It is Melinda’s research that originally brought her here to the heart of the township. Her desire to give back to the community and the need for a community project for the first year engineering students, created the opportunity for an unlikely collaboration between the disciplines of Psychology and Engineering from the Vanderbijlpark and Potchefstroom campuses of the NWU.
Any involvement would however, have to be facilitated by a community leader: someone who is acknowledged as a leader, known by the community and who is already playing an active role. Melinda recognised this truth when she started collecting data for her research. By means of social activist Dale T McKinley, she made contact with one such a community leader; Bricks Mokolo.
On the red dirt streets of Orange Farm, where hopelessness and poverty regularly cast dark shadows on the lives of residents, Bricks and Gladys Mokolo has lit a bright candle: The Itsoseng Community Project. Bricks was once a talented soccer player with an eye on a place in the national team. But he had to choose between a life of fame and fortune and the people that he would have had to leave behind in Orange Farm. To him, the choice was not difficult.
Together, Bricks and Gladys work hard to bring a glimmer of hope to the community. With his background in law he offers free legal advice to the residents of Orange Farm. The recycling office offers people remuneration for hours and kilometres of plastic, metal and paper gathering. It is a meagre wage, but for many it is a sole income. Gladys also runs a day-care centre on the property. The centre is home to 95 learners a day while their parents are away trying to earn a living. Gladys is not always paid for her services, but she never turns a child away if no payment is received. She reckons that such a child may then be returned to a life of abuse, so it is never an option.
“Who is going to big school next year?” Melinda du Toit with the grade R class at Gladys’ school.
