Ratang bana

Ingrid lives in a tiny one-roomed spotless home with a big bed that she usually shares with other small helpless children. Each time I have been there she is giving juice to a group of youngsters, chatting to one of the footballers about the game or looking after a child in the school holidays. She is always cheerful and positive, in spite of her pain and discomfort that requires frequent hospitalisation. “I believe that nothing is impossible” is her motto. As I drove with her round her area last week, children were shouting out “Ngwaneso!” (meaning “real sister”) and waving excitedly at her. She is obviously a much-loved valuable part of the community.

Ingrid started her career with Friends for Life as a social worker and orphan care coordinator. Since then she has started a non-profit organisation known as Ratang Bana (meaning “Love the Children” in Sotho). During the last 5 years, she has initiated the following projects and organisations:

• Red Roses Football Club – 5 teams from U12 to Open that are now 4th in their league with children from disadvantaged homes motivated by the sport that keeps them off the streets (photo attached & more detail below)

• Child Support Projects – Ingrid has about 20 orphans and child-headed households that she provides individual support for. Two such children are Promise (photo attached) and Jabu (more detail below about them). Gumboots Foundation now supports the Similane children who originally came from Ingrid.

• Ratang Bana Home – this consists of 13 orphans in a home started by Ingrid. They have a house mother and she has managed to organize for all the food to be donated.

• Ituseng Creche – started by Ingrid, this crèche is a place where young children are cared for and fed in a loving environment during the day.

• SPCA/Animal Support Project – volunteers go round Alex checking on chained and hungry dogs; their owners are allowed to take them for free SPCA treatment, sterilisation and injections if they say they are coming through the Red Roses Animal Support.

Ingrid has an office with technical resources and a couple of people who help her. The Red Roses equipment is stored here too. She has other supporters in the form of football coaches, a computer trainer, and Ben, the driver. The only current financial support comes from Anna from the church, and Gill, who has been a staunch and faithful friend who pays for all Ingrid’s medication, as well as Jabu’s university fees and accommodation (see below).

To sum up Ingrid’s story with a quote from one of her children:
“Keep on keeping on Ngwaneso – we salute you!”


Red Roses Football Club

Ingrid got involved in 2004 when the existing club was going down the drain, and she and the 2 coaches are doing everything in their power to keep the club alive. At that time they had no training fields, no administration, no sponsors, and a serious lack of equipment and kit. But they have managed to take the club to great heights with 92 children attending practices and matches on proper fields with donated kit.

It is difficult to imagine how this club has changed children’s lives. A few examples:
• It removes the children from the crime-ridden streets
• It gives them hope, ambitions and goals adding value to their lives
• It builds team spirit and provides role models in the form of coaches & other adults involved – many of the children have never had male role models in their lives
• HIV education is given
• They are encouraged to attend school & an interest is taken in their progress
• It provides a social support structure outside their families
• And of course it discovers real soccer talent among the players

Although the club is financially poor, the players are highly motivated and disciplined. For many of them the practice sessions are the highlight of their day, and provide the only stability in their lives.


Promise – the girl without a name & age

I first met Promise on New Years Eve this year – she was staying with Ingrid during the holidays from the Kensington Home where she has been for the last 3 years. Her story is very sad… She met Promise through Friends for Life when she was 8 and her mother, was terminally ill, dying a week later. Their situation was so bad that her body lay for 2 months in the mortuary as there was no family or funds for a burial. So Promise was alone with no siblings, no surname, no birth certificate, no ID, no certainty of her age (it seems she could be more like 13 now than 11). What she did have was evidence that she had been raped (she has not been tested for HIV).

Ingrid managed to get her counselling and tried to get families to adopt her – without success. Fortunately she was able to get her into the Kensington Home that she shares with 60 other young girls. It’s a happy place, the girls all attending Kensington Primary School, and Ingrid continues to have her to stay in the school holidays – she has lots of friends in Ingrid’s street where I watched them happily skipping with a long piece of string. One of our Gumboots’ volunteers has offered to visit Promise and take her on outings but she is still in need of financial support.

On that first occasion I met Promise, Ingrid said the only thing she had asked for over the New Year was “those shiny lights”. I discovered that she wanted sparklers to wave during the evening with the other children in the street. With perfect synchronicity, I pulled a couple of boxes from my bag (that I had bought for my own party that night!) – and apparently her New Year was made. If only everything was as simple as that.


Jabu – one of Ingrid’s lucky young friends

Jabu’s mother lived in Tanzania where she met her South African husband who was in exile there. They eventually came to SA with Jabu – where his father died and his mother became very ill. Friends for Life helped with food parcels and Ingrid met Jabu, his mother and siblings – they were then 19, 13 and 11. Before his mother died in 2007, she said to Ingrid “I am going to tell Jabu’s father [in heaven] that Jabu is in good hands”… what a responsibility for Ingrid.

In the last 2 years, Jabu has indeed been “in good hands”. With Ingrid’s help, a sponsor has given him the money to go to university where he is studying BCom – now in his final year. They also pay for his residence.

Jabu is a wonderful young man and Ingrid believes he will go far. However, there are the usual shortages: like food and transport money to visit his siblings in a government flat in Alex. It only costs R15 one way, but he doesn’t have the money to do this. And all of them have to manage on very little food.