This is an incredibly brave act of these students and we have, of course, received parental consent. Our students who are walking will, no doubt, face reprisal for taking part and for speaking against their schools.

In the next column you will find a list of student demands. 

In most schools in the United States and South Africa, art education is the first of any cuts made to the budget and curriculum. ArtWorks for Youth had programs in seven schools and community-based organizations in three boroughs of New York City. Courses in photography, silk-screening, collage, painting and drawing, and book-binding took place during after hours.

In 2002, a Middle School where 

ArtWorks for Youth began traveling to South Africa three times annually for periods of two to six weeks at a time, teaching art instruction during and after school and working with teachers to expand their curriculum to include visual arts projects.

In 2009, ArtWorks for Youth started running year-round art classes at two primary schools in Port Elizabeth during school and after school hours.

While the government has worked hard to fulfill a promise to build a home for all families in need, the delivery of services has been slow. Further, the government-provided homes are substandard and barely large enough for the families they house.

The Eastern Cape of South Africa has a high school graduation rate of 61%. While this rate is not considerably lower than the passing rate in New York City, it does not take into account the high level of drop out rates in grades ten and eleven. It also fails to factor in all students who leave school for a host of reasons (including lack of funds for uniforms, stationery, and school fees.) The Eastern Cape’s senior class of 2013 lost nearly half its class since the students were in second grade.

The Eastern Cape also has the highest rate of food-insecure families, with 36.2% of its residents battling hunger daily.

While ArtWorks for Youth believes that arts education can assist students with the stressors that come with poverty and poor education, they felt it necessary to expand our programming to offer support via tangible means, including feeding, minor medical assistance, advocacy at home and within their schools, academic support that includes instruction in reading and writing, math, literacy, and homework help.

ArtWorks for Youth is now able to offer some relief from the many issues being faced by its students.

Annual Procession

Performance Art and Playwriting

Sister’s Keeper & Boys Group

Young Reader’s Group

Academic Support

Library

Feeding Program

AWFY hired a local woman to work with the girls a few months prior to Marissa’s visit. While it is key to have someone from the girls’ community to work with the girls, the woman hired requested some professional development in order to improve and continue the Girls Group. Marissa gave a start and solid structure to the program, which now continues and runs three days a week for an hour and a half each session.

The Girls’ Group, named Sister’s Keeper, has, in just under a year, built the confidence of the twenty young women who are involved in the program. They are working harder in school, expressing more clearly their needs, desires, and circumstances, and they are supporting one another in ways they had not been in the past. They are a force!

The reality of the situation in these schools is that the future leaders of South Africa are not being properly supported in gaining a decent education.

14 children will be walking 260 kms from Port Elizabeth to Zwelitsha to hand over their 10 demands to improve their schools and the quality of their education. They need our support - the need your support.