Shanil Haricharan
May you always continue to inspire and lead as Women of Wonder (WOW). This inscription on the WOW Award aptly describes Safia Pandor (née Asvat), a 2015 recipient. The WOW Award was conceived by the chief executive of Panache Promotions and Events, Farzana Mayet, who felt the need to award women who make a difference in the lives of others and who excel in their respective fields.
The award ceremony in this year’s Women’s Month recognised Safia’s hard work, perseverance and dedication, courageously striving to achieve her dreams and serving as a role model to South Africans. Her dream is to bring a smile to the faces of people in need. She says: “I didn’t expect any recognition for my work. My reward is to see the smiles on the faces of those I help, especially poor children.”
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting this woman of wonder at her home in Crosby (near the Brixton tower), in west Johannesburg. It was also an emotional reunion. During the turbulent mid-1980s, Safia and her husband, Shahiz, were my neighbours and friends, in the nearby Mayfair. Almost two decades have passed since we last met.
As I walk through their home, I am greeted by a number of smiling and curious faces. Children I don’t recognise. We exchange handshakes and names. I know of the Pandor’s three children: Tasneem, Mohammed Shuhaib and Aslam. The hostess, sensing my puzzled look, her eyes twinkling, proudly declares: “These are all my children.”
We chat into the evening, catching up on the many paths we have charted over the dawning of two decades of democracy. I warmly remember their concern for my safety and their kindness during the 1980s – protecting and nurturing my mind, body, heart and spirit.
I, an underground Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadre then.
Today these good Samaritans provide a warm and caring safe house for abused and neglected children – children of our dawning democracy, deprived of freedom’s harvest. Denied their dreams, their smiles. Born-frees.
They provide a safe house for three children, and a homeless pensioner and his young son. The children in their care are an 11-year-old boy rescued from his abusive father, a Grade 10 girl abused by her father and a 19-year-old with ovarian cancer. Then there is a little girl who spends her weekends and school holidays at their place.
Tearfully, Safia remembers reading the beautiful poetry of Pretty Ndebele, a 13-year-old girl for whom she raised funds for chemotherapy. “It broke my heart, I cried, I cried so bitterly.”
The Pandors provided pyjamas, a gown and a toiletry bag for Pretty’s hospital stay.
These are Safia’s children. The forgotten children of Fietas.
Fietas (Pageview and Vrededorp) is another shameful legacy of the era of systematic dehumanisation, resulting in the loss of community, belonging and identity. From the 1950s to the ’70s, Fietas residents experienced the inhumane Verwoerdian diktat: That the human reality needs to be racially defined and racially organised under the supremacy of the white race. Many thousands of residents in one of the oldest, racially mixed community in western Johannesburg became victims of forced removals.
The orphan siblings of District Six, Cato Manor and Sophiatown. Disenfranchised “non-whites”, the distraught diaspora discarded into racial zones of exclusion: Lenasia, Soweto, Westbury, Riverlea, Noordgesig and others.
Generations of inter-racial relationships and community destroyed. The avarice and bigotry of white supremacy satiated.
The Group Areas Act triumphant, the dispossessed defeated. The resistance and defiance campaigns in Fietas led by freedom struggle stalwarts, such as Dr Yusuf Dadoo and other Transvaal Indian Congress leaders, overpowered.
Today, the area is home to people of all colour – rife with squalor, poverty, crime and drug, alcohol, child and women abuse. There is also an absence of basic social facilities. Extramural activities are non-existent.
Children in such areas are at the mercy of depraved elements in our society.
Descendants of intergenerational traumas – personal and social – festering, pernicious, devastating the psyche of adults and children alike. The new democracy is no balm to their misery. The ghosts of Fietas lingers.
Rebuilding Fietas is a huge challenge. Yet, people like the Pandors are starting to make a difference to some lives.
It is a hot, blue-sky Sunday afternoon in Fietas. A group of young girls, full of fervour, playing netball. Unperturbed by the intense highveld summer heat or the bent netball poles. Their enthusiasm infectious. Transmitted to Safia and Shahiz while distributing food to the local residents.
As the Pandors watched the exuberant netball players they saw an opportunity of nurturing these girls’ dreams. Their community spirit of “always willing to lend a hand” evoked. They donated four netball poles, sport kits and netballs. The Fietas All Stars netball teams were born, for boys and girls.
A volunteer coach was enlisted. This was the summer of 2014. A month ago they helped start a soccer team in Fietas.
The high-spirited Safia shares her vision: “As the founder of Fietas All Stars, my intention is to take the players much further. Through sports I know we will be able to accomplish a lot.
“My dream is to empower the youth through sports – to bring hope where there is despair.”
There are many other examples of giving: donating track suits to all 160 Brixton Primary School learners from disadvantaged homes; inviting 100 Fietas children to lunch at their home; supporting refugees during the xenophobic attacks earlier this year; and arranging the burial of an elderly white man in the area.
Children are not Safia’s only concern. For the past seven years, Safia has worked at the Abida’s Frail Care Centre as a home-based caregiver to the elderly, starting as a volunteer. With strong conviction, she says: I do it because of my love and passion for elderly people in our community. I love looking after cancer patients.
Shahiz runs a small clothing business, employing three people and his son, at the back of his humble three-bedroom house. He makes track suits and karate suits.
Their philanthropy and community work comes from their own personal income. No sponsors or grant funding. No huge savings. No bank overdraft facility. No credit cards. No family wealth.
Shahiz reflects, his eyes smiling brightly: “We give what we are capable of giving. We cook a big pot of food and everyone gets to eat.”
Safia is no stranger to hardship and loss. Born in Manzil Park in Klerksdorp – the year of the first heart transplant – the eldest of four siblings (a brother and three sisters), she lost her father in a car accident at the tender age of seven. Her ailing mother spent more time in hospital than at home due to renal failure, passing on when Safia was 21 years old.
Her empathy and compassion comes through as she reminisces on her journey.
“Life was very tough growing up with one parent deceased and another critically ill. I left school at the age of 16 in Grade 11. I vowed at a very young age that one day, when I start working, the little I have I would share among the less fortunate.
“Growing up not having and being laughed at hurt and I never want to see another child go through that ever again. My only regret is not starting my community work earlier.”
Safia and Shahiz are among the ranks of admirable citizens building a caring nation: emotionally self-aware, empathetic, inspirational, compassionate, and optimistic – they lead from the inside out.
l Safia’s contact details: [email protected]