Christopher Maqashu

Christopher Maqashu was born on 20 March 1989 in Oudshoren in South Africa's Western Cape. The 14-year-old boy with a ready smile, loves soccer and reading. He wants to become a lawyer: "to help people who have problems, and to make a good living, so that I can look after my grandmother when she is really old".

Through the intervention of Children of Fire he secured a place St George's Grammar School in Mowbray, Cape Town, in January 2003. The R20,000 fees for this year are sponsored by well-wishers Anne and John Field and also via the administrator of a number of trusts: Lorna Prosser. Children of Fire subsidises his living expenses with his aunt by R400 a month and his grandmother contributes towards the cost of transport to and from school. However it now seems that the grandmother has some R460 a month as a foster grant for Christopher but spends only half of it on her grandson. Our Cape Town representative is going to clarify the issue. Children of Fire also purchases small items like English-Xhosa and English-Afrikaans dictionaries, as needed.

Christopher's mother died when he was an infant and the whereabouts of his father is unknown. When he was about a year old, he suffered severe burns in an accident at home. A pot of boiling water fell onto him, burning his scalp, face and hands. As a result, he lost all his hair, part of both ears and his hands were also damaged.

For the next 12 years Christopher spent long periods of time at the Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town and the St Joseph's Home for Invalid and Chronically Ill Children, also in Cape Town. He underwent a number of reconstructive surgery operations. His face is scarred, but after years of surgery he looks as good as is possible. His hands are deformed, yet he is completely self-sufficient - he can hold a pen, play on the computer, play cricket, and do everything that other children do. He is even learning to play the recorder. The other consequence of the accident and the treatment that followed is that Christopher missed out on three years of schooling. He is only in Grade 6 whereas he should be in Grade 9.

In February 2003, Anna du Bois, our Cape Town representative, went to Christopher's five-hour sports day on a Saturday, at his request as his aunt couldn't - or maybe wouldn't - come. Neither would her daughters... Anna wrote: "He is truly an amazing child - so unbelievably positive. All the teachers I saw there said the same thing - he is blissfully happy. His English teacher said - he is constructively noisy in class and that's good, it means that he is happy and at ease. She then said that his English was very-very weak, but not to worry, he is not the only one whose spelling is rubbish!"

The remedial teacher is writing a book with him about his life at home and in St Joseph's and about his accident and treatment. This way he learns new words and isn't bored. It is also some form of trauma counselling technique. Christopher misses some of his friends from St Joseph's but it seems that he also feels that his life is now at the new school

Christopher took part in every sporting event except shot put. The school is not highly competitive in sport, and because it's so small everyone participates and many children do more than one event. Christopher came third in 1,500 m, 800 m, 400 metre race and second in 200 m race and high jump. Because he did so well, he later received a whole stack of certificates at the school assembly.

Inclusion specialist Thikam Pillay said Christopher seems very happy at school, doing cricket, chess, managing with his homework so far... A company made him a full body special swimsuit free of charge, to hide some of his scars.

Christopher went camping with the Reach for the Dream foundation in 2002 and again in 2003 for a weekend.

Background

At the end of 2002 Christopher was due to be discharged from the St Joseph's Home and to go back to Oudshoren to his loving grandmother Joyce Maqashu. Mrs Maqashu is retired. She used to work as a street cleaner for the Oudshoren municipality, and is a dedicated carer, but she could only afford to send Christopher to a township school.

Cape Town representative Anna du Bois comments: "From past experience with disfigured children, we know that Christopher could drop out of school within the first few months because of the intolerant attitude - even aggression - of others. Burned children have been called "fried chicken" and other names. Children and adults alike shun disfigured children. Moreover, schools in townships rarely have the resources, such as a psychologist or a remedial teacher that Christopher would need in order to reintegrate into mainstream education system."

Anna says: "If Christopher dropped out of school, not only would his own dream of achieving something in his life be shattered, but all the effort, time and money spent on rebuilding his face and hands will seem to have been wasted as well." The rate of suicide among teenage burns survivors is high. Christopher is bright and willing to achieve his legal career dream - but for that he needed to go to a good school with academic stimulation and emotional support to help him face the world.

St George's Grammar School will help Christopher to catch up on lost years of schooling. The headmaster of St George's and the teaching staff pledged to help Christopher adapt to mainstream schooling and to "normal" peers, throughout his school career. While school fees are high and uniform, books and extra funds for outings, trips, projects maybe will cost a further R5,000 for year 2003, the school has classes of only 15 children: exactly what Christopher needs.

Anna wrote: "What I liked about the school is not just the fact that they have very small classes, especially for those who struggle academically, a clinical psychologist, remedial teachers, etc, but the fact that not a single boy from the hordes of them that were pouring out of the classrooms when we were first there, stared, gasped or showed in any way whatsoever that Christopher might look a bit "odd". They greeted me and the bursaries man, nodded to Christopher and went about their business as usual.

When I asked Christopher what he thought of it all at the end of the visit, he paused a bit, then nodded and said - "I like the school".

Christopher was very quiet and polite at the meeting, but once we got into my car I turned to him and asked - are you happy now? And he gave me a big, beaming smile and said YESSSS!!!!!!!!!

Christopher was formally offered a place at the school on October 22nd 2002.

He started attending the school on a part time trial basis in November 2002. In 2003 he is there for a full day - until 5pm Monday to Thursday - which allows him to participat

The route to St George's was not easy

The school's inclusion teacher Thikam agreed to meet Christopher in October 2002 despite knowing the teacher from the Western Province Prep who had assessed Christopher as having English spelling at the level of Grade 1; mathematics (his favourite subject) - Grade 3; English reading - Grade 2. The remedial teacher from Western Province Prep said that both she and the headmaster there felt that it would be at Christopher's disadvantage to go to their school as he would be the weakest child in the grade - and the oldest, the poorest - and the only one to look very different from others. They feared that it would put so much pressure on him that it could cause more harm than good. They did not seem to make allowance for the fact that the tests were undertaken in his third language.

Western Province Prep suggested PRoEd - a remedial school for children with learning problems, just so that he could "catch up" before going into mainstream education.

Helping children like Christopher is very time consuming as, whether it be surgery or education, many options have to be worked through before the best solution is found.

Earlier educational thoughts had been via the Resource Centre for Inclusive Education that suggested Christopher should attend St Joseph's School in Rondebosch because it was Catholic, like St Josephs Home, and because there is a unit at the school for children with special needs, mainly mentally retarded. Some of the children look "funny", which means that the other pupils at St Joseph's School are used to seeing "different" children. It also means that the school has more resources than a state school and the Resource Centre has a person who could assess Christopher and determine at what level he should be placed.

Another possibility was to approach SACS - it has a boarding house, a fulltime remedial teacher and scholarships for deserving underprivileged children

Christopher went to Bishops to see the man in charge of bursaries, Mr Wallis-Brown. He saw the high school campus and learned about their library, computers, etc, before being told that there was no chance at all to get into Bishops in 2003 because both high school and primary school were full. The administrator thought there was a chance for 2004 and was going to ring the woman in charge of school bursaries at Investec. The bank sponsors at least one other Bishops boy, who is now the head boy in Matric and Investec has been paying his school fees for the past 10 years. Fees are R60,000 a year for a boarder.

Mr Wallis-Brown promised to see if the woman in charge of bursaries at the Western Province Prep could take Christopher for a year, until he could get into Bishops - because "we must try to avoid sending him back to Oudshoren for the year".

Helping a burned child like Christopher involves:

Negotiating with social workers, teachers and government bureaucrats.
Negotiating with family.
Paying home visits to check on the child's environment - that he can be happy and secure there.
Attending special events at school and key calendar dates like his birthday.
Planning for all his school needs such as uniform, well in advance.
Being a friend to the child and sometimes a friend to the entire family - but in administering donated money, being quite sure that no one is taking unfair advantage of the assistance.
Ground rules have to be set with relatives of the child, on timekeeping and what role they are expected to play in supporting the child. Christopher's aunt Maria was given a legal contract to ensure that she fed and accommodated him well, in return for financial support.

Surrogates

In late Feb 2003 Rene Albertyn who runs the rehabilitation facility at the Red Cross Hospital suggested that a man called John Gorman could become a "surrogate father figure" for Christopher and attend events like sports days if no-one from Children of Fire was available. This offer may be taken up at a future date.

Problems

It took time for Maria, Christopher's aunt, and Babalwa (Maria's daughter) to gather that turning up one and a quarter hours late for an "appointment" in January with someone doing them a favour, was not acceptable… especially when cash had to be paid for uniform purchases and the like. Maria lives in Langa (20 minutes by one kombi taxi from the school) and also did not like having to sign a "care contract" that guaranteed her role in Christopher's care. Where possible, all payments should be made through bank accounts to avoid any "misunderstandings". Some uniform (trousers, four shirts and a track suit top) was donated and Children of Fire also bought Christopher items like sunscreen and sunhats as burned children suffer more in the sun than other children. We reimburse our Cape Town representative for mileage involved in helping Christopher at AA rates and sundries like the R50 school application fee.

Solutions

In the end it is all a matter of attitude - and the school has been so very positive. In early December 2002 the remedial teacher at St George's had been working with Christopher for three weeks. She said that she has great dreams for him, that she is sure he will cope, that he has inner calmness that will help him through wobbly patches.

Christopher's granny is a Seventh Day Adventist, who very much wants Christopher to have a good education and was all in favour of him trying to get into a decent school in Cape Town. Anna wrote: "She clearly loves him very much and is definitely an "anchor" in his life - you can see it in the confidence and acceptance of himself that he has."

With any child we help….

Anna wrote: "The hardest is to start, to make the first phone call and to say to a complete stranger - I have a boy who is disfigured, slightly disabled, years behind in schooling, and with no money or parents, only a loving but uneducated granny - will you take him to your posh school? Simply because I ask you?"

And somehow as the charity's name and reputation grows, maybe asking won't be so daunting each time.