Lindwall Releasing Outreach Project in South Africa
May 2007 As we look back on the last six months in South Africa and say "goodbye for now" to the many new friends we have made, what is most striking is not just the quantity of people we have touched with the Releasing work, nor even their diversity, it is the profound shift that particular individuals have made in their lives. Invited behind the thin walls of the shacks and townships into the lives of youth and adults alike, we have found humanity in places where a year ago we would have been afraid to even look. Zwelitsha Mhluthwa lives in a shack in Khayelitsha's Site B and points to a hole in the door - the hole left 15 years earlier by the bullet intended for him, which killed his mother. We recently took a group from Project Explorer to visit him and one of them asked why he hadn't fixed it and if it wasn't painful to keep seeing the hole. He replied, "I used to see that hole and cry every day. Then Stephen and Barbara came with Releasing and now it's just a part of my history." We felt tears of quiet gratitude, knowing that the work we have been doing does make a difference.
Zwelitsha, respectfully, affectionately and simply known to most as "Commander Zet", is the founder of "Youth for Change". A veteran of the underground struggle against apartheid, he now dedicates his energy, experience and enthusiasm to helping those who society would perhaps like to simply cast aside: youth involved in gangs and other criminal activites in the vast sprawling township of Khayelitsha, just outside Cape Town (estimate population of around two million). Unmoved by either the threat of guns and knives or the temptation of drugs and money, he and his co-founders, Zakuthini Ndletyana and Mandisi Njoli, meet the youth where they gather on the street corners, and begin a conversation offering an alternative to the hard and sometimes short lives they live. We have been intensely involved with Youth for Change since returning to South Africa in December last year, giving ongoing Releasing workshops, sessions and personal meetings. What has struck us most is the love, joy and goodwill in these young people - despite living in the poorest of circumstances and being very aware of the wealth of others around them. The most important emotions to be released have often been guilt and shame for what they have done in the past, and fear of being judged again and again by those around them. In our first workshops one of the hardest things was simply to get the participants to speak about their feelings, as the fear and expectation of gossip is very strong. As these fears were released, often quietly in simple meetings of heart and soul, we found people opening to one another and to us with a joy and enthusiasm which continues to surprise and delight us. We were joined by Sybille Riegg from Germany as a Releasing assistant for a month, and were glad to see this warm greeting extended to her. Zithobile Radebe was once a notorious gangster on the streets of Khayelitsha. We were surprised to realize how much goodwill there is in him, and to find how quickly he opened up with the love and acceptance he received from the Releasing work. He has recently returned to school to complete his formal education, and even though he struggles to raise $15 per month for the train fare, he turned down the offer of "easy" money from old "street pals" in favor of a crime-free life. Zithobile has played an active role organizing youth and translating at Releasing workshops. Sybille Riegg, at the end of her stay in South Africa, made an initial donation to begin the Lyndi Fourie Foundation Educational Fund to support incidental expenses for students such as Zithobile.
In April we travelled to the town of Cradock in the Eastern Cape, where, hosted by Nyameka Goniwe as part of her community healing project at the Masizame Centre and assisted by Sybille Riegg from Germany and Pamella Buyana from Khayelitsha, we gave a four-day workshop to adults and a one-day workshop to youth in the black township of Lingelihle. There are so many remarkable, strong people there, still recovering from the scars left by apartheid on their community. Amongst them is Noveli, who released the painful memories around events that had lead to a partial paralysis of her right leg, remembered a time in her youth when she had won the egg-and-spoon race, and proceeded to take on the finalist from our workshop and win the 2007 Lingelihle Egg-and-Spoon Championship!
Though we are leaving, we are happy that the work we have begun will continue. In Khayelitsha the Lindwall Foundation together with the Lyndi Fourie Foundation and Youth for Change have established the Lindiwe Centre for Releasing, Conciliation and Transformation offering healing modalities such as Lindwall Releasing®, Breathe Free (a support program for addiction to tobacco, alcohol and other substances), Family Constellation Therapy and nutritional advice to both youth and adults. We are now looking for donations to purchase containers as a permanent home for the Centre and to support ongoing activities.
We thank all of those who have made this visit possible, through generous support in material and other ways, and look forward to returning to South Africa later this year. Donations to the Outreach Program can be made though the Lindwall Foundation website, or in South Africa directly to the Lyndi Fourie Foundation. In love and light, Stephen and Barbara Marcus-Kroll |
For more information on the Lindwall Foundation Outreach Program in South Africa, For Donation information click here |
