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Secret Celebrity
‘ ‘Fourteen-year-old Ana is brought illegally to South Africa from Mozambique. She is frightened but hopeful that she will find a job to help support her family. Instead, she finds herself imprisoned in an isolated house, forced to clean and do laundry. When she hears that she is going to be sold as a ‘wife’, Ana makes a daring escape. She befriends Zandi and her family and faces new challenges in an unfamiliar school. But when Ana goes looking for her father, and Zandi follows, they end up in worse trouble than they could ever have imagined.’ Secret Celebrity is a teen novel published by Hodder Education in 2010. It…
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Every Right for Every Child
‘Everywhere we go, our presence is felt’ Every Right for Every Child: Governance and Accountability. Ed Enakshi Ganguly. Routledge. 2011 The chapter was based on my work on children’s participation in governance with the non-government organisation Institute for Democracy in South Africa. The project mentored children from across South Africa, including children with disabilities, to undertake budget analysis and participate in government consultation processes. The book drew on experiences of children’s own advocacy for their rights from around the world. Buy a copy
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Animal Health Promotion
The Mdukatshani Rural Development Project in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has been providing farmer support and training for more than 50 years. Children and young people play an important role in livestock care and Mdukatshani has developed programmes to facilitate their involvement. These started with story-telling to enable children to document their knowledge, ideas and experiences of caring for chicken, goats and cows. Over several years, bi-lingual (English and Zulu) illustrated books were co-created with the children to share these stories. The books are used in several schools in Animal Health Promotion Clubs. They support a range of learning outcomes and affirm children’s expertise in agriculture . …
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Siyaphi – where are we going?
‘We lost homes… We lost graves… We lost our harvest… We lost grazing land… We lost ourselves.’ Limehill residents recalling the forced removals of 1968 Imagine being 11 years old and going home from school on Friday, repeating over in your head the message that you must give your mother: ‘Ma, the teacher says on Monday we must be … This 2018 publication was the product of research to revisit the impact of apartheid forced removals on a community that won back their land but have not recovered the livelihoods or the identity they lost 50 years ago. The research was a partnership between a university and the community of…
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Cultural Responses to Sexual Realities
This is one of a series of research briefings produced to support advocacy for sexual and reproductive health rights by the AIDS Foundation of South Africa. Ewing co-designed the research and was the series editor in her capacity as Advocacy Manager for the programme. The research was a collaboration between activists and academics to provide evidence for interventions at community level across Eastern and Southern Africa. Research and advocacy are a strong component of work to support the Sex Rights Africa Network of civil society organisations.
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The Secret Thread: Personal journeys beyond apartheid
The Secret Thread: Personal journeys beyond apartheid, published by Unisa Press, South Africa, as part of its Hidden Histories Series, is a social history reflecting on the power of travel. The book brings together the experiences of some of the more than 300 people who received small grants to travel beyond the barriers created by apartheid, between 1964 and 1994, to see their own and other communities in a different light. The study tours were made possible by the Christian Fellowship Trust (CFT), co-founded by Dr Beyers Naudé in 1964. The CFT, a ‘legally subversive’ organisation, drove a ‘Trojan Horse’ into the citadel of apartheid theology. The CFT recognised travel…
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Planet Mouse series
Planet Mouse is a series of books about ‘Mouse’, a 12-year-old boy from Durban. Mouse faces challenges and dilemmas familiar to children around the world – such as peer pressure, crime in his neighbourhood, betrayal and unfairness. Mouse isn’t a typical hero – he is more interested in saving goals and gazing at stars than saving the world or being a star. But when trouble finds him, he finds the courage to make difficult and sometimes dangerous decisions. When My Dad Comes Home Mouse’s father is unemployed. When he gets a temporary job away from home, Mouse feels happy and sad. When his Mom gets sick, Mouse thinks that perhaps…
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Friends for Life
Friends for Life, co-authored by Deborah Ewing and Noreen Ramsden, is a reader on loss and compassion. It is one of the titles in the Pearson Junior African Readers series (JAWS). It was written especially for children experiencing or witnessing stigma related to HIV and was also published in French and Kiswahili. Beautifully illustrated by Paddy Bouma. Available through Abebooks
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Home to roost
My sister had a fear of birds She couldn’t put it into words But if she simply saw a fowl She would start to run and howl. I’m told that once a turkey chased her And our Dad could not placate her. When my Mum bought 5 small bantams My sister started throwing tantrums. She refused to set foot in the yard Unless she had a bodyguard. More bantams hatched, my sister cried Eventually she even tried A course of hypnotherapy She said it really helped her see The reasons for ornithophobia But didn’t stop it whelming over her The only bird she didn’t hate Was in an egg or…
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Spirit
There is a breeze, umoya, that wafts like a spirit, umoya, over the sand and between the cross currents of the mind. There is a human on the shore, with waist length dreadlocks, forehead broad like a horizon, smart shirt shimmering bright as noon. He holds beads and a small bottle that he fills with sand and seawater as he chants to the ocean and the notes dissolve like salt. I tread the sand, millions of years in the making, like all our lives, whether crafted into flag-flying castles to be photographed for a price, or sifted unseen below the tides.
