Orange Farm Focus Group

Yesterday I had my third focus group (out of four) in Orange Farm. It is the largest township/informal settlement in South Africa, located about an hour southwest of Jo-burg. No one really knows how many people live here, but it's probably somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000. It's gigantic. (Try typing in Orange Farm, South Africa, in Google Maps or Earth and you'll get some idea of its size.)

The participants in this group were a bit older than in my past ones and because Jo-burg has an interesting culture all its own, it was interesting to hear the differences in how they use their mobile phones and MYMsta. However, there were still a lot of similarities and I'm starting to reach what is called "theoretical saturation" in focus group research. Basically, I'm hearing the same things over and over with the different groups. This is good because it means there are some conclusions and recommendations I can make knowing the opinions of users are on my side. Here is a photo of me with some of the young people from the focus group.


After the focus group, an amazing thing happened. Without any qualifications whatsoever, I judged a dance competition! Not quite sure how it happened, but I had quite a lot of time to just hang out at the Y-Centre afterwards because my dear driver, who also took me to Free State, had other LoveLife travel duties to attend to and was picking me up at 5 p.m., which is when I've been finishing up. However, since the participants were a bit older, I didn't have to wait for them to get out from school and walk to the centre, so we started earlier. So, I had this time and, since the centre was bursting with activity, I just made my way through the facilities/grounds, stopping to chat with people and play with kids there. Here are some boys I met outside. They were a bit shy (especially the one on the right) and could barely speak English, but they could strike a pose! One thing that really struck me was the first boy's clothes. They were pink and white, and meant for a girl, but they were just warm clothes to him.



There was a dance class going on in the room I held my focus group in after I left, and I stayed there to watch the girls get down! And get down they could. The youngest of them was about six, the oldest probably 11, and they were are so adorable. I would clap and tell them how wonderful they were -- some of them would get so shy while others would revel in the attention, but each would just smile so brightly. It really warmed my heart. Their smiles were just so beautiful that I could almost look past their tattered clothes and bare feet.


After staying for a bit, I went back outside and talked to a couple of men who were outside on the basketball court. They seemed fascinated by America and asked lots of questions. Do you have these kind of shacks in America? Can you give me advice to help me find a job? What are you doing here to help people in Orange Farm? These were all hard questions to answer, but I tried my best.

All of a sudden though, the group of dance-class girls ran to me and took my hands, pulling me and saying, "Come with us, come with us!" I went and their dance teacher, who couldn't have been older than 18, informed me that I was going to judge an informal dance competition for them. It was really fun, but I tried to get out of choosing just one group to win! I really didn't want to choose, but the teacher made me do it. In the end, I went with the youngest two girls who danced together. Here they are.


As I asked to take these photos, all of them crowded around me to see themselves in the digital viewfinder, and started asking me questions, touching my hair, hugging me and holding my hands. Their affection was so genuine and contagious, and I just melted.

I kept thinking that these sweet, innocent little girls are just like my precious nieces, Sasha and Kailee. They just want to be loved and deserve every opportunity in the world. But, the road ahead just seems so difficult for them and the injustice of that really hurts. There is hope though. I have great hope for these girls and their families, and that's why I'm here.

My final focus group is in Witbank tomorrow in the province of Mpumalanga.