Compassion, Connection and Creativity in a time of Covid-19

The pause of lockdown took away sounds first. The quiet swallowed up cars, buses, the clackety-clack of trains in the distance and synchronised dog barks matching the pace of passing joggers.

The suburbs turned to near mute by the small hours of 27 March. People have gone indoors but they haven’t gone away. Over the past week of lockdown, compassion, creativity, collaboration and connection have shown that the human spirit makes itself heard and seen even in a time of crisis. It’s a reminder that in small ways and big ways we can add to positive action, that we can be the better angels of our nature.  

There are the hundreds of volunteers and volunteer organisations that have stepped up their efforts to cook for the homeless who are being housed in temporary shelters across South Africa. The likes of Food Not Bombs Jozie, continue to cook and deliver fresh vegetarian meals to those in need at various locations across Johannesburg. Check out their Facebook page to help or to join.

In Newtown and Brixton the community under the efforts of the African Reclaimers Organisation Solidarity has started a Back-A-Buddy campaign for the waste reclaimers in the Bekezela inner-city informal settlement. Buy-back facilities have closed for the lockdown, which means the reclaimers who are an essential but almost invisible workforce in the city are now left without an income and are in dire need. The power of networks and community have allowed volunteers to piggyback off special permits to move food and sanitary supplies to the informal settlement that has swelled in size since lockdown began.  Among this community is Tamzyn Botha, “just another human”, she says, but she’s making homemade soaps and using her bakkie for transporting food and essentials.

“We live in parallel worlds that sometimes never connect but the waste reclaimers are among the hardest workers in our city and now they need our help. We can all do small acts of kindness and that can be contagious,” says Botha.

There’s also the store owner of the Aasia Halaal Meat and Fish Wholesaler in Chinatown Cyrildene who leaves dozens of parcels of provisions of long-life milk, sugar, beans and oil in neatly spaced piles on the pavement outside her Derrick Avenue shop for those who are unable to get provisions at this time.

Small businesses that are being hit hard themselves are also giving back. Fashion label Klipa Denim (IG: @klipadenim) has turned its small factory output into making face masks instead of its signature African contemporary clothes for the time being. They posted on Instagram this week: “First 1,500 masks have left our factory for sterilisation”.

There have also been patrons and customers who have bought packages and vouchers from small businesses, including Joburg’s independent cinema, The Bioscope and from the Thunder Walker dinner and storytelling venue on Gandhi Square. It’s a leap of faith paying now to only receive something back in the uncertain future, but it’s a purchase of support and solidarity for small businesses to pay staff and to stay afloat so that rebuilding will be able to take place when the coronavirus is finally tamed.

WhatsApp and Facebook community groups have placed notices and posts from people offering to pick up groceries and medicines for the elderly, the sick or those who don’t have transport to get to the shops easily.

On a lighter note – and there should be lighter notes – Su-Yen Thornhill, the brainchild and chef behind the monthly home kitchen dining experience Chez Fong in Joburg, has since the lockdown created her alter ego “Mrs Fong” to demo fun science experiments via her Facebook posts.

Thornhill studied medical microbiology at Edinburgh University and before settling in South Africa was at one time a TV science communicator. Her combination of skills and sense of humour makes her short videos perfect for parents needing a laugh as well as those needing help with the home-schooling programme. Her unique explainer of the science behind Covid-19 testing can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/suyent/videos/10157768374975733/.

There have also been the videos and memes that have kept us laughing at ourselves till we see our stupidity in hoard buying, in reposting fake news and even our delusion that a walk around the block is not doing anyone harm. The Ndlovu Youth Choir made an upbeat video about general hygiene and tips for staying safe in a time of Covid-19 and a group of South African artists including Lira, Majozi, Karen Zoid, Arno Carstens and Jack Parow made a conference-call video for their song that has the message of “Now’s the time to keep from falling apart. We gotta keep love in our hearts.”

And then there are the people in the homes who have heeded the 7pm call to stand at their doorways, on their stoeps, balconies and gardens to clap, to clang pots and blow on their vuvuzelas.

It’s a salute to all the frontline essential services staff, from doctors, nurses and scientists fighting the virus and preparing contingencies, to the dustmen emptying bins, the grocery shelf packers who make up the food supply chain and the taxi drivers still transporting commuters.

Every howl to the moon, every vuvuzela blown and every clap made is also about humans being heard, signalling that we all here still, we are not alone. It’s summed up in the post from a mom on a WhatsApp group:  “You should have seen the look on my daughters’ faces when they heard other people clapping in the valley! Thank you, thank you!” DM