No one cries for Alexandra
ALEXANDRA - The Special Assignment assignment programme of SABC3 will air an in-depth investigation into the horrors of the rape of young girls in Alexandra on 19 July at 20h30.
The Special Assignment TV programme on SABC3 aired an in-depth investigation into the horrors of the rape of young girls in Alexandra on 19 July.
In honour of Nelson Mandela Day on 18 July, Special Assignment visited the impoverished community of Alexandra where Mandela stayed when he first came to Johannesburg in 1941. At just over one square mile, with a population of close to half a million people, it is one of the poorest and most densely populated urban areas in the world.
Special Assignment spoke to a group of girls and a social worker at Rays of Hope, an organisation that works with vulnerable children in Alexandra, about the challenges of growing up in the area and the inequality between boys and girls.
The girls describe Alexandra as a dangerous place overrun by perverts and other criminals. A place where men rape young girls and where people do not care about their environment, which is dirty and infested with rats.
Above everything, the girls said on the show dubbed No One Cries for Alexandra, that they fear being raped and they feel uncomfortable with the constant stares of predatory older men and young boys.
They said they are afraid of the unpredictable behaviour of the growing number of desperate nyaope addicts who will do anything to get their hands on the drug. Despite all their fear, however, all the girls said they have big ambitions for their futures.
Sandra Millar is a woman on a mission. Her non-profit organisation Dignity Dreams has been endorsed by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. She has devised reusable sanitary pads that last for five years, which she distributes to girls at no-fee-paying schools around the country.
Millar joins a discussion in the girls’ group at Rays of Hope and gives the girls sanitary pads. She said it is common for girls who do not have access to sanitary pads to miss school – up to five days of school a month – which equates to a term a year in the most impoverished areas.
Faith Mazibuko, Gauteng MEC for Social Development, spoke about the range of social problems confronting young girls in Alexandra and some of the interventions her department has in place to deal with them.
Details: Special Assignment 011 714 6758/6451.
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