Principal Desmond Mabuya of New Nation School

The new nation ASKED how the school got its name, principal Desmond Mabuya says that a group of boys from the shelter Streetwise were asked to suggest names for the school, then based at the YMCA. They came up with the name because they felt they represented the new nation of children in a new, democratic South Africa. The school logo was designed by one of the students. Out of the Twilight MILDRED MHLANGA is administrator of Twilight, one of the shelters in Hillbrow. She says her shelter re-unites around five children a month with their families. Mabuya is also very conscious of keeping the children away from the destructive climate of the streets. "When they are offered material things like R10 for delivering a parcel of drugs for a drug lord, and get immediate gratification with the money, it is sometimes hard to keep them here."

Lerato Ramonare, 20, who won a bronze medal at the All Africa Games in 1999

Two tough girls TWO girls who entered as wrestlers for the All Africa Games in 1999 are Lerato Ramonare, 20, and Simphiwe Mpungose, 21. Lerato won a bronze medal and Simphiwe a silver medal. They are presently in matric, and both live at the Christian Care Centre in Berea. Lerato's mother lives in Bloemfontein, and moved there after Lerato started school at the New Nation School, so Lerato was reluctant to move. She stayed with her mother's friend in Johannesburg for a while, before moving to the Care Centre. Lerato wants to study chemical engineering at Wits Technikon but she is dependent on a bursary for funding. Simphiwe's home is in Nkanqa in KwaZulu-Natal, where her brothers and sisters live with her grandmother. She wants to study marketing at Wits Technikon. Lerato says: "We are often called street children but we are not street children. We have homes and families but often can't stay at those homes." They both took up wrestling because they thought it was "the best sport" to do. They have stopped training to concentrate on their matric studies, but right now are giving some energy to fundraising for the matric dance. In February, says Lerato, they held a Miss Valentine competition, and raised R600. "We are hoping to hold a Miss New Nation competition for further fundraising, but we need sponsors, which we are trying to get," says Lerato. They are hoping to hold the dance in July at a venue outside of the school.

Creating a new nation from tough beginnings April 29, 2002 By Lucille Davie THESE schoolchildren get homework to take home - but most aren't going home. For them, home is a youth shelter in Hillbrow or Berea. These are children who have already lived life at its harshest. They left their parents' homes to live, sleep and eat on the streets of Johannesburg, eventually to be brought to the shelters, either by police or members of the public. The shelters are "temporary orphanages" supported largely by generous donors, both local and international. The aim of the shelters is to keep the children off the streets, and re-unite them with their families. Some of the reasons the children have left home are: unemployed parents and hunger, harsh authority at home, overcrowded shacks (as many as 10 people per shack), or destitute homes where the children were expected to beg for a living. Today these children go to school, often for the first time in their lives, at the New Nation School in the working class suburb of Cottlesloe, near Auckland Park. Principal Desmond Mabuya is a large, friendly, approachable man who knows what the kids need and does his best to get it for them. And what they need is big doses is counselling, which they get weekly, from student psychologists from Wits University. "The kids lack self-confidence, and are easily discouraged. We spend a lot of time working on motivation," says Mabuya. This is done is two ways: motivational speakers from Damelin are invited to speak at the school; and the teachers employed at the school generally have remedial training backgrounds. The school, a red-brick square building, was built around 1915. The building was used by strikers in the 1922 miners strike as a hide-out and look-out point, as it sits on a high ridge overlooking the city and Hillbrow. It still shows signs of the conflict: bullet marks are scattered in the wall around its front door. New Nation moved to its present location six years ago. The school has 839 kids, 650 of those boys, 189 girls, from grades 4 to 12. Their backgrounds vary - some come from nearby homes where they are looked after by their unemployed grannies, others from a squatter camp in Crown Mines, but most live in nearby shelters - Streetwise, Twilight, Paradise, Home of Hope, amongst others - in Hillbrow and Berea. "They come to us with a baggage of problems and one of our first tasks is to win their trust. This depends on small things like how you introduce yourself to them, and showing them that you value them as a person," explains Mabuya. Children are given a hot meal every day, supplied by United Sisterhood in Parktown, a Jewish women's group. Nineteen children get breakfast every morning too. The children are encouraged to plant their own vegetables in the school's inner quadrangle, where a healthy crop of spinach is growing. New children are put into workshops as part of their induction. These are followed up with fortnightly debriefing sessions, in which the children are encouraged to express their frustrations, and given talks on motivation and responsibility. They are reminded that they are not forced to come to school. The education department pays teacher salaries, and the salaries of one or two administration people, but not for sports facilities, outings or cultural activities. Despite this, Mabuya and his staff of 28 teachers have managed to create an atmosphere that encourages a low absentee rate. And pupils have to cope with big classes - ranging from around 60 to 20 kids in this year's matric class. Mabuya is optimistic for this year's matric class. It is the first group of children to have started in the school six years ago, in grade 7, with some kids three years older than the normal age for matric, at 21 years. Last year's matric pass rate was 5%, but with Saturday classes and a small group, hopes are much higher for this year. New Nation has to deal with problems like gangsterism and bullying, that originate from encounters the children have had on the streets. A child may clash with someone at school who has been a threat on the streets. "We have a buddie system which helps us deal with bullying and anything more serious, like drugs," says Mabuya. The system is used to report when anything is wrong, with the aim of instilling discipline. The school has strict rules, like no smoking; another is body searches done twice a month. Previously, weapons like knives used to be found on some kids, but now a packet of cigarettes may occasionally be found on a child. Strict rules are also imposed at the shelters: no glue-sniffing, no dagga-smoking, no begging, and no parking cars. These rules are intended to keep the children off the streets. The theory is that if they get money from begging or parking cars, they will buy glue and get back into the destructive street cycle of dependency on glue or dagga. New Nation has two 'floating classes' of 13 to 19-year-olds, kids who have been on the streets since the age of six. The groups are being taught basic reading, writing and maths, and life skills. Mabuya says: "These kids are not academic material, with concentration skills of not more than 10 minutes. They are used to a street system of giving whatever spoils they get - from begging usually - to a leader." They are being taught practical skills - First Aid, telephone answering techniques and preparing a meal. The school is hoping to introduce motor mechanics and home care to further these children's skills, to be taught in new classrooms that are at the foundation stage behind the main building. The school offers sports too - they readied five wrestlers for the All Africa Games in 1999, in Johannesburg, the kids training at a gym in Doornfontein. Four of these five children are girls, two of them sitting for their matric this year. The school has a soccer field, and two tennis courts combined with netball courts. Recently one of the boys was given a soccer bursary to study at the Soccer Academy near Kempton Park. But not all cases are successful - Mabuya points to a press clipping with a photograph of the five wrestlers. One of the girls is now believed to be a prostitute, one's whereabouts are unknown, and the single boy in the group is a criminal. Mabuya proudly describes the computer room. It has 25 computers, donated by Siemens and Mondi, with cabling donated by the Finnish Embassy. At present the school has no computer teacher, but the children were happily plugging away at their keyboards. New Nation has six sister schools in Finland, and is sistered to Auckland Preparatory School, from whom they get teacher support and training, particularly in outcomes-based education and its principles. All this keeps Mabuya pretty busy, besides the fact that he pops down the road to the New Nation Primary School, where he is also principal. Running two schools, competing with the street's "attractions" to keep children in school, keeping motivation levels up, keeping bullying under control, having very little contact with parents - this is a tall order for any principal, so how does Mabuya do it? "I love what I do," he says, "I enjoy making a difference in somebody's life and getting involved in the lost generation. In fact, we have proved that they are not a lost generation. We have to realise that most of them are not on the streets or in shelters by choice." Out in the playground during break boys dash around kicking a ball, their white shirts hanging out of their grey flannel trousers. The girls play elastics, with a piece of elastic looped around two girls' legs. Other groups sit chatting on the grass, while others stand in a queue for their lunch. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400