Dear Organlearners,
Greetings to all of you.
I wish the topic "Hard Work and Efficient Management = Success?" was dead
by now because i want to ask your learned help once again. Nevertheless,
thank you all very much for all your inputs in that topic. I intend to
print all contributions out, collate them in one volume, and then present
it to that organisation, person by person.
I fear that the following came faster upon me than expected.
Last night my dear wife and I had been to a family for which we care. The
youngest is a girl who is still in primary school. The last couple of
weeks she had been more out of school than in it. What is happening to her
is destroying her motivation and eventually her potential.
The meagre income of the family is far less than their bare needs for
food, clothes, shelter and education. The father died of cancer. He was a
factory worker. Medical expenses sucked up their material possessions.
Like so many other similar families, they considered having a job more
important than fostering a culture of learning.
The mother earns (in terms of US$ rather than Rand which is the case) $90
per month. She works 12 hour shifts in an institution for disabled old
people. It is the only job she could get. Her eldest son work on weekends
as a waitor, earning about $50 per month. The second son is mentally
handicapped. They all live in a caravan in a park. The mother does not
want to contact a qualified social worker at all. She fears that as soon
as she do that, her young daughter will be taken away and put into foster
care.
We help materially and spiritually where we can. But last night we came to
the conclusion that despite our support, they live in an environment which
destroys that support faster than what we can provide. They still try to
learn how to support themselves in this ghastly situation, but in the end
it makes no difference. This makes them sliding irreversibly backwards
deeper into the bog of despair. They are close to the point of giving up
all hope.
It made us think deep and hard to find a solution for this problem. My
wife and i will appreciate help from you fellow learners very much. Can
you imagine yourself in the predicament of this family? What would you
fellow learners do when you imagine yourself in our position?
I think this case depicts millions of families all over the world. Thus i
think it is worthy of receiving attention by our hearts and minds just as
in the case of "Hard Work and Efficient Management = Success?" If we do it
with care as in that case, we can produce in our LO-dialogue a collation
of Team Learning contributions which may help these unfortunate families
and those who try to help them. Please forgive me for coming so fast upon
you once again as Team Learners.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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