This afternoon we went back to REALISTIC to conduct more interviews. Our main focus today was to interview the REALISTIC staff. I knew that the staff had to be amazing, since they were taking so much time out of their lives to help these young men recovering from substance abuse, but the more we talked with them, the more I fell in love with this organization.
REALISTIC was started by a man named Solomon. We were introduced to Solomon by John Gilmour, the founder of LEAP schools. We soon found out that Solomon is a very busy man. Every time we went to the REALISTIC camp, Solomon would pick us up, usually a bit late because of meetings he was at, and then drop us off and continue with his busy life of meetings. He was always so sad because running his organization takes so much time and all he wants to do is spend more time with the Realists.
On the way up to the camp today I started to ask him about how he started REALISTIC. Luckily Karen was able to pull out her camera and we were able to conduct an impromptu interview as we were driving. He explained that he worked as a prison warden for 10 years. After seeing so many young people from his community come into prison, over and over, he decided that something had to be done to help these at-risk youth. So, he decided to quit his job (which his wife was thrilled about), and give it a go. Because of his connections within the prison system, he was able to have social workers refer at-risk youth to his program. That was about 5 years ago. Now he has around 15 cycles (20 to 30 people in each cycle) of at-risk youth go through his program. He has had amazing success and has seen many young men turn their lives around, get off of drugs and find jobs within the community. He had also worked hand-in-hand with John Gilmour to help counsel some of the at-risk students from LEAP.
I soon noticed that he and John Gilmour were quite close. Solomon is around the LEAP offices every day. When I asked him how he met John, he just laughed and said, “It is a long story.” So of course I probed him further until he told me some more details. When Solomon was a young teenager John Gilmour taught at a private white high school in Cape Town. He used to drive a bus through the townships to pick up students for a drama project. “I was always the first guy to gather people together [for John’s project], he explained” Young Solomon would also sit on the bus as John G. drove around. Solomon approached John one day and said, “If they decide to integrate your high school, I’d like to go there.” So, a few years later, after apartheid was over, they did decide to integrate the school, and Solomon was one of the first 10 black students to attend Pinelands High School. “It was very hard for me to go there,” he explained, “I felt like I had to be the best at everything in order to prove myself. I had to be the best in sports; I had to get good marks too… I would do homework every night, work on Saturdays and study all day on Sunday.” When I asked if the students and the staff accepted him being there, he smiled again. “Well, John was very supportive. He would drive his big silver Mercedes over to pick [the black students] up every morning. But, if other teachers passed us walking on the street, even in the rain, they would just drive past. It was so hard. Sometimes I think to myself, was that really, really me?”
Since then John Gilmour and Solomon have stayed close. John has since moved on to open the LEAP schools and Solomon has founded REALISTIC. Since the “offices” of REALISTIC are only an 8X3 room in the back of a larger room used for counseling the Realists, John allows Solomon to use LEAP offices for photocopying and making phone calls. The more I talk with these guys, the more I understand the long chain of people working in South Africa to make a difference in other people’s lives.
When I was up at the camp today I started to chat with Wanda, a restorative justice counselor at the camp. I asked him how he became involved with REALISTIC, and found out that he also had an interesting connection. “I was serving as a prisoner on death row when I met Solomon… He was a prison guard there and saw the work that I was doing.” Naturally, being the first time I had ever spoken with someone who had been on death row, I needed to find out more. “I was a political prisoner,” he explained. “But, once apartheid was over they reexamined many cases and my sentence was lessened to 22 years.” He continued to tell me how hard it was for him to be locked up for 22 years. While he was in prison his wife died and his children grew up. He continued, “Building relationships with people after being in prison for so long is hard. I am still working on that.”
Now that he has joined the REALISTIC community he has inspired so many other young men. While he was in prison he acted as a father figure for many young men coming into the system. He organized and coached soccer teams and created other opportunities for mentoring young men. Solomon saw what a powerful leader he was while he was in prison and the minute he was set free, recruited him to work at REALISTIC. Now Wanda is mentoring young men so they stay out of prison.
No comments:
Post a Comment