The Heart of Africa

by Joey Volschenk in December 2011 - Community Caring

In 2004 the plea of a stranger changed the course of James and Janet Senior’s lives. Residing in the United Kingdom they settled down to watch the BBC news as they usually do, but this evening it was a story about a mother in South Africa dying of AIDS.

“She lay in her bed crying over and over again, ‘who will look after my children’. It was at this moment that we felt the voice of God saying to us, ‘Will you go look after my children?’”

Without thinking twice the couple started making plans to move to South Africa.

“It was no easy journey, we left our friends, family and jobs behind, but we had faith that through God’s strength and His love we would be able to achieve all we set out to do”, says James Senior.

The Seniors arrived in Cape Town a few months later and set to work immediately. By April 2005 the Metro Kids Africa organisation were already spreading a message of hope throughout many homes in Cape Town’s disadvantaged communities.

Their Sidewalk initiative, an outdoor after school program, was launched in Gugulethu at the Khanyisa Community Church. Here children gathered to listen to MKA’s message, while the staff and volunteers took a genuine interest in the well being of each child. The team decided to start a visiting program which would enable them to weekly visit the homes of the children attending their Sidewalk project.

“We build relationships and help with any needs we see,” states James. Six years after the initial establishment of the Sidewalk program and MKA is still going strong.

“There are now seven sites in Cape Town reaching 5000 kids per week. Our sites are situated in Gugulethu, Nyanga, Tambo Village (Manenberg), Lower Crossroads, Khayelitsha, Joe Slovo and Phoenix (Milnerton),” says Janet Senior.

Another program offered by MKA is the One by One penpal program. This project enables anyone who wants to encourage and help make a difference in a child’s life to correspond with them. “We have 450 kids on the program. We link them up with people from outside their area. This could be here or anywhere overseas,” says Janet.

The correspondence is valuable; children are taught the value of friendship and learn about the life outside their circumstances. As Bill Wilson, the leader of Metro Ministries in New York and also a sponsoring partner of MKA in South Africa says, “It is easier to build boys and girls than it is to repair men and women.”

During July, the MKA staff and volunteers dressed up as Superheroes and ran a Holiday Club at Uzulo Lwakhe church in Khayelitsha. Children were welcomed from 9am to 2pm and received a snack first thing in the morning and lunch provided by the Cape Peninsula Feeding Scheme.

With the festive season fast approaching Metro Kids Africa is motivated to bring joy in the lives of the Sidewalk children and as part of their initiative the organisation has started to collect Christmas gifts for each child.

“Last year we gave out 5200 gifts. These gifts were parcels of toiletries, stationary, clothing and chocolates. This year because of the economic issues we want to give the children a more conservative gift; a Christmas party at each site with drinks and sweets and goody bags that they can take home.

The purpose of Metro Kids is to reach as many children as possible in Cape Town. We want to work with people from the children’s areas in order to give them good role models that can help them see that they are responsible for their own lives. The Metro kids Africa organisation strives to prevent problems rather than fix them,” says James.

There are currently 100 teenagers from various townships, who were formerly a part of the children’s programs that now volunteer with Metro Kids Africa.

“This is what excites us! The fact that we are making a difference.”

If you would like to be part of the Metro Kids Africa initiative, whether by donating needed funds or a few hours of your time as a volunteer contact MKA on 021 531 2653 or James on 082 424 0117.