
After this session, we did interviews in pairs with community in the area/streets outside the HoM building. The reason for this was to understand their views and what the community thinks about how we can make sure that children’s rights are met and that they enjoy life while they are growing up. We also distributed flyers with information on children’s rights and the situation of malnutrition in children in South Africa.
We then came back to report back and have a debriefing session. Some participants shared that some of the people they spoke to were not aware of the situation of malnutrition in children and others said they don’t have children so were not interested. Some of the community responded positively and wanted to share the information with their friends and family.
After a short break, the next session had a guest speaker named Chantel Witten, who spoke to us for about 20 minutes. She taught us the importance of nutritious food, about the causes of malnutrition in children. Cde Chantel also taught us about why we should support breastfeeding because of how big of an impact it has on children’s development.
All of this was done in order to build a campaign that will help people to obtain knowledge and awareness, and act of this. By having these study groups it also help us in improving our reading skills.
This article was produced during the article writing session that took place on the same day. Mduna is an OVC coordinator at Dirang Ka Kagiso and Chivizhe is a high school student part of the Jozi Book Fair’s Tshohang Batjha youth project.
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