Lucy Arnold: Communications Volunteer

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Home for me is the rainy but beautiful region of Seattle in the American Pacific Northwest, where I love hiking and trail running whenever I can. I am currently an undergraduate at Stanford University in California, where I am studying interdisciplinary environmental science and human rights.
The past few months that I have spent in Cape Town mark the first time I have lived abroad, and being here through the water crisis and so much political change has been absolutely fascinating. In general, I have found Cape Town to be an extremely vibrant city and a place where I have reflected more deeply on my identity than anywhere else. I found Scalabrini through its connections to the Stanford study abroad program I am part of, and I have been so excited to work here and be surrounded by the activities of a refugee rights NGO.

Over the past couple months, I have been the communications volunteer, tasked with developing social media content, writing articles, helping cover events, and more. Most days, my work involves interacting with different types of media, writing social media posts and articles catered to different audiences, and researching for new rounds of content. Working at Scalabrini, I have learned the importance of flexibility, patience, and tenacity.

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“Being at Scalabrini is also a very humbling experience – though I rarely interacted with clients in my work, I was always surrounded by colleagues who are deeply committed to what they do and clients whose stories show incredible resilience in the face of adversity.”

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Moving on from Scalabrini, I am going to continue working toward my bachelors degree. After that, I am interested in pursuing law school, masters work, a PhD, or some combination. I hope to one day pursue a career at the intersection of environmental sustainability and human rights.

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Simone Adler: Advocacy Volunteer

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As a Jewish person, I am embedded with an ancestral heritage of ‘migration’. From a small shtetl in Poland, Lithuania, Russia and Belgium, I am a product of movement. Working as an English teacher in South Korea further connected me to these concepts of ‘migration’ and ‘foreign’.
These experiences, as well as my background as a UCT BA LLB (bachelor of law) graduate, have drawn me towards international migration issues and subsequently Scalabrini, where I volunteer in the Advocacy programme.

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“It is in this position that I consistently question and acknowledge my power, roles and responsibilities through the depth and breadth of the world that is the ‘Department of Home Affairs’, ‘Education Departments’, ‘Principles’, ‘investigators’, ‘prosecutors’ and all those ‘others’ who have certain powers over the lives and conditions of the clients that appear before me.”

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My clients have limited capacity to realize the full enjoyment of their rights, to gain access to the documents they need to work, to renew their permits, to ensure their children attend school, to appeal against rejections of their refugee status — the list goes on and on.

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At Scalabrini, we have some power to challenge powerful actors in society and government. We also have the ability to advocate around legislation and policy. While we may be part of a small NGO, we are big in our pursuit of justice and equality.
 

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What I will remember of my experiences here are the people, their faces and their stories. I will especially remember the children who were struggling to be admitted into schools, clients who faced detention, and those whose refugee statuses had been withdrawn or limited. Scalabrini is a part of my journey and aspiration to further pursue Human Rights Law.

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Cape Town Jeanette Client Story

Jeanette: Empowering Women through Sewing

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Zenzeleni Zenzeleni

We follow the story of Jeanette, whose business, Zenzeleni Zenzeleni, is growing and thriving thanks to the assistance of Womens Platform.

The Women’s Platform at Scalabrini seeks to empower women and share valuable skills whether it’s personal development skills, business savviness or vocational training. Through these opportunities, a vast network of incredible women has been constructed. Many come back to gain more skills or help their peers. The Women Platform’s small business course helps women grow their small businesses.

Every few days, Jeanette can be seen in the offices of Scalabrini, laying different fabrics down on a desk or showcasing her latest creations for various people in the office. Her backpacks, pants and shirts feature bright blocks of patterns, perfectly sewn together. Sewing is a new skill, which has become more than a simple past time activity. Jeanette’s sewing came out of her journey as a refugee, fleeing from Rwanda to Cape Town.

Jeanette has been in South Africa for thirteen years after fleeing Rwanda in 2005. “I had to escape the violence there was still political unrest and did not feel safe. I first fled to Malawi and then from I made the trek to Cape Town, following my aunt’s advice who had been there before. “Jeanette was drawn to Cape Town’s multicultural and “cosmopolitan” environment. “I felt it was the best place for me to go that was safe and offered opportunities. I have built a life here with my husband and two children, aged three and nine, who were born here.”

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“I had to escape the violence there was still political unrest and did not feel safe. I first fled to Malawi and then from I made the trek to Cape Town, following my aunt’s advice who had been there before. “

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“When I first arrived I started working in a corner shop. In the following years I could see there was no potential and the job would not lead me anywhere. It left me uninspired and unsure of how to move forward.” In 2013, Jeanette resigned. “After I left that job, I spent my time at home taking care of the house and children – but I knew I could do more. It was then that a friend challenged me to learn sewing and make something of my life. Even though I didn’t like it at first, she would wake me up early and make me learn.”

Jeanette explains that her negative attitude towards sewing was from her preconceptions back in Rwanda. “At home people in this (sewing) job never grow…so when this lady introduced it i was really angry, I thought ‘why are you introducing me to something where I’ll never grow?’ But as time went on, I began to enjoy it and saw the business opportunity.”

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“I pushed myself to learn how to sew from YouTube, not wanting to ask for help and as a way to prove myself. I then started to sell my small creations.” When asked about the impact of sewing, Jeanette says it “changed my life from sleeping and crying to someone who can wake up in the morning and say ‘I can do this’.”

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In 2016, Jeanette decided to pursue a teaching training at CPUT. “I didn’t have money to afford the class books, so I started selling my pencil cases to my classmates. These became so popular that at some point the Head of Department stood in front of the class, looked out at the students and asked ,’where did all of you get your pencil cases?’ She then allowed me to use the space at CPUT to give sewing lessons. At first I started giving lessons free of charge to high school students and at a cheap price for women”. In trying to expand her sewing business, Jeanette came across Scalabrini. Jeanette came into the office looking for help in finding a marketplace where she could sell her products. She was directed to the Women’s Platform. As part of Women’s Platform intake, women must take a compulsory Personal Development course.

The personal development course aims to enhance women’s self-awareness and the sense of self as a resource while improving personal development skills, such as effective communication, goal setting, conflict resolution, and job-seeking skills. “Looking back at the experience, it taught me to value my own opinion and value myself. It gave me confidence and more inspiration for my business.”

Following the course, Jeanette attended an information session where she learnt about the small business course that was also offered to women. “This is what I needed to make my business grow so I signed up as soon as I could. The Women’s Platform also connected me to a network of people to befriend and sell to, so I wanted to use all the opportunities to grow myself, my business and my network.”

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“This is what I needed to make my business grow so I signed up as soon as I could. The Women’s Platform also connected me to a network of people to befriend and sell to, so I wanted to use all the opportunities to grow myself, my business and my network.”

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The small business course teaches a variety of skills including bookkeeping and budgeting. “Before this course, I relied on my intuition to stay in check. The skills I learnt on the course were so good, I could implement them into my business immediately.”

With her new Facebook page, Zenzeleni Zenzeleni (which means do it for yourself), Jeanette is excited for the future. “I am now advertising my products on Facebook and running my sewing course every Saturday at CPUT. The aim of my business is not just about myself. I want to give back and create opportunities for others. We are a community upliftment programme, we empower women to learn sewing skills in order for them to use those skills to make profit and be able to feed their families.”

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Small businesses like Jeanette’s Zenzeleni Zenzeleni contribute to the South African economy and help create more jobs. Jeanette’s business is contributing to the economy by empowering both migrants and South Africans through her classes, allowing everyone to learn sewing. Even at this point where she is fairly independent, Jeanette still receives support and guidance from Womens’ Platform team, who are teaching her different tools to expand her business including social media and making business cards.

“Women’s platform has become such an important part of my life now. I felt alone at times, but now I have the friendship and support I need to make it in this country. While I am not sure what the future holds, for now I am able to focus on my business, grow it and give others the opportunity to learn this life longs skills. I would not be able to do this without the support of Scalabrini and the Womens Platform.”

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Cape Town Our Call to Action Birth Registration in South Africa

Our call to action: birth registration in South Africa

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The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre have released a video about birth registration in South Africa, and are calling on the South African government to change the regulations.

Hundreds of children are forced into undocumented lives and denied their basic rights due to their parents’ documentation status. The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre call for the South African government to amend regulations around birth registration to ensure that a child’s right to birth registration is not contingent on their parents’ documents.

The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre are releasing a video on this issue to raise awareness and advocate for the amendment of the regulations on birth registration relating to children born to undocumented parents.

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Background

A birth certificate is a vital document. It establishes a child’s identity, nationality and existence in a state. It is required to access services such as education and health. Without a birth certificate, a child does not ‘exist’ in the state’s eyes. This child cannot access school, is at risk of statelessness and is vulnerable to falling under the radar of child protection services. Hundreds of children exist in this shadow-state, due to the restrictive rules around birth registration in South Africa.

Children are being penalised and are denied their constitutional right to birth registration – simply because their parents hold expired documents.

Regulations that govern the application of the Birth and Deaths Registration Act require that a parent wishing to register the birth of their child must hold a valid document in South Africa. Whilst this might seem like a logical requirement of foreigners in South Africa, ensuring valid documentation in South Africa can be complex and, sometimes, impossible. For example, the ongoing closure of the Cape Town Refugee Reception Office has forced asylum seekers into travelling long distances to remain documented. Long queues, denied access and corruption exasperate the difficulties around extending permits.

As a parent with an expired permit, you are not able to register the birth of your child. As Sindisiwe Moyo of Scalabrini explains in the video, this means that ‘the country is sitting with a huge number of children who are not known to exist in South Africa’.

Recent Developments
In early July 2018, the High Court of South Africa, Grahamstown Division, declared the birth registration regulations unconstitutional in that they denied birth certificates to those children whose parents could not fulfil documentation requirements. The case, brought by Lawyers for Human Rights, Legal Resources Centre and the Centre of Child Law, is welcomed by the civil society sector. The judgement echoes the calls of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which officially recommended that South Africa change the regulations around birth registration.

With this video, we are calling on the South African government to urgently repeal and edit the regulations around birth registration in South Africa. Birth registration is a constitutional right of a child and cannot be dependent on their parents’ documentation status.

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