The Importance of Knowing the Numbers

The Office

            The day started slow on Thursday.  The director explained that I will receive intake training next week and will begin managing several children’s groups.  In preparation for taking on these responsibilities, I began to review policies and refresh my memory on Play therapy techniques, definitions, and group planning.  I sat in the Auxiliary Social Work room with my colleagues and sipped bad instant coffee from my giraffe mug.  My colleagues enjoy teasing me about how I take my coffee black and how I pronounce their names with my “hard vowel” American accent.  I can tell that they like having me around.    

            While my colleagues chat in Afrikaans and work around me, I go through binder after binder of Play Therapy material, Safe Line Policies, and articles about working with traumatized individuals.  I review key definitions for the various types of abuse: physical, emotional, sexual, neglect, child labor, human trafficking, and structural abuse.  I also review the key physical, behavioral, and psychological signs of Rape Trauma Syndrome. 

Human Trafficking

            Slowly, I work my way through the binders.  I came across one article by Susan S. Creston about human trafficking in South Africa from 2007.  The article compiles statistics from organizations such as UNICEF, IOM (International Office of Migration), and Molo Songololo.  The article states that 12.3 Million people are trafficked worldwide.  About 1.2 million of the humans that are trafficked are children (under 18 years old).  The majority of the people trafficked through coercion, force, and false promises are forced into commercial sexual exploration.  South Africa, like many countries (including the United States), is a hub for human trafficking.  It is estimated that South Africa, trafficked up to 38,000 people in and out of the country in 2007.  I filled up page after page of my Choco Cat notebook with information, stats, advice, and activities until my hand hurts and the bus arrives to pick me up.

HIV/AIDS Workshop

            In the afternoon, our group sat down with the program director to discuss HIV/AIDS in South Africa.  The program director has a background in public health, working with HIV/AIDS organizations, and handling international aide for HIV/AIDS organizations.  Her presentation went over the stats, definitions, and her own experiences. 

            To begin, The Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus that invades a human’s cells through blood to blood contact through sex, child birth, and any other blood to blood interaction.   Once infected with the HIV virus, one can live in Stage 2 for years without any symptoms after the Window period.  Eventually, HIV wears down your immune system leaving your body open to infections and disease leading to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Here are some quick stats about HIV in South Africa:

·      70 % of the world’s HIV + population live in southern Africa (including countries such as Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and many more) due to poverty, strain of HIV, migrant work, gender power relations, and high levels of sexual violence.

·      There are 6 million people out of 48 million are HIV + in South Africa.

·      Only 600,000 people are receiving Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) with 1.7 million in need of ART.  

·      There are 1.4 Million children who are AIDS related orphans living in South Africa.

            The information and statistics above were an important part in helping me to understand what an integral role HIV/AIDS has played in shaping South African people’s lives. With so many middle aged and young people dead or dying from AIDS, the elder generation is taking on the responsibility of taking care of young children and the government is taking on the responsibility of caring for orphaned children.  As our program director said, “The truth is that this is a story of loss”.