Community Development through love, kindness and the universe
What does "community development" mean to you? In South Africa the term is used regularly to refer to the improvement of the living conditions of an impoverished group of people who live in a relatively poor neighbourhood or township. It is a term that has become part of our vocabulary as we continue the struggle against the triple curse of poverty, unemployment and inequality. We use it so often though that our biases become ingrained inside those words. The bias that "community" here should refer to poor people. The bias that "development" here should largely be about improving the socio-economic status of those poor people. The bias that "we" the privileged should help "them" the underprivileged. But what if we expanded our perspective a bit and saw that actually, in the bigger picture of things, here on this little rock we call earth that's tumbling around in the vast emptiness of space, there lives a community of human beings in whose combined hands lie the fate of the planet. A "community" comprising all people, regardless of age, race, gender, location, socio-economic status, or any other dividing lines. And if we are to actually make this world a better place then we must learn to develop that community, to live together as that community, and that we all, as human beings, need to develop our minds and hearts just as much as our economies. This is the principle behind a big-picture community development initiative conceptualised by the late Carolina Odman and others, and which I describe here, following a successful implementation, organised largely as a tribute to her, over the weekend of 9-11 June 2023 in Sutherland, South Africa.
(Note: the first implementation of this initiative, on a smaller scale, was carried out with Carolina in 2019, and although we had planned to make it a regular event, the universe decided otherwise. What is described here is the second implementation, almost 7 months after her passing.)
The location:
Sutherland is a special place. It is home to the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), which hosts several international research facilities, including one of the largest optical telescopes in the world, the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). It is also a small town of a few thousand people, facing several societal challenges including high rates of unemployment, school dropouts, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc. While the SAAO and local government coordinate several initiatives to try to uplift the lives of the people of Sutherland, the needs are consistently larger than the efforts to address them. Also, the benefits of large economic stimulus activities such as astronomy based tourism (or astrotourism), tend not to directly reach those most in need.
The Concept:
Use the inspiring night skies and science infrastructure of Sutherland, together with an awareness of the different lives led by our fellow human beings, to expand all our minds and hearts, and create a sense of community across economic divides. And during the process, ensure that there is some transfer of resources directly across the inequality chasm.
The Implementation:
With the support and enthusiasm of the teachers, we invited the families of children from two grades in the French School Cape Town to come to Sutherland for a weekend (the two grades chosen were those of Carolina’s boys, her greatest pride and joy, 11 year old Xavier and 9 year old Cyprian). Invitations were sent via parent representatives in each class and the response was overwhelming, with a total of 170 people signing up (84 kids, 86 adults). The first challenge was finding accommodation, as the supply of beds in Sutherland is limited. We contacted the largest accommodation venues and found a quiet weekend when we could fully occupy both large venues (and others around the town). Parent volunteers became accommodation liaisons for the two large venues and helped negotiate rates, payments, some meals, etc. All families would arrange their own transport to Sutherland (family road trips).
In the meantime, the education and outreach department at the SAAO came fully on board and made their staff available to provide tours of the telescopes (the relevant team at SAAO is called the SALT Collateral Benefits Division and part of their mandate is ensuring societal benefit from astronomy). This would be a record number of people in a single tour group.
In parallel, a group of local women were organised into a catering team, thanks to the leadership of a well known champion of social upliftment in Sutherland, and we enlisted them to arrange some meals for the entire group - a rare but excellent business opportunity for the women. The primary school in Sutherland came on board to invite children from their school (of similar age as the Cape Town group) to join the activities planned. The high school allowed us to use their sports field for our activities after the field that the local municipality had arranged became unusable following heavy rains in the days before. Five assistants from the local community were appointed (with a small stipend) to help organise the large group during the programme. What started as a modest idea to bring a few families to Sutherland turned into an event involving a substantial number of people, all of whom should take due credit for the success of this initiative.
Together, our local facilitators consulted and came up with a list of "needs" which included shoes, clothing, sanitary pads, dry foods, books, sporting equipment, etc. This list was circulated to the families from Cape Town who responded positively with incredible kindness and generosity. And the kindness has not stopped with the donations. Several of the parents have already indicated their intention to continue their connections with Sutherland at all levels, including support for the aged, coding lessons for schools, STEM education initatives, etc.
The Programme:
Friday:
This was for travelling and settling in. Sutherland is about a 4 hour drive from Cape Town and families were encouraged to leave early in order to avoid driving at night. Supper was for everyone's own arrangement and people arrived at various times throughout the afternoon/evening. A Whatsapp group was set up for communication of logistics and for supporting each other in case of car trouble or any other needs. A portable telescope (thanks to SAAO) was set up at the largest accommodation venue and anyone from the group, not tired from travels, was able to enjoy some "backyard" stargazing on what turned out to be a spectacularly clear Sutherland night.
Saturday:
Everyone had breakfast at their own accommodation and then met directly at the SAAO at 9am (about 18km from the town). They had been organised into four groups already and each group met at one of four locations (SALT; 1.9m telescope; 1m telescope; and ringing rocks outside, where they could also just take photos of all the many domes on the site). At each location was a tour guide from SAAO, with a bonus in SALT, where a kind technician volunteered to demonstrate how the telescope moved - a very special experience for the families indeed. Then, every 30 minutes, the groups would rotate among these locations, finally meeting for a group photo outside SALT.
The group then proceeded to the high school sports field where they met with scores of local children. The arrangement with the group of Sutherland women for the provision of meals included lunch for the Cape Town group as well as 100 local children. After lunch it was free play, with an SAAO sound system churning out music and both the kids and adults getting out on the field playing sport, chatting, dancing, etc. As the kids grew tired everyone slowly faded away for an afternoon of rest, collection of donated goods, and free exploration of the town before meeting for supper at 6pm.
The supper turned out to be a very special occasion. The Sutherland women impressed everyone with a wonderfully decorated hall seating the entire group. Then, before the supper began, they placed a picture of Carolina (which I was asked to bring but didn’t know exactly why) at the front of the hall, and called upon me and the boys to do a small ceremonial lighting of candles in tribute to her.
This was our first trip to Sutherland since she passed away so it was already heartbreaking. After some very emotional words by a close family friend in Sutherland, and paying tribute to her role in conceptualising this initiative, the Sutherland women sang two beautiful songs in memory of her - a testament to how much she was loved by this community. With teary eyes and full hearts, we then enjoyed one of the best meals ever - the compliments to the chefs kept coming for the rest of the trip.
After supper we headed back to the SAAO to meet at the Visitors Centre and Visitors Telescopes. Here there were exhibits with explanations of different scientific and engineering aspects of astronomy; a very popular green screen photo booth; vending machines for hot drinks and snacks; a souvenir shop; and a seating area screening some short astronomy movies. While people hung out at the visitor centre, smaller groups were taken outside to the SAAO Visitor Telescopes. Unfortunately there was a technical glitch in the middle of the programme and so in place of the telescope viewing we did a naked-eye tour of the sky with a green laser pointer (which included a spectacular shooting star), and the option of viewing objects through a portable SAAO telescope back at the larger accommodation in town. The sky was incredibly clear, with no moon, and really showcased the best viewing conditions Sutherland had to offer, with the centre of our milky way galaxy rising high in the winter sky; the large and small magellanic clouds distinct as ever; and even the darker features like the coal sack prominently on show to the naked eye. From all the informal feedback, I do believe that minds were sufficiently blown.
Sunday:
It was a relaxed morning with a late breakfast and everyone checking out of their accommodation before gathering at the Sutherland Community Centre. This centre is housed in a building sponsored by the National Development Agency and supported by the local municipality and SAAO. It contains around 24 computers and related computing equipment all managed by the SAAO IT department. The SAAO shares its large bandwidth with the centre and the facility is free to use for the community of Sutherland. The upgrade of the building and all its equipment was made possible through funding from the Department of Science and Innovation. The centre is a focal point for many initiatives, including one run by Carolina herself to teach coding to the kids in Sutherland, and another called Sutherland Reflections which involved the coming together of artists and scientists to explore how the connections to the sky can translate into the upliftment of society.
At the Community Centre we were met by the Sutherland kids before all walking together to the "Ou Lokasie" - a part of Sutherland from where people were moved during the implementation of Apartheid’s Group Areas Act (which separated race groups into different locations). From here we had an elevated view of Sutherland and reflected on the history of South Africa that led to the distinct segregation of communities along racial lines, which we could clearly see in the town (the formerly "white" area on one side of town and the formerly "coloured" area on the other side). We emphasised the importance of seeing each other as human beings and respecting people that may be very different from us. I used the example of Carolina and me, who came from vastly different backgrounds, me growing up barefoot in rural South Africa and her growing up skiing in the Swiss alps - yet the love we found together was nothing short of epic, and resulted in two amazing human beings being born out of it. We took a moment to reflect on everything while singing the national anthem (which I played on Carolina’s famous bluetooth speaker that we had used on so many projects together).
Back at the community centre the Sutherland women had prepared snack packs for all the kids (our group plus 100 local kids) but we quickly saw that the number of local kids exceeded our expectation. So the packs were shared, with the Cape Town kids kindly giving up theirs so that more of the local kids could receive them. We then said our goodbyes and everyone headed home, with an endless stream of thank yous and ideas for more ways to engage with Sutherland.
All in all, this seems to have been a very successful experiment, and an incredible culmination of love, kindness and the universe - a legacy of Carolina that I think should be repeated and constantly improved upon. For example, this could be done with families of other schools, families of large corporations, families of government departments, more families from Sutherland itself, etc. It could be done through homestays, where local families host visiting families to increase the development of a global community and spreading love and kindness in both directions. It could be done in other rural locations around the world, where the skies are clear or other wonders of nature occur. It is an exercise of uniting us as human beings and trying in some way to reach across the divides of inequality. Maybe such initiatives are just a drop in the ocean in our quest for a better world... but maybe it will plant the seeds of unity and respect in the minds of our children to enable them to better shape the world of tomorrow. Let us hope and let us try, by expanding initiatives such as this, in memory of people such as Carolina.
