What's that? Oh nothing- Just Africa

I have been fortunate enough to witness many good public speakers at work during my short tenure of life but on Thursday Fr Patrick Shanahan, founder of Street Child Africa, returned for the second time to my school to speak. Father Shanahan’s message which he was trying to get across was a very poignant one indeed.

He observed that our school was the only one in the area which still bore the ‘Make Poverty History’ banner. Now that Live8 has been and gone and all talk of the G8 has evaporated, all notice of Africa has disappeared. This would appear to be because it is no longer convenient to ‘Make Poverty History’ as, as our guest said the eradication of poverty of Africa has no magic formula. Unfortunately bearing a white band for a few weeks will not provide a cure to the great problems. The predicaments to be solved will not simply disappear but instead require a lot of effort and time a.k.a ‘a long, hard slog‘. The ideals which we held a few years ago, the thought of the West coming to Africa and being the great superhero were totally ignorant. So now that nothing much has happened the West has reverted to ignoring Africa again.

As raised by Father Shanahan, nowadays politicians when asked to what they will do to solve the problems faced by the street children in Africa reply with the single word of ‘education’ yet surely it is naive to believe the Government would fund the building of high class facilities in the middle of the slums. . Once in these schools, these children shall forget the years of abuse, lack of companionship, and necessities. They will be quiet well respected citizens and provide no problems at all. In modern terms education is no longer 5 day tuition but a miracle cure to all of life’s woes.

Another, more sensitive approach employed is that of the ‘drop in centre’. This ugly phrase is used to do one vital thing for street children which we have failed to do for so many years: to listen. Centre D’ecoute is the closest thing the French have to the phrase and translated means directly listening centre. Children who have suffered the greatest hardship can talk about their horrific experiences and there is always someone to listen. Not only does this work on a individual basis among the children but Father Shanahan raised the point of its implementation on a wider scale. How about we start listening to Africa? Since when has any of Africa’s leaders had an input on the G8 summit or Live8? Maybe we should learn that money and hype cannot solve everything.

It also should be noted that Mr Brown did not give a mention to foreign affairs on the first day of his term as Prime minister. He may not have made any promise to know a magic formula, but in the man who we have been forced to put faith and trust in, still lies the question of will he be able to help save Africa? Maybe a consistent, unspectacular Prime minister of Britain is all that Africa needs because making poverty history is not going to happen thanks to a lot of PR stunts. The banner will remain up for a while I think, but I do not, sadly give it a second glance or thought the day and I thoroughly believe its removal has been on the caretaker’s To Do list for a while now. Time for the west to gain some education?


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