Bobbi Bear, Tree Clinic + Dream Center

Yesterday, Tessa, our volunteer coordinator (who's Dutch and Indonesian) took 4 of us to visit the other projects in the Durban area. We first drove an hour and 1/2 to Bobbi Bear + the Tree Clinic. Both were started by a fireball of a white Zimbabwean woman named Jackie Branfield. She's a tornado and a true inspiration. She certainly does not lack any courage and will tell you exactly how it is.
As you can see, Jackie really made an impact on us all. Bobbi Bear is a rescue center for sexually abused children - generally from the ages of 4-6 years old. 80% of the children coming to Bobbi Bear are HIV postive. The rescue center is situated in a hidden location amongst the largest sugarcane fields in the Durban region. So it's beatufiul.
Unofficially, Jackie started her crusade in the late 80's and brought along her housekeeper named Sweetie, who to this day is Jackie's right hand. Both of them marched & rioted for women's rights and children's safety; and as a result were often jailed. Within South Africa, these two women have been changing the laws in the Durban courts in protection of women and children.
Jackie's background is a street kid from Zimbabwe. She is now married and has 4 children - 3 of them are in their 30's and her youngest is 13 years old and adopted. Her father died when she was 10 years old leaving her mother to take care of her and her two younger brothers. Basically, her mother worked 12 hour days while Jackie raised her borthers, which often meant she stole for them their school uniforms and whatever food they needed. Ironically, Jackie met her husband - who's a former Zimbabwe police officer - when he arrested her one day. He's a quiet but huge supporter of Jackie. That should give you a bit of an idea of Jackie. Overtly passionate and with only good intentions.
I believe her life on the streets has helped her connect with the women in the destitue townships.The tree clinic started when one day Jackie sat under this huge tree just outside of a township. Slowly women came up to speak to her asking advice about everything - mostly medical advisement and abuse within their home life. After many months of sitting under the tree every Wednesday, she had a group of women meeting under the tree where she gave clothes for the babies, food to the women, and general medical attention. The chief of the township declared the tree as a safety point for the women and provides every Wednesday three men to watch as the tree clinic operates from 10am-12pm. Two of the women on her staff now are women who came from the Tree clinic.
Only women and very young children can attend the clinic and they must be dressed in good condition clothes out of respect to the clinic. Men are not allowed and only young boys can attend if they are sick and need medical attention.
We arrived at Bobbi Bear - a few miles down the road - loaded the truck up with food, clothes, toys, blankets, and anything else you can imagine. Drove up to the tree. It's a huge beautiful tree and at first there were 10 women and many had little babies. Th average mother is about 15 years old. The women were a bit blown away to learn I was 32 and childless. Hopefully, they were more blown by my youthfulness...HA! Thank goodness we had Sandra there, who's 42 an with 3 of her own kids. She got huge applause.
By the end of the clinic, there were about 30 women. Each clinic starts out with a bible reading and then Jackie gave a sermon. She was really heated for this one because recently she saw a friend - a member of the township, who's helped their township a lot, starving. I forgot the name of the woman but she is an open HIV activist and is also HIV positive. She's helped people get help and over the stimga of AIDSS by talking openly about it, but due to the stigma of HIV no one watches out for her within her community. Jackie hadn't seen her at the tree for a bit so went to check on her and found her starving, alone, and in her very last stages of HIV.
During Jackie's talk, she really gave it to the women and said how could you not help a woman who's helped you over the years. How can women be strong if you can't help your fellow woman. Generally, her talk was about women empowerment, education, and belief in oneself. Tessa said this was a far more passionate talk because of the situation of Jackie's friend.
After the speech, there was a lot of singing, handing out of the donations, combing the women/ children's hair, and one boy had very ripped pants and no shoes so they quickly tried to find clothes and get his story of why he was not in school and why he's clothes are in such poor condition. Bobbi Bear volunteer interviews a child in need, makes a record, and follows it through during their stay. The record is then passed onto a new volunteer.
We then went to Bobbi Bear where Jackie showed us around the facilities. The facilities were impressive. Better than Agape, which was upsetting to see. Except for the past couple of years, Bobbie Bear was mostly funded by Jackie's husband's insurance company he now has.
In short - hard to do - when a child comes to bobbi bear - the cousenlors immediately interview the child to see if there has been an sexual penetration. They use the bear to help get this information out. If so, the child is rushed to the hospital - given a medical examine - and usually PAP afterwards. Pap is the drug that can prevent HIV from establishing it self in the body. This has to be done w/in 24 hrs. The drug companies say 72 but out of Jackie's experience she said 24hr. Once that happens - which is hard to do - they then go to the police w/ one of the bobbi bear counselors to mediate between the child and the police.
Jackie is trying to get special video equipment set up so that the children can explain what happens in the security of Bobbi Bear so that the child doesn't have to be brought in front of the courts where currently they stand next to their perpetrator. This is kind of video system is used in England's child protection unit. South Africa doens't have a child protection unit anymore. This video system just prevents the child from more traumitization.
There is so much to tell but in general Bobbi Bear has been able to get the government to pay for PAP if a child has been raped - it's medicine that needs to be taken 28 days at the same time every day; get the perpetrator to be locked up until proven guilty so the child isn't the one taken away from their home but the accused parent or adult; and been able to get cases pushed through the system within a 3 year time frame instead of the usual 5 -6 years.
Jackie is now currently taking on internet porn as well. As you can tell, she's a real thorn in the Durban police department, but her work has helped so many children. It's all been grass roots and by an informally educated woman with a ton of energy and gusto.
After Bobbi Bear and Tree clinic, we went to the Dream Center. The Dream Center is in Pinetown (closer to Waterfall) and a private hospital where people in their final stages of AIDS - 5th stage come. 80% die there and 20% learn to take their ARV drugs, get better, and leave the center. It was hard to see because for the most part everyone in there was 20-25 years old. There was also one 13 year old girl. The conditions are not the best - things are clean and the rooms / hallways are dark. Many of the patients don't have the strength to do much more than just lie in their beds. They are rail thin and gaunt in the face.Going outside and doing activities are not really something they can do. It's hard on the 5 Dutch volunteers there but they are all interning here to be accredited nurses.
I feel so lucky to be working at Agape and be around a bunch of lively kids. Walking into the Dream Center and visiting with the people for a day was doable, but I couldn't imagine doing that every day for 4 months. I give those 5 Dutch volunteers and all people in the medical world a huge hats off to because the intensity of the situation was more than what I could bare to see every day. Even Bobbi Bear had so much more hope and good energy than the Dream center.
We got home around 4pm after a very early start. I haven't been sleeping well at night. The mattresses in our bunk are rock hard and I had an early flight out to Capetown for the weekend. Hopefully, I will see one of my photographers - Per-Anders Pettersson - who I work with at my real job - Getty Images. He lives in Capetown and since I was so close we thought we would try to meet up but currently he's on assignment in Soweto.
Something I have been pleased to see is that in Durban every bathroom in the airport and most public restrooms have free condoms. It's not in every public toilet because as you all know very well...I have visited many toilets in Durban. Just a little info - the kids call the toilet - "toileta".
Thank you for all your supprot and super kind posts. I can't wait to be back with the children especially after yesterday.
xo,
a

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