A little background

As you are probably well aware, South Africa was under minority white rule for many years and the system they worked under was called Apartheid. The cry for freedom and true democracy came to a head in 1976 in a place called Soweto when a group of mostly students lined up and down an intersection. Some where in the midst of the protest, the police began to open fire and a young man, of only 13 years old was killed, his name was Hector Peterson...many others died that day, but Hector is believed to be the first and a monument was erected to honor him and those who gave their lives for freedom and democracy. Then in the early 1990's Nelson Mendela was released from prison and a black ruling party was given control of the government. As part of the promises of this new government, housing was provided for the people...lots of houses...in fact in the picture above you will see an example of the houses provided for the people, each built exactly the same, 17 feet, by 17 feet on a small piece of property. Over 1.4 million have been built for the people of South Africa, which in many ways has been a wonderful thing, but in many ways it has been difficult for people to get beyond these simple homes...part of the work of OC Africa is to work in some of these poor neighborhoods in Soweto, particularly a neighborhood called Bram Fillerville...I'll tell you more in the next blog...