Just a few of the interesting activities I've engaged in this week at the HRC.
My HRC office hosts a biweekly radio program on Durban Youth Radio station. This week, I attended the program and spoke about the s.29 Right to Basic Education. I helped explain the right and answer questions regarding the realization of the right in KZN. The radio station is run by university students, and the atmosphere was friendly and eclectic. It almost felt like Ann Arbor.
My friend Arthi and I also had the opportunity to present our report from the Roundtable Discussion on School Based Violence to delegates from the European Union. The EU sponsors the Civil Society Advocacy Program, of which one officer is based in our HRC office. The EU is threatening to pull funding from the program, so the delegate's visit was of primary importance. Arthi and I were honored to make the presentation.
We also took the delegate to an elementary school in Umgababa, a rural community just outside Durban. The HRC had secured a settlement on behalf of a learner at the school who had fallen into a pit latrine. The HRC is pressuring the Department of Education to replace such latrines at all elementary schools with toilet facilities more suitable for small children. The little girl who fell into the latrine was only 5 years old, and she could have drown. We saw the latrines, the classrooms, and kitchen facilities. The children had mostly left already. There were cows wandering around. The kids did not have a playground. I was amazed with the contrast between the Umgababa school and the schools in Durban.
Tonight Arthi is taking me to a festival at her temple. It should be fun. I'll be sure to take pictures. Once my computer is fixed I'll post them. :)
Cheers