TOPLINE Vaccines for children ages 5 to 11 could potentially come as soon as October under a “best-case scenario,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief who serves on Pfizer’s board, said Sunday—faster than an earlier timeline Gottlieb gave two weeks ago that projected the shots would likely roll out closer to early winter.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Gottlieb said on CBS’&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-scott-gottlieb-face-the-nation-09-12-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Face the Nation</a>&nbsp;that Pfizer should have data on child vaccinations “before the end of September” and may potentially file for FDA approval “within days of having that data.”



The FDA has said they will make a determination based on that data in a “matter of weeks, not months,” Gottlieb said, which he expects to be approximately four to six weeks, and that means “in a best-case scenario&#8230;you could potentially have a vaccine available to children aged 5 to 11 by Halloween.”



Gottlieb previously&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-dr-scott-gottlieb-on-face-the-nation-08-29-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;August 29 on&nbsp;Face the Nation&nbsp;that he believed Pfizer would file its application “potentially as early as October,” which would mean vaccines would likely be available for kids in “late fall, more likely early winter.”



U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said on CNN Sunday that child vaccinations are the agency’s “top priority” and when the FDA does receive data from the manufacturers, they are ready to “process that quickly.”



Dr. James Versalovic, the pediatrician-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital, backed up Gottlieb’s timeline on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-dr-james-versalovic-face-the-nation-09-12-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Face the Nation</a>, saying the hospital is “certainly&#8230;aiming for that timeline in October” regarding submitting data from its trials on child Covid-19 vaccinations.



The Texas Children’s Hospital’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bcm.edu/healthcare/clinical-trials/h-49597" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trials</a>, which are being conducted among children ages 6 months to 11 years with both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, are “moving ahead well” and are “well into phase two-three,” Versalovic said, and while children are getting a different dosage of the vaccine than adults, it’s “safe and effective.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“Thus far we are on track, and I certainly would agree with Dr. Gottlieb that we are doing all we can to get vaccines to children in the fall,” Versalovic said regarding the hospital’s October goal for its vaccine trials. “In the meantime, use masking and other measures to keep our children safe and reassure parents that help is on the way in the form of vaccines for children under 12.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



Approximately 5 million. That’s the number of Covid-19 cases in children since the pandemic began as of September 2,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/children-and-covid-19-state-level-data-report/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the American Academy of Pediatrics. More than 250,000&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/09/07/at-least-250000-kids-tested-positive-for-covid-last-week-as-school-year-surge-continues/?sh=28e0d6c8765f">cases</a>&nbsp;were recorded between August 19 and September 2, the most recent week for which data is available, which the organization reports is the largest weekly increase since the pandemic began.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Child Covid-19 vaccinations have become an increasing concern as the delta variant has left children ineligible for vaccination particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. Children now&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/09/07/at-least-250000-kids-tested-positive-for-covid-last-week-as-school-year-surge-continues/?sh=28e0d6c8765f">make up</a>&nbsp;more than a quarter of new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. and the rate of child and teen hospitalizations increased by five times in mid-August, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberleespeakman/2021/09/03/teen-and-children-covid-hospitalization-increases-by-almost-5-times-cdc-reports/?sh=69d12e8d1b30">study</a>&nbsp;by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Schools&nbsp;<a href="https://www.khq.com/news/medical-lake-high-school-goes-remote-following-covid-outbreak-on-football-team/article_6f65ee88-1281-11ec-9444-f772367e4eed.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">across</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.9news.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/covid-outbreaks-80-colorado-schools/73-0bc78de6-393d-46bc-8ca1-6fa01b2fae65" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/covid-19-outbreak-closes-apollo-ridge-middle-school/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">country</a>&nbsp;have been hit by Covid-19&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/coronavirus/coronavirus-by-the-numbers-more-than-100-covid-outbreaks-reported-in-illinois-schools/2609697/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outbreaks</a>&nbsp;in recent weeks, ramping up the urgency for children to get vaccinated now that they’re back in school. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) led 106 lawmakers in August in&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/RepKatiePorter/status/1427687260305063937" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">asking</a>&nbsp;the FDA to provide answers about when kids can get the shot in light of the new anxieties over child Covid-19 transmission. “Parents need to know when their kids will be able to get vaccinated,” the lawmakers wrote. Gottlieb’s comments Sunday about Pfizer soon seeking FDA approval come after the founders of BioNTech, which developed the vaccine with Pfizer, similarly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/09/10/pfizer-biontech-to-seek-approval-for-first-covid-vaccine-for-young-children-in-next-few-weeks/?sh=58408ba42337">said</a>&nbsp;last week they would be seeking approval globally for child vaccinations “over the next few weeks.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/09/10/pfizer-biontech-to-seek-approval-for-first-covid-vaccine-for-young-children-in-next-few-weeks/?sh=58408ba42337">Pfizer-BioNTech To Seek Approval For First Covid Vaccine For Young Children ‘In Next Few Weeks’</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/09/07/at-least-250000-kids-tested-positive-for-covid-last-week-as-school-year-surge-continues/?sh=28e0d6c8765f">At Least 250,000 Kids Tested Positive For Covid In The U.S. Last Week As School Year Surge Continues</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberleespeakman/2021/09/03/teen-and-children-covid-hospitalization-increases-by-almost-5-times-cdc-reports/?sh=69d12e8d1b30">Teen And Children Covid Hospitalization Increases By Almost 5 Times, CDC Reports</a> (Forbes)



By Alison Durkee, Forbes Staff

Opening of the Primary School Year in Granada, Spain amid the coronavirus pandemic

Covid Vaccines For Kids Could Be Approved By October Under ‘Best Case Scenario,’ Gottlieb Suggests

<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-1024x683.jpg" alt="" data-id="51362" data-full-url="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=51362" class="wp-image-51362" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, 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src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-1024x683.jpg" alt="" data-id="51372" data-full-url="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=51372" class="wp-image-51372" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-1024x683.jpg" alt="" data-id="51373" data-full-url="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=51373" class="wp-image-51373" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></li></ul><figcaption class="blocks-gallery-caption">Young boxers participate in activities at a new Fight With Insight boxing gym, launched on Youth Day at Hillbrow in Johannesburg, South Africa, with founder Luke Lamprecht, the gyms assist in training and feeding inner-city youth in Johannesburg; photographs by Yeshiel Panchia</figcaption></figure>



Today marks 45 years of the Soweto Uprising in South Africa, when thousands of unhappy schoolchildren challenging an apartheid regime fearlessly took to the streets protesting being taught in Afrikaans. June 16 1976 ended in fire, fear and tears. Commemorated as Youth Day in South Africa, FORBES AFRICA captures the rousing emotions of today, but in a boxing ring in inner city Johannesburg, where the youth now bond over sport as part of a broader upliftment program.



June 16 is a hallowed day in South African history, observed as Youth Day commemorating the student uprising of 1976 in Soweto which saw students lead demonstrations against an education system that would eventually lead to menial jobs. Some 20,000 students partook in what was to be a peaceful protest, but when the day was over, at least 176 had been killed by the bullets and brutality of apartheid. The children laid down their lives but it marked a new chapter in South Africa’s liberation struggle.



Across South Africa today are events marking the memory of that fateful day, and FORBES AFRICA joined one such occasion of hope and healing in Hillbrow, a residential neighborhood in Johannesburg, for the opening of a third gym for inner-city youth by Fight With Insight, a youth empowerment initiative directed by Luke Lamprecht, a child protection and development specialist.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Children have had dreams put on hold or broken altogether; schooling has been disrupted; families separated; and food and social security systems taken away from them.”</blockquote>



Lamprecht founded the first such gym in Johannesburg in 2006, and chose Youth Day this year to mark the opening of his latest outlet, offering daily training to aspiring boxers as also supplying healthy meals to them. “2020 has been a bad year to be a child,” says Lamprecht to FORBES AFRICA, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic that put the brakes on the social and psychological development of young children, and dried up the support networks and sustenance that many of them depended on to lead normal lives.



“Children have had dreams put on hold or broken altogether; schooling has been disrupted; families separated; and food and social security systems taken away from them.”



His initiative aims to meet some of these deficiencies, offering camaraderie, exercise, food and above all, belief and purpose to children in need. The advocacy aspect is not new to the personnel at Fight With Insight, as they have provided training and food even within Covid-19 lockdown restrictions all of last year. At their height, they served 1.4 tonnes of food a day. However, this June 16 marks an easier time than the last, with children ending training before their meal by breaking a paper chain – symbolizing breaking free of the challenges and restrictions that hold them back.



Many of the urban youth at the center say they find both their physical and emotional sustenance inside the ring. They are in it to win this perennial fight called life.

Fight With Insight (2 of 13)

Youth Day Photo Essay: Gloves On For The Big Fight Called Life

From babyhood to adulthood, children are exposed to many forms of violence, no matter where they live.
Black adolescent boys in the United States are 19 times more likely to die than white boys of the same age, and face a similar risk of dying as their peers in the conflict zones of South Sudan. Latin America and the Caribbean have the highest child murder rates in the world. Around 300 million two-to-four-year-olds globally will experience physical punishment or verbal abuse by their parents or caretakers. And at least 15 million girls will have been sexually abused or raped by their 19th birthdays.
These are just some of the alarming findings of two wide-ranging global reports on violence against children. Both reports point to two major challenges: getting countries to gather better data on the various types of violence against children, which so often happens inside the home and/or by people known to the children, and taking steps to put an end to it.
There are still big gaps in knowledge, with many countries completely in the dark about the extent to which their child citizens are victims of violence. Even countries with better statistics have no idea how much corporal punishment happens in homes for example, or of the extent to which boys experience physical and sexual violence. All too often, violence against children is shrouded in secrecy.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/01/17/calling-sexual-harrassment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Calling Out Sexual Harassment</a>
Know Violence in Childhood, a global initiative to end violence against children, released a detailed report informed by 44 research papers, thousands of articles, reports and other sources. Although the report presents a global picture, the authors state that “reliable data on inter-personal violence in childhood are difficult to obtain. This is partly because such violence takes place within relationships and is hidden by a strong culture of silence”. And many children and women are reluctant to report violence because of the stigma and fear of repercussions.
UNICEF’s report, A Familiar Face: Violence in the Lives of Children and Adolescents, builds on their seminal 2014 report on child violence statistics, Hidden in Plain Sight, which compiled data from 190 countries. Their new report contains updated statistics and analysis and notes that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include targets to wipe out violence against children by 2030, offer the potential get better data on the crimes, ensure that monitoring takes place, that countries are held to account and most importantly, that they take proactive steps to stop it.
Although much more information is now available on violence against children than it was a few years ago, the gaps make it hard to compare countries with each other and for states to report and measure their progress on the SDGs.
Goal 5 (gender equality) and Goal 16 (peace) contain specific targets aimed at stopping violence against children but many of the other goals indirectly address some of the drivers of this violence too, including poverty, lack of education and poor health.
Nevertheless, if more progress is not made and if current trends continue, “close to two million children and adolescents could be killed by an act of violence by the year 2030”, warn the authors of the UNICEF report. And whether violence ends in death or not, the effects of pervasive and various forms of abuse throughout childhood have an insidious impact on society in general, says Know Violence Global Co-Chair A.K. Shiva Kumar.
“From severe physical punishment to sexual abuse to homicide, childhood violence damages individuals, families and communities in both rich countries and poor, with a cost in trillions of dollars a year.”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/16/oprah-keeping-promise-made-mandela/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Oprah Keeping The Promise Made To Mandela</a>
Violence against children is closely tied up with violence against women. Children who see their mothers abused will more likely perpetrate violence themselves, warn the experts.
Childhood violence occurs in many forms – corporal punishment in the home and at school; physical, sexual and emotional abuse by adults or peers.
“Beyond the immediate physical damage it causes, exposure to violence can traumatize children, harm school performance, lead to depression and other illnesses, and increase the chances that young people will become the victims or perpetrators of violence in the future,” say the Know Violence in Childhood authors.
The UNICEF report cites an emerging body of research that shows the toxic effects of violence and other trauma on the developing brains of children in the first 1,000 days of their lives.
Violence not only threatens children’s physical safety but their cognitive and emotional development too. This is particularly disturbing given that data from 30 countries showed that nearly half of all one-to-two-year-olds were verbally abused or received corporal punishment.
Online violence is another emerging category of violence as more and more children around the world gain access to the Internet. Online bullying, harassment, sexual extortion and “grooming” for sex and child pornography are now the shadow side of increasing interconnectedness between children and their peers or with adult strangers, including those in far-flung parts of the globe.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/01/08/dark-side-social-media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Dark Side Of Social Media</a>
Yet there is still a great deal of public ignorance about the many forms of violence that children experience. According to the UNICEF report, “Despite a growing awareness of the global nature of violence against children, the misconception that it is relatively rare persists. Media reporting typically focuses on extreme cases, such as death or rape. And while such tragedies, thankfully, are relatively uncommon, other acts of violence are not.” The authors also conclude that two out of three violent acts against children and adolescents are inter-personal rather than a result of broader conflict or civil unrest.
Although both reports make the point that violence happens across all economic strata, in rich and poor countries, low-income and high-income families, three regions in Africa nevertheless take the top three spots in tables compiled by Know Violence in Childhood for 2015: West and Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, and Middle East and North Africa. These regions have the highest combined totals for the following categories: corporal punishment; bullying and physical fights; physical and sexual violence against girls; and child homicide. Although Latin America and the Caribbean have the highest rate of child murder, the other forms of violence are far lower in these regions. Industrialized countries have the lowest rates of all these categories combined. Another statistic shows that sexual violence against girls is worst in Eastern and Southern Africa, followed by West and Central Africa and Middle East and North Africa.
So what steps do experts recommend for taking steps to end the many forms of violence against children? As UNICEF says, “It will take individual and collective action to right this global wrong.” Measures must be taken at state, community and inter-personal levels, say the experts. Outlawing violence is a first step. So far, only 60 of 193 UN member states prohibit corporal punishment in the home. In schools, corporal punishment is either partly or fully illegal in roughly 130 countries.
Other steps include addressing the socio-economic conditions that perpetuate the violence such as unemployment, poverty, substance abuse and the like. And hopefully the SDGs will help build public awareness and pressure countries to come on board with clear efforts to prevent it.
Raising awareness in communities and among parents and caregivers on the rights of children and on the toxic effects of violence against them, as well as helping them find different strategies to manage children’s behavior, are among the recommendations the Know Violence in Childhood report makes.
Tackling hierarchical school systems that allow corporal punishment and other violence such as bullying is another. UNICEF is partnering with school programs to help teachers use strategies that promote better behavior rather than resort to punishment. The organization, a partner in the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, has also developed a program called INSPIRE, which aims to spread awareness around programs that have been shown to work.
And, despite the downside of so many children being online, there is an upside too: technology can also protect children, with online awareness raising campaigns or mobile phone map applications, for example, that can help keep them safe.

Children At Risk From A Known Enemy

Johnnie Walker, in partnership with Million Men March, Tswharanang Legal Advocacy Centre and Lifeline, held an event on Saturday at the iconic Nelson Mandela Bridge in support of an abuse-free society by pledging to do what they can to eradicate the causes and effects of women and children abuse for not only 16 days, but for all 365 days of the year. The South African public is also invited to pledge their support to eradicate the causes and effects of abuse for all 365 days of the year by pledging their support on <a href="http://www.strideforgood.co.za" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.strideforgood.co.za</a>.
Alcohol has long been associated in many parts of the world with enjoyment and celebration. At Johnnie Walker, our brands are made with pride, but are also made to be enjoyed – responsibly. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Violence against women is often related to the irresponsible use of alcohol.
<div id="attachment_34756" style="width: 511px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34756" class=" wp-image-34756" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Diageo-Johnnie-Walker-pledge-e1512991006125-300x191.jpg" alt="" width="501" height="319" />Representatives from Diageo, Million Men March, Tswharanang Legal Advocacy Centre and Lifeline, on Nelson Mandela Bridge. (Photo supplied)</div>
Several studies from low- and middle-income countries show that men who misuse alcohol are 1.6 to 4.8 times more likely to perpetrate intimate partner violence than men who do not misuse alcohol. Fortunately, research also shows that violence against women is predictable and preventable. By identifying the social, cultural, legal and economic factors that influence such violence, it is possible to predict its occurrence and to understand how to prevent it.
The Striding Men event is just one of the many initiatives Johnnie Walker will champion to promote responsible drinking and combat alcohol misuse. Johnnie Walker is proud to invite South Africa to participate and contribute towards 365 days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children by continuing to promote responsible drinking in South Africa.

South African public invited to pledge and #strideforgood

<h2>‘The Crisis Could Be With Us For The Unforeseeable Future’</h2>
The tear-inducing image of a young boy washed up on a beach in Turkey last year dominated headlines for weeks. His small, lifeless body had finally presented the true picture of the greatest crisis of our times. His death became a metaphor of the desolation and helplessness faced by the millions forcibly displaced.
The boy was later reported to have been on a boat with his family from his hometown Kobani in northern Syria, a country torn apart by war for years. He was one of 11,000 children reported as displaced every day, the victims of forced migration.
His father would later explain to reporters that their boat suddenly capsized as they were making a final and desperate attempt to escape the conflict-ridden state by sea.
This illustration is but one of many that has continued to grab headlines over the years. The refugee crisis is real and the biggest casualties are children.
Antonio Guterres, the former United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), highlights in the UNHCR Global Trends 2014 report: “We are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before.”
Children form an overwhelming majority, at least about half, of the world’s total refugee population upwards of 60 million.
Chaos has long descended on the world but the lack of political will by global leaders is robbing children of their childhood, families and identity.
On a recent visit to Johannesburg, British politician, activist and author, Professor Peter Hain, the Lord Hain of Neath, said the refugee crisis is a calamity for women and children.
“This global phenomenon capitalizes on the shortcomings of states, adequate political standards need to be established in order to create change,” he told FORBES WOMAN AFRICA.
While governments are not as willing to initiate processes to mitigate the rising numbers of refugees, particularly children, Amnesty International earlier this year conducted the Refugees Welcome Index; the global survey revealed that government refugee policies and citizens are on opposite ends, with the important call to integrate the refugees into economies.
The fight continues for children, though. They are more vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation in unfamiliar, often crowded conditions they have no control over.
Mosa Moremi, national child rights and advocacy advisor of SOS Children’s Villages South Africa, tells us processes to integrate children into society are very difficult.
“In my experience, sometimes children are brought into the country by parents who have migrated and then they are later abandoned. They are left with nothing.”
She highlights that giving these abandoned or unaccompanied children adequate care becomes challenging and the system is riddled with layers of red tape.
Professor Hain echoes this sentiment, stating that the crisis which manifests in “a seemingly impotent international system led by the United Nations could be with us for the unforeseeable future”.
It’s no comforting thought that one estimate suggests that 80% of the world’s refugees are in developing countries and yet less than 9% are hosted by six of the world’s richest nations. And, the rise of right-wing populism ideas, as Professor Hain stresses.
This means that many will continue to face racism, xenophobia and discrimination, imposing an unprecedented new burden on children who often have little understanding of the social, political and economic discourse of a society.
In the pages that follow, FORBES WOMAN AFRICA speaks to three young migrants in South Africa, who now live in a limbo, hurt and homeless.
<h2>Sarah (16) and Kudzai (15) Mathe</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-32018 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-059-681x1024.jpg" alt="" width="681" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-059.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-059-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-059-600x902.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-059-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px" />
One night in 2009 when Sarah and Kudzai Mathe, nine and eight respectively, were asleep after another long day selling tomatoes, onions and fruit, their stepfather returned home drunk as he did everyday but this time, he attempted to rape them.
Sarah was able to break free from his grip. She grabbed all her courage, and the money she had saved on the day with Kudzai, and together, they ran, not knowing where they were headed.
As they ran, Kudzai looked back. In the blackness of the night, she could see the house their mother raised them in fade into the distance, never to see it again. The girls had spent their early years with their parents in a small town in Harare, Zimbabwe.
“Our parents got divorced when we were still young. Our stepfather didn’t even hide that he didn’t love us,” they say.
Shortly after their mother’s new union, they stopped attending school.
“He told us he didn’t have money to pay for school fees and that’s when we started selling fruit and vegetables on the street.”
Whilst other children walked to school or waited for the bus in the mornings, Sarah and Kudzai would set up their stall.
“The other kids would laugh at us because we wore rags and sometimes had no shoes.”
Things got worse when their mother fell ill and passed away in 2009.
“There was no longer place for us in that house. Our stepfather just brought in different wives every night and spent most of the money we would make.”
The day after they ran away from home, as they wandered the streets, Kudzai suggested they go to South Africa.
“I heard about it and thought we could get on the bus and just go.”
They arrived at a bus station and spoke with one of the drivers who directed them to the bus that would take them to South Africa.
“When we got onto the bus, the driver asked us how much we had and I pulled out all of our savings and he grabbed it and said we should find seats,” Sarah says.
“We were so hungry and the lady we sat next to on the bus gave us an apple each. We ate them like we’d never eaten before.
“After a few hours, the bus made a stop at Beitbridge; the driver told us to get off and that he would be back for us.”
They waited for the bus driver for two weeks. He didn’t come back for them. And they were only nine and eight years old.
When it dawned on them that the bus driver was not going to be back for them, they found work handing out flyers to travelers passing by the border bridge. They were paid R30 ($2) each a week and saved that up to pay malaicha, which Sarah explains means carriers. The malaicha would help them get to South Africa.
“We paid the R200 ($15) we’d saved and we were on our way.”
With Sarah and Kudzai were five other men.
“As we walked through the forest and then the Limpopo river, what scared us the most was that any one of the men could rape us, we were the only girls and the night our father almost raped us was fresh in our memory,” recalls Sarah.
Kudzai does not say much apart from a nod or a sigh throughout the interview. But she says now: “We really thought South Africa was so far.”
After over 12 hours of walking, they found themselves in Messina, the northernmost town of Limpopo.
“We looked for work but no one would hire us.”
In time, they found an old woman who paid them R50 ($3.6) a month to clean and do the laundry. “It wasn’t that hard for us because we were used to working.”
They used the money to pay for a lorry ride to Johannesburg in September 2009. They were two of the lucky ones. When they got to Johannesburg, they were directed to the Methodist church in Braamfontein. They have since been moved and “life is good”.
“We are back in school and I love maths but I’m not that good at it,” Kudzai giggles.
“We also have each other and that’s what matters,” says Sarah, her smile brightening up a face hardened by experience.
<h2>Maqhawe Garikayi (17)</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-32019 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-132-681x1024.jpg" alt="" width="681" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-132.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-132-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-132-600x902.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-132-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px" />
When Maqhawe Garikayi was arrested by border security for attempting to illegally cross over into South Africa from Zimbabwe in 2012, he was not discouraged. Shortly after he was released, he tried again, and succeeded. He was 13.
Four years on, Garikayi barely looks up as he tells his story.
“I never knew my birth mother and I don’t know if I have any siblings. All I had was a stepmother who saw me as her worker, not her child. She just didn’t love me.”
Garikayi couldn’t get along with his her. At the age of 13, he was questioning his existence and toying with the idea of running away from home. Thoughts of where he would run away to and how he would survive were secondary as survival instincts compelled him to get away from what he describes “a toxic environment”.
As a young boy who was not attending school and knew no stability, he was left with little choice.
“I left home with nothing but the clothes I was wearing. I had no money. I had no documents. I heard about South Africa and how it was the land of milk and honey so that was where I was going to go.”
The second time he tried to cross the border illegally, he was able to sneak past security.
“After [hitch-hiking], I walked through a forest and then through the forceful waves of the Limpopo river. I just followed other groups of people I assumed were also on their way to South Africa.”
Trouble awaited young boys like Garikayi in Messina, where he was robbed of his clothes, and beaten. He had to cover his nudity with a discarded blue overall he found.
“I cried, I thought I was going to die.”
Garikayi mustered strength and made his way to a filling station in Messina. He spent the night there and the following morning, wandered into a suburb and knocked on doors for food and some clothes. Eventually, he was handed a pair of blue shorts, sandals and a T-shirt. After a few days, he was able to make his way to Johannesburg, in a pick-up truck.
Garikayi remembers spending almost eight months on the streets, surviving on whatever he could find in trash bins.
“It was funny the way I always found KFC in the bins, a lot of people wasted that,” he says with a hint of a smile.
Garikayi has since been taken in by an organization that is currently sending him to school, clothing him, feeding him and ensuring he has a warm bed to sleep in every night.
His dreams of being an accountant and having a family of his own have a fighting chance but he sobs and whispers: “My greatest wish is for a mother, I don’t know why God gave me this life.”
&nbsp;
<h2>Wasithanda Hadziperidzega (21)</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-32020 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-0591-681x1024.jpg" alt="" width="681" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-0591.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-0591-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-0591-600x902.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Refugee-child-0591-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px" />
On April 28, 2014, Wasithanda Hadziperidzega decided to leave home in pursuit of a better life, a life he thought he would find in South Africa.
But sadly, the journey and destination were a far cry from his dreams.
Originally from Ghana, Hadziperidzega moved to Zimbabwe to live with his mother, a single parent raising four young children, a common scenario in the African narrative.
His mother worked in the public sector and could not afford a decent living.
Many, if not all public service employees, were left for weeks and even months at a time without income, left to live at the mercy of a government mired in turmoil.
“My mother would never tell us that she was struggling financially but I could see; I can see things.”
One day, at the age of 18, Hadziperidzega left home as he did every day for soccer practice. After the game, he listened to his peers talk about how tough life was in Zimbabwe.
He made up his mind.
“… The grounds [were] the only place we could talk about the country’s situation and Mugabe. It was safe. After we talked, I decided then that I was going to leave. All I needed was $53 for a passport and $30 for the bus,” says Hadziperidzega.
He never returned home.
Hadziperidzega remembers it took him no longer than five minutes to decide his new fate. The task was now to make the money.
He had heard about how he could collect a small fortune in Mashonaland West, another province in Zimbabwe. The opportunity presented itself in the form of an illegal gold mining job. The word out on the street was that it was lucrative. After months of struggling to infiltrate a mine called Toppers, he was finally in.
“All I needed was a hammer, a short chisel and that torch you put around your head; it’s dark in those mines, there’s no sun,” he laughs, but there’s pain in his eyes.
After months of hard and treacherous work in the depths of Zimbabwe’s gold pits, he was able to save up $120.
He applied for his passport and used the rest to buy a bus ticket to South Africa.
“I arrived in South Africa at around 11PM at Park Station. Have you ever been to Park Station?” he asks. “There is a huge waiting area and I just sat there and pretended to be waiting for someone.”
People came and went fetching their relatives who had come through from different parts of the continent but no one came for Hadziperidzega. And it was the dead of night.
He hides his sorrow with a nervous chuckle, saying: “I knew no one was coming for me but I was just being silly and hoped someone would fetch me but I knew no one, I didn’t even understand where I was, all I knew was that I was in South Africa.”
For days, Hadziperidzega wandered the streets of Johannesburg looking for some validation that he had found in South Africa the social and economic salvation he couldn’t find in his home country, anything to convince him that he had made the right decision.
All he would encounter were other young foreigners collecting rubbish, “looking horrible”.
Nothing was easy to come by, not even scraps of food.
“I would eat anything just to make my tummy happy but not my tongue,” he shrugs.
Over the past two years, he has moved jobs trying to earn a decent living.
He says he has survived police harassment and several death threats because of his nationality.
But Hadziperidzega has not stopped dreaming.
His mind in still in the football fields of Zimbabwe; and he hopes to one day become a soccer star.
“I definitely don’t want to further my education, my whole family is educated and look at them, they are all poor and they will die poor. When you have money everything is easy and that’s all I want,” he says in conclusion.

refugee-child-015

A Lonely  Planet For The  Child  Refugee

There are 65.3 million displaced people worldwide. Of those people, 21.3 million are refugees, the people who belong to – Nowhere. No one knows where they come from, no one knows where they’re going. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, has highlighted that: “We are facing the biggest refugee and displacement crisis of our time.” He has called it a crisis of solidarity.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Global Trends report shows that since 2003, the number of newly-displaced people per minute has increased from just fewer than 10 to 24 persons in 2015. In 2014, the number was at its highest – 30. The reasons for displacement differ. Increasingly, the main reason is fleeing the source of political or economic conflict. It then becomes difficult to imagine the uncertain reality the many have run to or are left to live through. In theory, international law defines and protects refugees, encouraging the initiation of asylum procedures once they enter a new environment. In reality, the many who have migrated become nomads, often pursuing what becomes a hollow quest for a better life.
Women and girls form around 50% of refugees or displaced people around the world, according to UNHCR. In Africa, the number of women uprooted by war and unrest is significantly higher. A study published by Hivos International recorded 80% of refugees in Lebanon were women and children.
Along the inner streets of Johannesburg are ‘foreigners’, women selling fruit, vegetables and sundry items to feed their hungry children and themselves. Whilst walking up to the Department of Social Development, two young female hawkers run past me, clutching towels in one hand and tacky sunglasses and cellphone pouches on the other, fleeing cops. As is the case with hundreds of immigrants, they have no papers.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-31973 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2016/08/Refugee-mom-bw-038-1024x681.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Refugee-mom-bw-038-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Refugee-mom-bw-038-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Refugee-mom-bw-038-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Refugee-mom-bw-038-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Refugee-mom-bw-038.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
Another, a lady, sits rubbing her pregnant belly beside a small stall on Eloff Street. She sells hats, wallets, purses and scarves. She is reluctant to talk and asks not to be named. She came to South Africa following her husband, escaping the political turmoil in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“I came after he had made his way to what we were calling the land of milk and honey… [but] when I arrived in South Africa, it was made known to me that he had left for Canada. I’d come for nothing.”
Abandoned, she was forced to join the informal trading business.
“Life is hard here. We as foreigners are just not free. People don’t respect us and just steal our stock,” she says with little emotion.
After matriculation, she had gone on to acquire a degree in management in the DRC. But today, she is battered and broke.
Often, along their treacherous journeys, the women are abused and mishandled by gangs, truck-drivers and cops. This is only the beginning of their travails. The constitutional guarantees cannot protect them from the injustices they face. The UNHCR has highlighted that life for a woman, beyond her country of origin, becomes a constant battle and one of constant fear and uncertainty.
One of the many dangers is the xenophobic attacks, as has happened in recent times, with South Africans accusing foreign nationals of taking their jobs and over-populating their areas.
The informal trading sector is the main space in which the hateful disputes unravel. But for foreign nationals who have no other hope, informal trading becomes the only option.
Vanya Gastrow, a PhD candidate currently doing research for the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS), says one of the biggest challenges faced by foreign traders who come to South Africa is the crime targeted at them.
Other challenges include lack of access to reliable documentation, says Gastrow. “Asylum seekers and refugee permits often don’t meet documentation requirements for banks, visa offices, and landlords,” she says, as such foreigners cannot open bank accounts or access loans.
“These permits also require frequent renewals and so many make the decision to just live without them.”
For women though, it is even worse.
“It’s the sexual violence… and extortion, specific dangers that authorities fail to understand,” according to Penny Foley, a volunteer from Australia currently living in South Africa. She highlights that the objectification of female refugees is one of the many symptoms of what has become the de-humanizing of forced migration.
“The global community needs to change the 20th century understanding of a nation-state and move away from the notion of isolated nationalities,” she says.
“Interestingly though, the problem is not just about changing the perception of what nationals think of foreign nationals, relations amongst refugees need to be established. The fight becomes harder if unity lacks amongst them.”
In the pages that follow, FORBES WOMAN AFRICA speaks to three women from Zimbabwe; what displacement has done to them.
&nbsp;
<h3>Tafadzwa Shumba</h3>
“I just stood at the border in my pink shirt and panties after I had crossed over. I had nothing and I was scared.”
*Tafadzwa Shumba is 42 and came to South Africa in 2008. She was forced to leave her country, Zimbabwe, because of the political instability that made life for her and her family unbearable.
“I was seen to be too neutral so they threatened my parents and tried to kill me for not engaging in their dirty politics.”
The choice to leave was not an easy one to make but as she recalls, “I literally had to take that leap of faith”.
On July 27, 2008, as the world slumped to a financial crisis, Shumba packed a portable bag. She had R300 ($21) that would pay the ‘Guma-Gumas’, a group of men said to assist escapees across the woods to the border.
“I had a passport but those days we were using visas and they were expensive so my only choice was to cross over illegally.” She was the only woman amongst seven guys.
The group began the three-day trek through the forests, the Limpopo River, eventually reaching the border.
Few survive the trek but Shumba’s determination carried her.
“I don’t forget, as we walked through the forest we saw dead bodies. There was a human head lying on the ground with dreadlocks like mine,” says Shumba, running her fingers through her own.
“The Guma-Gumas picked it up and pointed it at us and said if you don’t give us your money you will end up like this head.”
“They took everything, even my pants and left me with there in my pink shirt, panties and shoes.” There was no time to process the betrayal. The trek had to continue.
“Look at me,” she says, as she gestures to her body. “I am nothing. I was a nurse, we would wear crisp white uniforms and after work, I had a home to go to.”
Last year, she was involved in a road accident in South Africa that left her crippled.
“I could not even get compensation from the Road Accident Fund because I am a foreigner.”
Now, because of her disability, she cannot work so she takes care of children and sells fruit and vegetables when desperate for money. The future is uncertain but she takes “each day as it comes”.
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<h3>Refugees Seen As ‘The Other’</h3>
<h5>The travails of a Vietnamese immigrant</h5>
Lisa Phung, her mother and older sister hid in a mosquito and disease-infested swamp during the day and in the night were led on to a small vessel that took them to a main fishing boat which would eventually transport them to their new lives.
Earlier, Phung’s mother had received instruction from her father to leave Vietnam as their freedom was under threat. He was a pilot who had just been captured by communist soldiers in the Vietnam War. Her mother who was not educated enough for a stable job heeded her husband’s advice and managed to secure the money to get her and her girls out of war-torn South Vietnam.
“People smugglers” were paid to get them out.
“The first two times, we got caught and were jailed,” says Phung. The third time, they got lucky.
“En route to the fishing boat, we got robbed by the people smugglers and everything was taken except for a few pieces of food.”
But at least they got on to the big boat.
“We were crammed up like anything and I was one of the youngest at age four.”
Shortly after they started, the boat’s engine died.
“They thought it was a petrol problem but the people smugglers had taken the petrol and replaced the tank with water.”
The group of people floated for 10 days with nothing more than a packet of rice to sustain them.
“My mother remembers that I was starting to die… everyone was getting ready for death.”
Shortly before a storm, a British cargo ship sailed past and for a few moments, there was a ray of hope.
“It didn’t stop to save us and that was heart-breaking because we lost hope.”
It was as though their fate was sealed but then, in a surprise move, the ship turned around and carried the refugees, Phung and her family amongst them, to Singapore.
“After the ordeal, my mum told me she lost hope in a lot of human beings because everyone just looked out for themselves.”
Because Phung’s mother had children, she was the last to be rescued.
“She was the last person off that boat; it must have been horrifying for her.”
The ship docked in Singapore. From there, the refugees were taken to a detention center in Hong Kong where they stayed for three years.
“My mum wanted to go to the USA but they were no longer taking refugees.”
Sometime later, Australia was accepting refugees. Phung was seven years old and finally a life of stability awaited her.
Years have passed. She now lives in Australia with a family of her own and uses her experience to give hope to others who have walked her path.
“I’ve seen how refugees are seen as ‘the other’ in different parts of the world, coming to take their jobs or their land and they really just want a safe place to live and everyone should have that right.”
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<h3>Tapiwa Moyo</h3>
“Coming to South Africa was supposed to be like going to heaven,” says *Tapiwa Moyo, who is 22 years old and from Zimbabwe. When her mother, her only caregiver, left her and her younger sister to find work in Johannesburg, she did not anticipate the hardship.
“At one stage we went without food for almost a week and we had to start selling my mother’s belongings to get some money to buy some maize meal.”
Moyo’s mother saw South Africa as the place where she could try and build a better life for her children.
“The deal was that she would work for a few months, save the money and get us passports and visas to move to South Africa,” says Moyo.
Months passed and then they turned into years. When their supply of cash and food ran dry, Moyo, as the older sister, still in her early teens, was forced to work menial jobs washing clothes, selling nuts and chips and eventually having to part with all their worldly possessions to survive.
“I would see other children playing with teddy bears and Barbie dolls or walking in the streets with their mothers and I would just cry because that’s all I wanted to do,” she weeps.
She was 15 when she received word that her mother had finally made enough money to bring her and her sister to South Africa.
They had waited seven years.
“When I finally got my passport, it was like my prayers were finally answered.”
The bus ride was one filled with excitement.
“It was a 12-hour ride but I couldn’t even sleep. My life was about to change.”
She recalls the moment she arrived.
“Everything I thought was a lie, South Africa was supposed to be my heaven but it was not.”
She wipes her tears with anger, not allowing herself to be weak.
“I’ve cried about it all for so long you know and nobody cares&#8230; the tears don’t mean anything.
“My name meant nothing to the border police and some of the citizens. I was just another ‘kwere-kwere’.”
Since then, that’s all she’s known apart from poverty. Just as she did in Zimbabwe, Moyo finds and sells what she can to ensure she and her daughter do not go to bed hungry each day.
“I left one hell for another. Would I like to be back home with my family? Sure, but that’s no longer an option for me. I’m here now.”
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<h3>Emily Shamu</h3>
*Emily Shamu came to South Africa when her daughter, Lisa, was a toddler.
“She was too heavy for me to carry along with our luggage and a gentleman offered to carry her when we crossed the Limpopo River,” says Shamu.
She would normally not have trusted a stranger, but for Shamu, the focus was survival.
Shamu and the others walked 12 hours to Musina, the northernmost town in South Africa’s Limpopo province.
“I did not know we were going to walk for so long. At some point, I fell to the ground and started to scream ‘I am tired’.”
She describes her knees colliding with the gravel road. Her daughter watched as she cried inconsolably. “My child remembers. We rested for some time and I used this time to remind myself (sic) why I was going through this.”
Now, living in South Africa for eight years as a refugee, her life is defined by a cycle of begging – not for food or spare change – but, each quarter of the school year, to plead with the headmaster to allow her daughter to sit her exams with her peers.
“Every term, my heart sinks… I don’t know if he will say yes. We are just controlled by circumstances.”
In South Africa, students are required to produce a form of identification before they are allowed to partake in written assessments. Because Shamu has no asylum papers, she is unable to apply for an ID document for her daughter.
“If I’m honest, I have not tried to get my papers,” she says. “I tried in 2010 and the back and forth is just so demoralizing.” Shamu and her daughter live stateless with nothing to ensure them stability.
“I want to go home, if the situation can just change…”

refugee-mom-bw-059

The Nowhere People

There is a rowdy crowd at one of Lagos’ busiest commercial centers – the Idumota market on Lagos Island. High pitched hawkers shove their goods at customers, motorists struggle for space on the narrow roads, and hundreds of stalls, with music blaring, lay out their merchandise. Today’s hustle is no different from any other and no one knows this better than Paul Orajiaka, the entrepreneur who has spent years in this hub.
From running a little store out of a dilapidated building in the market, to owning a colossal outlet within its vicinity, Orajiaka is no stranger to the nooks and crannies of his business address.
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Orajiaka’s company, Auldon Limited, manufactures African-themed toys which promote the continent’s cultural heritage to children. The company recently launched the Unity Girl Dolls Project, with multi-cultural dolls in different Nigerian traditional attire. The dolls can be found in countries including Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and some parts of Europe.
Auldon Limited was founded 17 years ago with less than $100. As a determined young man, Orajiaka’s dreams were shattered when he was repeatedly denied an American visa after finishing high school in Benin City. He wanted to study business management in the United States to market his father’s business. Orajiaka’s father was a renowned African carver and staunch entrepreneur in Warri. Orajiaka, and his siblings, helped with the carving work but Orajiaka wanted to take his father’s craft to a more structured market.
“I was about 16 years old. I was denied a visa at my umpteenth attempt primarily because of my age. I had frequented Lagos to follow up with the American embassy at each application stage. I decided to remain in Lagos, where my sister also lived, after my ambitions to go to the States didn’t work out. I didn’t want to be mocked by my friends back in my hometown. I had no idea what my next move was going to be,” says Orajiaka.
He decided to work at the Idumota market.
His brother-in-law was an importer who traded in a large variety of merchandise. Orajiaka helped his in-law and was impressed by the large amount of money the business made.
“I was learning a lot about the business environment and couldn’t believe the volumes of goods we were pushing into the market. The returns were fascinating and I soon began to get excited about my new activity.”
Orajiaka proved a valuable resource to his in-law’s business and was generously rewarded. The money he was earning made up for his previous disappointments, but Orajiaka was soon advised to return to school.
“While working for my in-law, I enrolled as an accounting student at the University of Lagos after which I proceeded to get a Master’s in Business Administration from Lagos Business School. This reinforced my gusto for the business world now that I had my professional qualifications. I decided to start thinking of my business seriously.”
While seeking new markets to supply merchandise to, in highbrow areas of Lagos, he visited a new store. He admired the toy section and was fascinated by the range and variety on the shelves.
On his next visit, he noticed that the section was almost empty and immediately asked the store manager if they needed new supplies. After getting the green light from the manager, Orajiaka scouted the length and breadth of the Idumota market for a toy stockist. The toys he found were a lot cheaper than those in the fancier stores.
“I was going to make huge margins on this product if I succeeded in getting the manager to place an order. I delivered the samples at a 300 percent markup price. The store manager ordered a few dozen immediately. I never expected this. I approached my in-law… to purchase a bigger order from the supplier for the required number of samples. This is where it all started. Today, a humble beginning which started as a small venture is a leading company, importing and supplying a diverse range of educational toys to both retailers and wholesalers in Nigeria,” he says.
“We started out with a capital base of about $30 now have a turnover of well over $7 million as at last year.”
The dolls’ visibility has grown in leaps and bounds over the years. Social responsibility is an area the company has also focused on with the Unity Girl Doll Project.
“I was not happy that most of the toys sold in Nigeria didn’t promote any cultural relevance. I wanted to promote the dark-skinned and African-featured girls and women as beautiful and their culture as diverse and admirable.”
One of the challenges Orajiaka faced was a lack of support from financial institutions in Nigeria. A school renovation program was part of the tasks that accompanied the project.
The Unity Girl Doll Project is a collection of 14-inch dolls that represent Nigeria’s three major tribes – Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba – with the aim of promoting the country’s cultural diversity and relevance to the younger generation. The dolls also have booklets outlining details of the culture, languages and backgrounds of the three main tribes.
With the dolls available in leading retail outlets across Nigeria, Orajiaka has proved that business can be child’s play.

This Business Is Child’s Play

One day, the world may go to war over rice. Food is the new oil.
About 795 million of the world’s people, 200 million of them children, are hungry. Most of them are in Africa and Asia. It will cost $267 million per year to end world hunger by 2030. That is $160 annually for each person, according to the United Nations.
The business of food could be the business of the future. Most of the world is putting bricks and concrete over its fields and importing food. This could mean good business for entrepreneurs who harness the fertile red soil of Africa.
FORBES AFRICA dedicates this issue to food and the investment case.
Over 60% of the world’s arable land is in Africa, 65% of Africans work in the fields and 35% of South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) comes from agriculture and food, according to Old Mutual Investment Group’s Director of Strategic Projects, Craig Chambers.
At least $25 billion in food imports are coming into Africa; and food is wasted on the continent.
According to Duncan Vink, Joint Managing Director of UFF Agri Asset Management, 39 million hectares of agricultural land in Africa is physically suitable for irrigation but only 7% of this farmable land is currently irrigated, and in sub-Saharan Africa that figure is only 3.7%.
“There is no doubt that the opportunity within African agriculture is really vast, we have a decent pipeline of anything between $200 and $400 million in opportunities in Africa,” says Chambers.
For years, farming was going out of fashion but entrepreneurs are rediscovering it. Necessity may prove the mother of food production ripe for investment.

Food The New Oil

They must have sat bewildered as the van drove them out of the city. The Johannesburg skyline petered to bush too quickly. For the six teenagers, and their football hopes, Ghana was a distant memory. The red dusty fields of Thohoyandou, in South Africa’s Limpopo province, a distant uncertainty.
They flew thousands of miles south from Accra on a false promise, at their parents’ expense, to become lost boys of the broken world of African football. They arrived in South Africa thinking they were on their way to the moneyed Premier League grounds of England. But they were not and the agent who promised them this has disappeared along with their parents’ money. The South African coach they’ve been dumped on is trying to find their parents back in Ghana in a bid to send them home. This is the ugly side of the beautiful game in Africa where the youth are being misled through a murky world.
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It was the weak word of agent Francis Nkrumah that took these youngsters far from home. They heard him on the radio calling for trials in the coastal town of Cape Coast, three hours west of Accra. Out of 50 footballers, only seven made the cut. Skinny and dark in complexion; 15-year-old Richard Sogbadzi-Eddo was one of them. The midfielder says that he merely glimpsed Nkrumah during the trials. Most of the communication between the agent and family was over the phone.
“He was very dark and tall but he only talked to my brother on the phone,” explains Sogbadzi-Eddo.
The footballers, between the ages of 13 and 18, were told they would get a trial in South Africa leading to another with a Premier League club in England. They arrived in Thohoyandou, a small town in northern South Africa, with little idea where they were or what they were supposed to be doing. Nkrumah made big promises, says 17-year-old David Lawson.
“He said it would be a better place to play football and in three months we’ll go to Europe and we’ll probably be rich.”
Each family paid Nkrumah a little under $2,000 for their son’s chance for a brighter future. For all, the money was hard to come by.
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“My mother is not a government worker, she’s a trader in the market. So she had to take a loan for the money,” says Sogbadzi-Eddo.
The family lost their father five years ago and his mother has been supporting him and his four brothers with meagre earnings. Nkrumah’s promised them a way out of poverty. Lawson’s mother, a headmistress, borrowed money from her church to pay for her son’s passage.
This is part of the growing trade in young footballers between Africa and Europe that often ends in broken families and shattered dreams. South Africa is becoming a way station within this strange and exploitative system, says Dan McDougall, an investigative journalist, who has covered what he calls the trafficking of West African players to Europe.
McDougall has met many young Ghanaians like Lawson and Sogbadzi-Eddo, lured from home and stranded in Europe. He believes that the nature of the industry encourages many to prey on promising young players from impoverished families in West Africa.
“This is an industry that stinks from top to bottom.”
Agents, like Nkrumah, often run informal football academies across West Africa with hopes of supplying the wealthy clubs of Europe with another Didier Drogba or Michael Essien. In Ghana, players as young as 10 are sent abroad in the hope of securing trials. Others take illegal routes to Europe huddled on boats in search of a better life. The journey is dangerous and often deadly. In 2009, the Nazar, a fishing vessel carrying hundreds of African migrants capsized off Tripoli, killing 300. Fifteen of its passengers were believed to be young players on their way to the pitches
of Europe.
Reaching the shores of Europe doesn’t guarantee a future.
“This is a deadly business, families are being extorted and most of the time these kids don’t have the ability to make it,” insists McDougall.
Unlike the Ghanaians in Limpopo who at least have a roof over their head, many football hopefuls who make it to Europe from West Africa are forced to survive in ghettos and back alleys. Bernard Bass, a young player from Equatorial Guinea, whom McDougall met, made his way to France from Ghana. Living in the Paris ghetto of Clichy-sous-Bois, he was threatened with the police by the club he hoped to try out for, Metz in eastern France, because they didn’t know who he was. He stayed on in France illegally, sleeping on the floor of a friend’s apartment.
Back in Thohoyandou, the youngsters from Ghana have landed on the doorstep of unwitting former English professional footballer, Bally Smart. The former midfielder for Norwich City, who returned to Polokwane – the city of his birth – to set up his dream football academy is now lumbered with six  youths abandoned in South Africa who were merely given his address.
“He didn’t know anything [about Nkrumah]. But he asked us to stay and take the time to learn football. He said everything would be fine,” Sogbadzi-Eddo recalls.
It isn’t fine. Smart is trying to contact their parents back in Ghana and is at a loss. The agent has disappeared and could not be reached by the boys or by FORBES AFRICA. The boy’s visas expire in less than a year and they are running out of time.
“It’s frustrating to have them here because I am footing all the costs. I am just trying to make sure that they’re OK,” says Smart, who has never met Nkrumah.
Despite grim realities in Europe, the Ghanaian boys in Thohoyandou are hopeful.
“In West Africa, there are no chances. It is difficult to make it,” says young Sogbadzi-Eddo, who still has his sights set on Europe. “I am still positive that it will happen.”
This is just one of the problems on Smart’s plate. His dusty pitch has become a microcosm of the problems and divisions in African football. His academy, Polokwane United – where the Ghanaian boys live, learn and play – is facing a five-year suspension allegedly imposed by the Limpopo arm of the South African Schools Football Association (SASFA) which regulates the sport’s academies in the province. The academy has been barred from all competition. Smart insists that the suspension has no basis and that it was delivered unofficially. In early September, he filed an official complaint. FORBES AFRICA obtained a copy.
“It is clear that our strong teams and style of play is a thorn to the soccer politics in the district (Vhembe) and as a result our school has been targeted to be sabotaged (sic) and unfairly sidelined in an unscrupulous and corrupt manner,” Smart wrote in his complaint.
SASFA were unavailable for comment.
The suspension was a kick in the guts for all at Polokwane United – South Africans and Ghanaians alike.
Veteran football journalist, Mark Gleeson, believes that this is endemic in South African football.
“South Africa is notoriously bad for not promoting young football players,” he says.
“We need to understand how a society works as far as football is concerned. The Dutch and the German way of doing things reflects their society. We need to understand how African society works for the development of African football.”
It is not for a lack of money. South Africa has some of the most moneyed leagues on the African continent but these teams depend heavily on patronage. Smart has had no sponsors since he started his football academy two years ago. He’s been running the school from his own pocket unlike the other teams and academies around him which are owned largely by businessmen with political ties.
Smart and his boys have many challenges ahead. But he remains optimistic. One of his protégés is preparing for genuine trials in Britain in late September. As for his Ghanaian wards, although let down by the game they love, they are glad they landed on his doorstep.
“We eat three times daily here. I am happy here, everything will be OK,” says Sogbadzi-Eddo.
Unfortunately, optimism alone is not enough to cover the miles to the trials in Europe.
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The Bewildered Chasing A Broken Dream

There are millions of children playing football around the world, but only a fraction will ever make it to the professional ranks.
Ability is an obvious factor, you either have the talent or you don’t, but while technique and tactical awareness can be taught to a certain extent, there are a whole range of other issues that come into play.
One of the keys in developing players for the modern professional game is to get them into structured academies at the earliest possible age.
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In Europe and South America, it is common for youngsters to be linked to academies by the time they are at the age of seven or eight. The reason for this is simple, it is the best age to start teaching them the fundamentals of the game and set them on the correct path to a professional career.
In Africa there are millions of children playing the game; a handful of them are attached to clubs while the rest play at schools or on the streets.
The lack of structured coaching at a young age prevents them from taking the step up from street football. The few lucky individuals that attract interest from professional clubs are held back because they have already picked up bad habits that are difficult to dislodge.
A 17-year-old should have the basics of the game ingrained in them. They should not need to be taught how to pass, cross and shoot. Today, the sad reality is that a lot of players do not have these skills due to a lack of coaching in their formative years.
I look across the leagues of Africa and I see professional players who struggle with the basics.
The academies at Barcelona and Ajax Amsterdam are renowned for producing some of the world’s most talented stars. When one of their players reaches the age of 17, he has probably spent 10 years in the academy and will be more technically advanced than players from Africa. He will also know exactly what his role is in the side and where to position himself at any given moment in the game.
This is often the biggest criticism of players from Africa who move to Europe. Yes, they are skillful and have good physical attributes, but they lack the feel for the game that can only come with years of consistent and methodical coaching.
It is a huge challenge for our continent, not just to open academies to harness young talent, but to do it in the right way with expert coaching.
Those academies do exist in Africa, but they are few and far between and until we can get that right our players will always be at a disadvantage, relying solely on raw ability.
Some of the most successful players from our continent in the last two decades, such as Samuel Eto’o, Yaya Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor, were teenagers when they went to Europe and had the privilege of training at top academies. Had they only been spotted later in life, it’s doubtful they would have had anywhere near the success they have enjoyed.
Beyond the honing of skills at an early age, there are other factors that determine success.
Attitude is a major one. Players need the hunger to become a professional player and must be willing to put in hard work. Another factor is professionalism. There are hundreds of cases of footballers from all over the world – this is not only an African issue – who have looked world-class as teenagers but failed to live up to the promise because of factors outside of the game.
Think back to when you were 18. You probably felt invincible and perhaps even a little rebellious. For every player that manages to get past that phase of their life with dedication, there are others who fall by the wayside.
These days, we have players who are multi-millionaires by the age of 21, with more friends than they have ever had in their lives and lots of time on their hands to spend that money.
The temptations are huge and perhaps more so for African players who come from impoverished backgrounds and now have more money than they could ever dream of.
Today, clubs and agents provide much more support, in terms of counseling and financial guidance, but the player has to be a willing participant.
Africa has ability in abundance but the power to successfully harness it is very much a work in progress. It is why, to my mind, there are not a lot more African players in the top five leagues in Europe. The demands of the modern game are moving away from the purely physical attributes, which presents a problem for us.
Where is the next Eto’o, Didier Drogba or Michael Essien going to coming from? There aren’t any obvious superstars emerging from the continent. We have good young players floating around, but no great ones. They are not competing on an even keel with players from Europe and South America.
Our great challenge for the decades to come is to give them that opportunity and raise the standard of the development work we do so that the trickle of top players from Africa becomes a flood.

Where Are The  Messis Of  Africa

As a former South African Olympic swimmer, what qualities did you develop from the sport?
I started swimming when I was eight and trained every day for six hours until the age of 27, so I think that made me a determined person with a strong spirit.
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What does an aspiring athlete need to succeed, and did these qualities serve you well in life?
I wouldn’t be who I am today without my swimming and sport. Every athlete needs to understand the true values of sport, such as discipline, respect for oneself and others, as well as learning to make an effort and instil team spirit. I learned what duty means during my time as an athlete, as well as responsibility towards the country I represented. I think this prepared me well for my current role.
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There must have been challenges, such as learning French and Court Protocol, when transitioning from your life as a South African Olympic swimmer to Princess and wife of Prince Albert?
Yes of course, and I embraced these changes with the help of my husband, who has always been my strongest support.
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You are passionate about children being water safe.
The Princess Charlène of Monaco Foundation was established in December 2012 and our primary aim is to save children’s lives. It is something I am very passionate about. So many children die every year because they can’t swim. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 400 children and more than 1,000 people drown every day. Some three million children are rescued from drowning every year, with some suffering severe injuries as a result. These figures are terrible. It’s so important to raise public awareness of the dangers associated with water and to teach life-saving techniques to children. The skill of swimming can also be a gift that a person passes on to the next generation.
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What are the foundation’s current projects and what projects do you have in the pipeline?
This year will see a continuation of activities in Morocco and South Africa, where our projects have been set up. There’s a busy year ahead as we’re also considering some ambitious projects in India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Mauritania. These are all countries where the number of deaths by drowning is particularly high.
In France, we will be holding a ‘Learn to Swim’ program for 350 under-privileged children, with another water safety day planned in Dinard for 150 children. We are also planning a ‘Swim to Survive’ program in Quebec for more than 3,000 underprivileged eight-year-olds and a ‘Water Safety’ day for young children in Tustin, California.
In Monaco, we will be partnering with the Sea Rescue and First Aid Training Center to train children in first aid and the rules and basic skills of life-saving. This is in addition to swimming lessons, which are already part of the school curriculum.
We are also currently studying low-cost easy-to-instal portable pools that could be the solution for places that lack the financial means to build the traditional concrete or fiberglass pools.
These are all the main projects, but we are studying many more.
There is no way I could do any of this without help and the foundation also has a network of ambassadors in different countries to set up projects and look out for young talent. It would be wonderful if the media supported me in increasing world awareness on the importance of water safety for children and such support would be a good start to enable us to save children’s lives.
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What work has the foundation undertaken in South Africa?
In July last year, we established our first ‘Learn to Swim’ program in Durban under triathlete and sports coach, Dominique Donner-Rodd. Already over 130 children have taken part, including children from two orphanages. The foundation also helps promising young sports talents who lack means, mostly financial, to realize their sports potential. We currently have two brilliant young South African swimmers – 12-year-old Khwezi Duma who has represented South Africa in the junior category at the age of 10. She has already won seven gold medals during her short career. Our other star is 11-year-old Zoe Frank, a member of the South African women’s team, who has already broken six records in her category and is training for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
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What other organizations are you involved with, apart from the foundation?
I am very proud to be a member of the board of the Princess Grace Foundation USA and I am also Honorary President of Monaco Against Autism. I think it’s very important to support and encourage disabled people and I am Ambassador for the Special Olympics, as well as Peace and Sport. I have also been appointed co-patron of the Giving Organization Trust, a group of South African charities that deal with issues ranging from AIDS among underprivileged children to the protection of the environment. So I’m pretty busy.
As Monaco’s first lady, you also preside over the Principality’s National Day celebrations, the Monaco Grand Prix, the Rose Ball and the Annual Red Cross Ball, and attend many social events with the Prince, such as the recent Winter Olympics. Any tips for coping with such a hectic schedule?
If someone has a tip for me… it will be much appreciated!
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Do you follow fashion trends or favor specific designers?
I don’t follow trends and I never wear something to try make a statement.
What is the ‘must have’ item of clothing or accessory in your wardrobe?
Jeans and a white t-shirt.
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Where is your favorite holiday destination in Africa?
Anywhere the sun is shining.
<div id="attachment_6135" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6135" class="size-medium wp-image-6135" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-042-044-ENTR-Monaco-TW-004-300x221.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="221" />Cap Town Decembre 2011 Prince Albert of Monaco and Princess Charlene of Monacos meet the Desmond Tutu at the Desmond Tutu Foundation</div>
Lastly, having successfully taken your place on a tough global stage under the glare of the world media, what advice do you have for young women starting out in the business world?
To be themselves always, and to remember the words of Nelson Mandela: “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

The Olympic Princess From Johannesburg

For two months, his eyes, like big saucers, stared at the ceiling, lost somewhere between the living and the dead. The little boy lay listless in his hospital bed in Nairobi, Kenya. A sheet clung to his tiny frame, but it couldn’t hide the scars from the third-degree burns beneath and traces of the violence wreaked on this young life. Into this shattered existence came a ball of paper and string called Chico.
“He couldn’t talk, but Chico raised his arm and talked to him. He clung to Chico’s hand and for the first time in two months, he smiled,” says puppeteer Daniela Hadasy.
Chico is a larger-than-life puppet dog. In the hands of the puppet master, the dog with the cheeky smile has bounced his way into the hearts of sick and injured children in hospital wards across Ethiopia and Kenya.
“The idea is to draw out the emotion from the children so they can deal with their terrible traumas. When it’s a puppet talking to them and not an adult, they feel more free to talk openly. Yes, I’m sitting there and pulling the strings, but it’s the puppet who’s sharing his problems and telling the children how he feels, especially when things are bad. And because he’s telling his story, the children feel safe to tell theirs.”
The art of puppetry is nothing new. History records puppets in ancient Egypt more than 4,000 years ago. In rural Africa, puppets still flourish, but in the cities they are losing out to books and television. “Children everywhere connect with puppets, but in Africa, the puppets immediately become a part of them. It’s the right tool for children there, especially in the slums where most of them have so much anger inside and don’t even have a toy to play with,” says Hadasy, who comes from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Hadasy was seven when she discovered her talent for mimicking voices without moving her lips.
“I used to talk to myself all the time and although I instinctively understood it was normal for children to do this, it scared me that I could use my voice without moving any part of my body. For many years, I kept it
a secret.”
If you look carefully, you can see Hadasy’s stomach moving. Sometimes, there’s a faint quiver on her lips. But most times, she sits perfectly still and lets the puppet create its magic. She holds a conversation with him, alternating between her voice and the one she’s given him. In a typical session, she starts off chatting about everyday things to build the confidence of the child.
“The puppet talks like a child and thinks like a child and so a friendship grows between them. Then, when the child trusts the puppet, we can begin to chat about really traumatic things. I’ve heard everything. Children confess to being raped, abused, to having terrible things done to them. Some of them are so lost and no one has been able to reach inside them.&#8221;
Puppets create a space of safety through which children can express their deepest fears. Follow-up sessions are done with teachers and nursing staff so the therapy is long-term.
“If, for example, medical examinations were done with puppets, it would be so much easier for children. In many of the hospitals, there’s not enough space for the parents to stay over and so children go through scary oncology treatment alone. Especially in the slums in Africa, children have been taught to hold their emotions inside, not to share them. They’re used to keeping quiet. Through the puppets, I help them express themselves, teaching them that if they have a problem, they need to talk about it because only then can someone hear them and
help them.”
Often, Hadasy gives the children small puppets of their own to keep.
“When a child holds a puppet, they feel it’s the puppet who’s doing the talking and so it’s easier for them to open up. They absolutely love their puppets; I’ve seen children take them with them to the toilet. He’s their friend because they really need him.”
She has traveled the world with her entourage of nine puppets, each with a name and a distinct personality. Taking care to create each puppet’s persona, Hadasy spends hours developing the puppet’s voice, giving it a family, making it a part of her and understanding which puppet is right for which children.
“I work in hospitals in Israel where there are a significant number of immigrant children from Ethiopia. One time a little girl asked me why I hadn’t created a black puppet. I felt so ashamed: How could I not have thought of it myself? So I gave birth to Lucia, a popular Ethiopian name in Israel. When I came back to the hospital, the girl was so excited. She said, ‘Oh, she’s like me, she looks like me. I’m so happy—she’s my friend.’”
The beauty of puppetry is that its language is universal and instinctively understood by children everywhere, even the dying child in Nairobi.
“The children in the hospital ward had gathered around his bed where Chico was hugging him, shouting enthusiastically as the puppet clasped the boy’s frail hand in his huge brown paw. We danced with him and we sang with him. I said to the nurse: ‘See that’s the point of puppetry—not just to talk but to dance and to sing and show that life is still beautiful despite the blackness inside.’”

Tag: Children

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