Sekolo Sunrise Kids – Etango Tali Piti
Etango Tali Piti is a support group for orphaned and vulnerable children from the Oneshila township outside Oshakati. The second largest city in Namibia, Oshakati is in the densely populated northern part of Namibia, on the border with Angola. As a city, Oshakati has developed without planning and in outgrowing its bounds, has created several hidden, backwater slums or “townships.”
One such township is Oneshila, home to nothing but a scattering of “homes” built from cardboard, plastic bags, corrugated tin and bits of old cars. A primary school struggles to educate the younger children in the morning hours, but at 12:30, the gate is closed and the teachers leave Oneshila for their homes elsewhere. An IBIS and embassy funded NGO provides porridge and fish at lunch time, three days a week, for those learners who are registered as Orphans & Vulnerable Children, but when the food has been cooked and served and eaten, the door is locked and the volunteers go home.
Left to their own devices, children in Oneshila do what children do everywhere in the world: succumb to peer pressure and the temptations which surround them. In Oneshila, the temptations are alcoholism, early sexual activity, pregnancy, glue sniffing, begging…
The children who participate in Etango Tali Piti gather twice a week for an instructed dance or soccer activity session. The mutual peer-support received through the discipline of learning, performing and competing builds the self-confidence and self-worth of the children. The care that volunteers give through after school activities is very rare in the tough life of Namibia’s townships.
The program is led by a South African Zulu woman named Sisi. Also an orphan, Sisi is an empowered, strong, educated and courageous female role model for these young children. The girls’ feet pound out the rhythms as Sisi beats on the drum: the girls find strength and hope in fellowship, in big-sister/little-sister relationships and the traditional stories they perform through their dances.
The boys play and practice in the field next to the girls covered dance pavilion, running drills in the hot sun with a soccer ball that Sisi brings each session. The demand of monthly performances and soccer tournaments quietly instills in these children a self-confidence, self-reliance, and self-worth that they can only learn through the experience of being needed, wanted, and relied upon by a trusted and respected adult, and their peer group.
In Oneshila, these values are survival skills. Sekolo Sunrise Kids gives these children a chance to be children, to make lasting friendships, to build their self-confidence through performances and soccer tournaments, and to find some hope.
They all have uniforms for the monthly dance performances and soccer matches that Sisi has arranged. She demands their discipline, hard work and self-respect. Through the discipline of soccer and dance routines, these children find a safe space to play and enjoy life as kids. They also learn self-respect and the value and rewards of hard work. Gradually, their self-confidence grows and they can hope and dream of a life beyond Oneshila.
Sekolo Projects Inc. thanks the Red Ribbon Foundation of Greenwich, CT for providing a grant to underwrite all activities for Sekolo Sunrise Kids in 2010.
“Funding from the Red Ribbon Foundation ensures that Sekolo can provide self-confidence building activities for kids living with HIV or affected by the virus in Namibia. This grant lets 100+ children participate in a dance and soccer program which develops their sense of self-worth and increase their resilience to the affects of HIV in their communities.” Elizabeth Robinson, Founder and CEO
Photo Gallery
The Sekolo Sunrise Kids parade behind their banner as they walk to a Saturday morning performance.
Soccer practice take place in the dusty courtyard of the Oneshila Community Centre where the dancers practice.
Sisi’s bangled hands fly over the drums!
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Beautiful dancers, ready to perform.