prasad1
Active member
A privileged white South African family is under public scrutiny after slumming it in a poor black squatter camp for a month in an attempt to see how the other half lives, the New York Times reported Monday.
“Give a child love and attention and they will be happy anywhere,” wrote Ena Hewitt on her family's blog, Mamelodi for a Month, about the social experiment that was meant to expand the family’s horizons and understand more about poverty. “There have however been some difficult moments.”
In August, Ena and her husband, Julian — with daughters Julia, 4, and Jessica, 2, in tow with no toys — put themselves on a strict budget and left their gated estate for a tin shack with no electricity or running water, next door to where their housekeeper lives. And while it seems from the family's blog that they learned many lessons on the subject of slum life — from sleeping huddled together on freezing nights to fearing local teens hooked on the potent Nyaope (a blend of heroin, marijuana, rat poison, bleach, and retroviral drugs) — the Hewitts also got schooled by a host of critics who claim their adventure made a mockery of true poverty and the remnants of apartheid.
“Give a child love and attention and they will be happy anywhere,” wrote Ena Hewitt on her family's blog, Mamelodi for a Month, about the social experiment that was meant to expand the family’s horizons and understand more about poverty. “There have however been some difficult moments.”
In August, Ena and her husband, Julian — with daughters Julia, 4, and Jessica, 2, in tow with no toys — put themselves on a strict budget and left their gated estate for a tin shack with no electricity or running water, next door to where their housekeeper lives. And while it seems from the family's blog that they learned many lessons on the subject of slum life — from sleeping huddled together on freezing nights to fearing local teens hooked on the potent Nyaope (a blend of heroin, marijuana, rat poison, bleach, and retroviral drugs) — the Hewitts also got schooled by a host of critics who claim their adventure made a mockery of true poverty and the remnants of apartheid.
