Articles, reports and books

A major documentary event:

The worldwide work of the Catholic Church, captured in images from a single day. 12 April 2005:

46 internationally renowned photographers set out to document the work of the Catholic Church around the world. Traditional church services, believers from all continents, but above all brothers and sisters in self-sacrificing commitment to their fellow human beings are at the centre of this fascinating illustrated book, which was produced with the support of the Vatican. At every minute of the day, the Catholic Church is active, pastorally and socially, as an educational institution, peacemaker and herald of Christ's message. On the initiative of the photographer and author Hans-Günther Kaufmann, this is presented comprehensively for the first time - through the mediation of the Vatican also in places and institutions that were not accessible to the public until now. From Ireland to South Africa, from Los Angeles to Manila: hundreds of moving colour and black-and-white photographs show the Catholic Church as a global player of humanity.

About the author Hans-Günther Kaufmann, born in Tours/France in 1943, worked as a fashion and advertising photographer from the age of 18. A life crisis and the friendship with Abbot Odilo Lechner triggered a radical change in his interests. Since then, he has tried to convey the existential foundations of Christian values through the medium of photography and film. He lives with his family in Upper Bavaria.

From the preface:

"In fact, however, the idea (of this book) ... out of the question of what the Church and faith have to say to us today, in an economically dominated present; out of the need to bring people to the fore who follow the word of Jesus Christ by putting their lives at the service of their fellow human beings; and out of the desire to open up this impressive universe to people who are far from the Church."

Hans-Günther Kaufmann
June 2005

I have always believed that I have already seen a lot, because through the enjoyment of audio-visual media we have the possibility to get a picture of how things are in other parts of the world. The difference, however, is that we are hardly aware of what we see. After all, we are exposed to a veritable flood of information every day, and in our memory the news is colourfully jumbled up with soap operas, horror and violent films or even entertainment shows. So despite my "television education", the living conditions in this part of South Africa initially confused me greatly.

Of course, I already "knew" that in this country rich and poor are very close to each other, or better: closely linked, but I had no real idea of how life is actually to be experienced under such circumstances.

Here in Mandeni and the surrounding area, I already noticed so many contrasts in a short time that I could really only marvel speechlessly.

Even as I drove out of this city of millions after arriving in Durban, I was presented with pictures of pompous villas standing right next to dilapidated tin shacks. We drove on a brand-new, well-built motorway past townships and slum areas of the most shocking kind, whose "connecting roads" often resemble trampled game tracks.

In such areas, people sometimes live in the smallest, most primitive huts, which they have pieced together from corrugated iron, boards, old sacks, car wreckage and packing cartons.

In many of the settlements there are not even wells, let alone running water, but only ponds that are used by the children as toilets and by the cattle as drinking troughs and bathtubs, and the men and women often have to walk long distances to carry this stale water to their huts for drinking (without boiling it !), washing, cooking and cleaning. Electricity is still a foreign word for many, whereas the richer population, as in America or Europe etc., cannot even imagine life without electricity.

The average monthly wage of a black factory worker is the equivalent of between 70 and 200 DM, but the cost of living is in many ways little or no less than what we are used to.

Mandeni itself does have a spacious industrial area that provides about 23,000 jobs. However, for this very reason, far more job seekers have migrated than have actually been able to find employment. The consequences are (logically) widespread unemployment and hand in hand with it the poverty described above, which in turn brings with it very poor to no education and a frighteningly high crime rate.

So my first impressions here were, if not frustrating, at least extremely "unusual", but I learned very quickly to put aside my European standards and get involved in the circumstances.

As soon as I succeeded in doing that, I had an experience that surprised me: the times when "the" whites deliberately and brutally oppressed and fought "the" blacks seem to be outdated. Instead, everyone here is trying - together! - with great zeal to find solutions to the serious problems.

I myself have experienced that this is possible in the South African aid organisation of the Order of Malta, the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard. There, everyone can contribute actively and passively, and it is wonderful to see how selflessly many have already taken some steps with their personal commitment in such a short time (just one year has passed since the foundation), which was possible not least with the help of the funds that came from generous donors and members.

In order to give you a more detailed picture of what I was able to observe and experience, I will now go into the projects in detail.

HELPING PEOPLE TO HELP THEMSELVES - SIZANANI!

The Development Aid Centre is now well established. Since its opening in June 1993, full-day courses in sewing have been held, led by a young Zulu who has been trained as a specialist.

First, a 6-week basic course is held, in which basic rules and the use of the individual tools are learned using simple items such as sheets, pillows, etc. This is followed by a 6-week course in sewing. This is followed by a 6-week advanced course and a 4-week advanced course in which the level of difficulty is increased from sewing simple children's garments to sophisticated multi-pieces.

During my visit, I was pleasantly surprised by the neat work that the girls and women do here, as the garments made could definitely compete with those from fashion boutiques.

Apart from the joy that sewing gives them as a new task or challenge, it gives them an additional opportunity to start their own business.

Many women are left on their own to take care of the extended family, as the husband is either unemployed or has even abandoned them with the children. With the ability to sew, they can then make their own clothes, at least for the most part, and save themselves expensive shopping, or they can also sell their work. So they earn their own money, which also boosts their self-confidence enormously.

The main problem for the Brotherhood at the moment is that most women, especially those who need such training most urgently, cannot afford it despite the low course fees (basic course: 300 Rand = approx. 150 DM including material costs; advanced course: approx. 100 DM + material costs; advanced course: approx. 150 DM + material costs). It is therefore desirable to further reduce the fees, which already barely cover the costs of purchasing materials and paying the teacher's salary, so that the Brotherhood is still dependent on donations if it wants to successfully help the poorest people to help themselves.

Furthermore, the funds for the other planned projects in this framework, such as training in health teaching, disease prevention and horticulture, are still completely lacking.

HUNGER AID - FEEDING SCHEME

I was particularly shocked when I visited Dr. Thabethe's practice during one of the special consultations for malnourished children. On the wooden benches along the wall sat numerous young and old mothers with children whose age, again, one was unable to estimate. Looking at the tiny creatures with bulging googly eyes and their condition, I thought that most of them could hardly be older than 6 to 8 months. In fact, some were well over a year old! I was deeply appalled, especially as I learned that the reason for this developmental delay is precisely the malnutrition that is still rampant among sections of the population.

As an initiative of the Brotherhood, Dr. Thabethe's wife - herself a trained nurse - holds regular special consultations every two weeks, for which the affected people often have to walk kilometres from the slums or the bush.

In addition to the physical examination, the children are weighed and the progress they have made since combating the deficiency symptoms is recorded; if necessary, they receive medical treatment. Afterwards, the mothers are provided with sufficient powdered milk and reconstituted food provided by the Brotherhood for the next two weeks.

However, in order to get the problem of malnutrition completely under control in the long term, or hopefully to eliminate it altogether, there is always conscientious counselling in nutrition and hygiene (as a basis for constant health), adapted to the individual.

I admired how Mrs. Thabethe was able to give the women so much courage that they actually left the practice relieved and as if relieved of a great burden, at least in part.

The psychological aspect is at least as important here, because often the cause of malnutrition is also ignorance and lack of experience - no wonder: the youngest "mother" herself is only 13 years old.

The special consultations lift the helpless out of their isolation and take away the feeling of fear of being left completely alone. For example, we discovered that a child of one of the younger mothers had already suffered brain damage due to malnutrition. A discovery that swelled the lump that was already in my throat in view of the misery; for such a young woman, however, such a serious and momentous problem, which sooner or later she will not know what to do with. So Mrs. Thabethe now tries to find a permanent solution for this child.

The complex problem of AIDS also comes up repeatedly here, although I will go into this in more detail in connection with another project.

What brought some relief to my horror at the cruelty that such extreme poverty inevitably entails was the gratifying fact that most of the registration cards have already shown successful results since the short time that the needy have been helped in this way. A sure proof that a grassroots problem, which should have been long outdated, was tackled in the right way here!

HOUSEKEEPING SCHOOL

The household school also covers basic and therefore important things. As I mentioned earlier, very few of the blacks are familiar with electricity, so they neither know its dangers nor know how to use electrical appliances safely. Using a telephone is also very difficult for many of them, not least because of a lack of language skills - especially the older or extremely poor women speak little English.

Although these problems may seem simple to us, the consequence is that it is impossible for those who are willing and able to work in the household and earn money to actually find a job. I too would not feel safe with a housekeeper who repeatedly left the cooker on or singed my clothes with the iron. However, precisely because these barriers are so simple, they can be easily remedied, and this is precisely the aim of the Brotherhood's Household School.

A course lasts three weeks, during which English is taught (adapted to the household, of course), the dangers and uses of electricity are explained, simple and quick meals are prepared, and mending, darning and ironing are taught. Hygiene and cleanliness are also a big topic, as is everything else one might think of in the household.

The fact that these courses are another form of help, albeit simple but no less important for that reason, is shown by the lively interest they arouse among the Zulu women, and so from the beginning a course was held every month with about three to five participants.

As I have sometimes stated before to have been amazed or surprised, the reason this time is the eager curiosity and consequent accuracy with which the "students" devote themselves to their training. This develops a momentum of its own, through which the courses are constantly improving, as the women themselves are permanently involved in the things that particularly interest them. One of the "teachers", i.e. the volunteers who sacrifice part of their free time to these classes, laughingly told me that she is sometimes asked so many "whys" and "wherefores" that she almost feels like she is being cross-examined.

In the end, the great zeal also lifts the spirits on both sides, and I saw another statement confirmed, namely that "teachers" and "students" parted almost as friends after the end of the courses.

In this way, the Zulu women gain greater self-confidence and the courage to go their own independent way, to dedicate themselves to a new task through which they are able to gain additional income and independence.

The initiators found the most beautiful success in the spontaneous decision of a participant to pass on her newly acquired skills to the young girls and women of her village. Isn't this exactly the kind of "avalanche" that one would like to get rolling when one uses the catchword "help for self-help"?

Care and Social Centre & AIDS HELP

The planned Care and Social Centre is still in preparation, as the Brotherhood's hands are tied due to the political situation; the elections are in April and so the government is having a hard time with any kind of decision at the moment.

The organisational planning has progressed so far that intensive contact is being established and maintained with similar institutions in order to receive suggestions and helpful tips. When the green light is finally given by the government, it will be possible to start active work immediately and well prepared.

The nursing and social centre will then be a kind of bridge between the hopelessly overcrowded hospitals and the helpless families of the sick. The situation dictates that the existing hospitals discharge their patients far too early, i.e. before they have fully recovered. This in turn completely overburdens the relatives, because they know too little about nursing. Due to this fact, often unthinkable and scandalous causes for the death of a person exist in this country by European standards. For example, a woman of about forty was financed by the Brotherhood to be transferred to a mission hospital and to be treated there; she had already been abandoned in the government hospital and was now firmly convinced that she had to die because she was suffering from the pain of a huge wound due to lying on the floor ...

Such things are - as I am sure you will find for yourself - so unnecessary that the Brotherhood decided to additionally educate the population at the Care Centre about basic nursing care and to train its own auxiliary staff.

AIDS is a particularly complicated issue in an African country. Many men are separated from their families by migrant labour, which often results in extramarital affairs. Urbanisation has led to an alienation from traditional moral values.

The belief that the cause of all evil, including a disease like AIDS, is to be found in the resentment of ancestral spirits or in evil sorceries is unfortunately widespread. Furthermore, many blacks believe that AIDS is a white fiction to decimate the black population through abstinence demands.

These and other reasons, of course, make AIDS prevention education much more difficult, especially when it is done by white "non-believers". In order to free the problem from its taboo status, the Brotherhood plans to approach public places such as schools, churches and health stations etc. with educational programmes through the active black members in the future, because this can take away people's shyness to talk openly and, if necessary, to get help as best as possible or to help each other.

So far, AIDS counselling has taken place on an individual basis or simply spontaneously, sometimes in the form of short information talks given by Dr. Thabethe, the initiator of the Sundumbili Health Promotion Group, e.g. after church services or other gatherings. Or when HIV positivity is discovered, as in the special consultations for malnourished children.

As a pastor, Father Gerhard is always the contact person for AIDS patients who so urgently need that individual care in one-on-one and family conversations.

SCHOLARSHIP FUND / BURSARY FUND

Since the development and level of a society stands and falls with the general education of the population, the bursary fund is a particularly important project. The state has nowhere near the resources in the education sector to provide the freedom of teaching and learning that we enjoy as a matter of course in Germany. This means that schools, colleges and universities sometimes charge very high fees, which of course the majority of the population cannot afford. (Compare the average monthly salary with the total cost of studies of the equivalent of about 7000,-DM per year, which for the typical large African family is a veritable fortune of which they can only dream).

The Brotherhood therefore set up a special scholarship fund to enable those who are willing and able to learn to continue their education, or to pay for common schools, boarding school fees, books, etc. Those who are helped by this fund receive a scholarship.

Those who are helped in this way are thus given the chance to rise to higher positions when they have learned to take responsibility and recognise their task in contributing to the development of their society. In addition, they are put in a position where it is possible for them to finance their own children's education, which in the long run can raise the overall standard of society. This then brings about an equalisation of social classes and - ideally - a reduction in the crime rate.

If the scholarship holders are indeed successful, they may, as soon as they are in a position to do so, pay back the money, at least in part, thus again making it easier for the Brotherhood to grant further scholarships.

As a rule, the young people or their parents approach the Brotherhood and, after careful consideration, it is decided which of the applicants are most in need of help. The money for the scholarship is then transferred directly to the school or university so that it cannot be misused.

So far, 18 scholarship holders have been able to pave the way for education or further training.

SENIOR CITIZENS' CLUB IN MANDINI AND MANGETE

This project may be a little out of the ordinary, but it is no less valuable for that. The problem of loneliness among the elderly is known all over the world, and here, too, personal commitment has already been rewarded by the gratitude of those affected. The intention was and is to free the senior citizens of the local communities from their isolation, so that they too can continue to actively participate in social life.

So, once a month, three members of the brotherhood organise meetings where the men and women can talk about their everyday experiences, memories of their youth, joys and sorrows, make new friends or maintain existing ones.

These mornings are always arranged individually: sometimes games such as Romme', Bingo or Scrabble are played, sometimes they simply sit together in a cosy atmosphere to chat over tea, coffee and cake, and other times guests are invited to talk about things that may be of interest to the audience. Among others, a doctor came to talk about specific side effects of growing old and gave recommendations on how to behave, as well as showing and doing physical exercises with them, which are easy for them to imitate as older people.

As I was able to see for myself, the seniors have a lot of fun during these mornings and keep coming up with new ideas themselves to keep their "Twilight Club" alive. They have already expressed the wish to get together more often than before.

Those who do not have a car or are no longer able to drive themselves are picked up by volunteers and brought home later.

In the near future, they would also like to go on excursions to places of interest in the area (and the like) to offer even more variety.

In addition, the aim is to constantly build a bridge between young and old by integrating the children's religious education group (which is not automatically held in schools in this country) more and more into the Twilight-meetings. This year, for example, the children are performing a nativity play at the senior citizens' Christmas party.

In Mangete, the coloured community (coloured here means mixed-race), this integration has already been realised, because here the meetings are basically organised mainly by the parish youth.

Wherever there is need, the fraternity also helps outside its projects. With Fr Gerhard, one afternoon I visited an old man suffering from a bad skin disease which caused him constant itching. He had been treated successfully several times in the hospital, but it was extremely difficult to follow the medical instructions - washing thoroughly four times a day and applying an ointment, as well as always cleaning clothes and bed linen - in his bush dwelling; the nearest water point is about 10 kilometres away. Thus he became infected again and again. Donations from the Brotherhood were used to build a water tank right next to his house, from which he can now always draw water. Only through this relatively "trivial" measure could his illness be brought under control in the meantime.

Hopefully, these many descriptions could give you an impression of what is happening here. In my eyes, the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard has recognised the source of the evil and has started exactly at this base.

The only way to help the (poor) people of this country get on their feet is to help them gain the freedom, ability and self-reliance that will make them strong enough to actively contribute to their own human, economic, cultural and ethical development. And this help must be promoted and shared by those who, by being "well off", bear an essential responsibility from which they simply must not escape.

Due to the close interconnection of the many different problems, a great deal of patience, zeal, perseverance and strong will is of course still needed, and the Brotherhood is far from being able to sit back contentedly in its armchair (which, in my opinion, would not be a desirable state anyway...).

However, I think you will agree that in this short time since the Brotherhood was founded, more has already been achieved than anyone had dared to hope, and I wish this "big family" with all my heart that they may continue to achieve the best possible success - because that is not only gratifying in this active community, but also urgently necessary!

Diane von Wrede