9/7/2023 0 Comments Malaak compton rock quote![]() There are thefts and fires in the community that have caused them to lose their hard-earned money often. Her program teaches the grandmothers modern and effective banking and saving, instead of saving their money under the mattress like they did previously. There is no electricity or running water and they use outside latrines, sometimes shared by different families.Ĭompton-Rock’s second visit started the income generating work that she does with the grandmothers in Diepsloot, as well as the support of orphan and vulnerable children in South Africa and, she said, “It started my love affair with the country.” Most of these informal townships are shanty towns or squatter camps as they are known locally, with shacks made from scraps of corrugated metal, sheets of plastic, and cardboard boxes. Other informal townships, like Diepsloot, which literally means “deep ditch” in Afrikaans – the language used by the architects of Apartheid and now one of South Africa’s 11 official languages – have sprung up over the years as people of color try to be close to big cities so they can find work. There are many poor townships in South Africa, where Black people were relegated by the Apartheid government after it took away their land. The grandmother’s question to Compton-Rock is a common complaint among the poor in third-world countries, who often feel like animals at a zoo when their everyday lives are turned into tourist destinations, but with no benefit to them. “She remembered me and was shocked that I had come back.” Three months later she did go back and connected with the same UNICEF-supported NGO and saw that grandmother again. She looked at me like ‘yeah right’,” Compton-Rock said. As gogos we need to make money for our children so they can go to school and have a better life than we do.’ I told her I’d find ways to help and would come back. “I was taken aback and asked what she wanted me to do and she said, ‘I’m really tired of people coming and looking and taking pictures and leaving but not doing anything. “She said, ‘What are you gonna do about this?’” Compton-Rock recalls. ![]() It was where she met an elderly grandmother who asked her a question that has kept her going back to the country over 30 times. She wanted to see some of the issues affecting black people post-Apartheid.Īn old UNICEF boss linked her with a local non-governmental organization that took her on a tour of Diepsloot, a township in the north of Johannesburg, where she was met with dire poverty and devastation among the many grandparent- and orphan-led homes, a result of the country’s high number of AIDS-related deaths of young and middle-aged parents. Towards the end of that first trip, Compton-Rock, who had previously worked in public relations for the United Nations Children’s Fund, needed to touch base with her development work roots. ![]() They did the typical tourist activities – safaris, museum tours, took in the Johannesburg culture and scenic drives along Cape Town’s garden route. The first time Malaak Compton-Rock, ex-wife of comedian Chris Rock, went to South Africa was 11 years ago with her family. ![]()
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