SOWETO. Life here like elswhere

• Photographer
  Myriam TANGI

In 2017, I travelled to South Africa where I met Marilyn Bassin who founded the NGO Boikanyo The Dion Herson Foundation to provide assistance to shack and hostel dwellers who live in abject poverty in an area of Soweto, Johannesburg. Impressed by her work, I asked Marilyn if I could join her or a few days. In Soweto, non white people were discriminated against for decades in Apartheid. Nelson Mandela eventaully negotiated a settlement for black people to be allowed to have equal rights. The foundation works with children growing up in child/grandmother/sick mother headed households. Children are so focused on survival, that education has taken second place. Crime, violence, teenage pregnancy, drugs, absence of father role models, death, poverty, starvation, drugs, alcohol, AIDS, absence parents. This photograph testifies to the joys and pleasures of these people who live in intolerable conditions. Amongs all the drama there is still hope.