Visit to a Shantytown

CNN's Soledad O'Brien plays with children in Diepsloot while Journey for Change participant Laura DiFilippi takes her picture.

Soledad O'Brien
CNN Special Correspondent

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Diepsloot is a massive shantytown on the northern edge of Johannesburg, about 30 minutes from the city center.

Cornelius Xulu, a project coordinator with Hope Worldwide points over a low hill to show me the scope of these thousands upon thousands of shacks, made of tin and wood and brick. Many are collapsing, with gaping holes and sagging ceilings.

Cornelius guesses the shack-city goes for 3 miles one direction and several miles the other - an indication of how entrenched the poverty is in this section of the city.

In the shantytowns the poor often pay rent for four tin walls, a mud floor and no utilities.
Here a shack can cost about 350 to 700 rand per month ($47 – $93 USD), which means many families are often too poor to buy food or clothing.

It is in Diepsloot where we start our fifth morning in South Africa, delivering bags of rice, boxes of soup, and packages of toothbrushes to the grannies - women who are raising their grandchildren because their own children have died.

The kids from Bushwick are excited. They've quickly grown to love the act of giving, and there are playful tussles over the soccer balls and toys to hand out to the small children who line the narrow and dusty streets.