Squatter's Camp

A Squatters Camp is a place where people live on land that they have no legal title to. Other terms used to describe such a place is informal settlement, shack land, or shanty town. The people who live here are most often the poorest around. Just on the edge of Richmond sits two of these camps. One is called Bhongoza and the other Mshayazafe. I don’t know how many people live in each camp but my guess would be several hundred each. When looking at the camp from the outside it looks fairly small with maybe a dozen mud and stick houses, but once inside the path twists and turns to reveal many houses built closely together and most about the size of an average kitchen or dining room. Most of the houses have doors to them with a chain and padlock to keep people out which also tells us whether the owners are gone somewhere or are nearby.

Many of the homes in the Squatter’s camp lack an adult male and there are more than a few homes where seniors are living by themselves. There are also a number of families who are from nearby African counties many of whom do not have ID and therefore have even a harder time finding a job. Unemployment is by far greater than employment amongst the adults and there are many reasons for that. Many adults have not reached metric (grade 10) in school let alone finished high school, lack of ID is a whole other challenge, and when there is only one adult in the home the choice is either to care for your children or to leave them at home and work. Sadly sometimes the latter is done in order to be able to be able to provide food for the family.

Emmanuel’s Wish Foundation comes alongside many families in the squatter’s camp by providing a crèche for their children to attend and vegetables and food parcels brought to them. Last week we (EWF staff, Nicole visiting from Canada, and I) bought food and put together sixty food packages and on Monday we brought them to the camp to distribute. We were happy and had fun doing this because we could clearly see how happy the families were to receive the food. While we handed out the packages and took the names of the families the children ran around playing and we had fun taking pictures together. Nicole took a lot of pictures and later that afternoon she printed them so that next time we go to the squatter’s camp we can give the pictures to them. Pictures are rare for them and so they will surely be very happy to have them.

I think the best feeling to describe being in the squatter’s camp in humbling. Most can only dream of a better life yet the people stay hopeful. They look for work and often do very hard work for small pay and government grants for children help some families each month but for those who have no ID it is impossible to register for the grant. Somehow each month they get by, but it saddens me to think of children just barely getting enough to eat, of the very cold nights in their houses that do not keep out the cold, and the dirty and rough places and people that are in the camps as well. Many people know only that life. Some have been living like this for over thirty years and others have been born and raised there. I can only guess what it might be like to live in such circumstances and I don’t think I would be nearly as positive and hopeful as the people I have met are.

Visiting the squatter’s camp reminds me again and again how much I have which I should be thankful for. More often though I am not thankful for it but take it as my right as a person. Unfortunately many people have to work really hard and fight for things that other people, including myself, obtain with a very easy swipe of a card or push of a button. I just watched a commercial advertising an easy food chopper that would take away the annoying time it takes to chop food. While some people are concerned about wasting time chopping food with a knife others are worrying about how they are going to be able to buy food for one day, week, or month. This doesn’t seem right or fair to me but this is reality and it is the world we live in today.

I really wish sometimes that I could do more to better issues and situations in the world. While I fail to understand lots of things in the world I do trust that God holds the world in his hands and uses everything for his good. This is a comfort to me and I hold onto this when I feel put down by many sad situations in the world. While it is sometimes saddening and frustrating to go to places like the squatter camps, I am thankful I am able to go in order to help the people there but also so that I can be reminded to be thankful for what I have and to never stop giving of myself and my things for those who need it. I look forward to going a couple times yet before I leave Richmond.

Laina