OUR FERTILE GROUND

OUR STORY

 

The organization was inspired by the extraordinary lives of twelve young men who found inner strength and purpose through supporting each other with the guidance of Jawaya Shea.

 

In 1999, in a small cottage in Cape Town, South Africa, Jawaya Shea opened up her home to a dozen boys. Most of the boys had been raised in single-parent homes in a community where drug use, gang activity, and violence were commonplace. Jawaya's home became a refuge where the boys spent time together creating music, doing schoolwork, and exploring the beautiful nature reserves surrounding Cape Town. Birthdays, driving lessons, learning to swim, and confirmation ceremonies were shared and celebrated, creating powerful friendships and a sense of belonging. 

 

As the boys grew, they shared their challenges and opportunities as an extended family. When one boy experimented with drugs, Jawaya turned to professionals at the Child Health Unit at the University of Cape Town. They advised that the boys themselves, as a group, should determine how to handle the situation. This positive peer guidance and self government had an amazing effect, creating a sense of personal responsibility for the choices and behaviors of everyone in the group. When they completed high school, the young men were determined they would continue Jawaya's good work and find ways to support other vulnerable children. 

 

Robert started taking his son to a camp for children living with HIV when his son was 7-years old. The camp experience was life-altering and he was asked to join the team as a counselor. He established an instant rapport with the young campers and within two years the children voted him top-performing counselor. At one camp session he and the children performed a role-play of African animals going through a human transformation. The costumes and performance awakened in Robert a powerful yearning to travel to Africa so that he could work with infected and affected African children.

 

Robert and Jawaya met at an AIDS conference in Washington DC in 2004. Love and passion for working with children and families struggling with HIV/AIDS brought them together into a marriage between Cape Town, South Africa and Northern California. From their deep commitment to this work Fertile Ground came to life.

 

They started leading weekend camps for Cape Town's HIV/AIDS affected adolescents.

 

In collaboration with 4 like-minded organizations Fertile Ground's first Residential Camp was held in July 2005 just outside of Cape Town. With help from several of Jawaya's boys, 35 children from townships like Delft, Guguletu, Langa, Khayelitsha, Bellville South and Paarl who attended the clinic at Tygerberg Hospital participated in the camp. The camp was facilitated by Shiraaz Ismail and a team of volunteer teen counselors from Cape Town and California. The first residential camp was a great success. For both American and South African participants it was a time of sharing and exchanging ideas, igniting hope for the future and beginning a foundation for deconstructing the shame and stigma built around those living with HIV/AIDS.

 

Since 2005, five more weekend camps have been created and a score of day outings, where HIV-infected youth learned life skills such as leadership, nutrition, swimming, and how to cook over an open fire. HIV and AIDS are discussed openly and frankly, helping the adolescents develop self-acceptance, de-stigmatizing their illness and creating hope for their future.