This is a programme currently aired on BBC3 at 9.00pm on Sunday evenings. The first episode is available on the iPlayer (if you’re in the UK). I think it is really good and not ‘wag-like’ at all.

**For those who don’t know, a WAG is a label that has been given to Wives and Girlfriends of football players and implies privileged, diva-like behaviour. Unfortunately it is tarring everyone with the same brush, because although there are a few of them that might be like that, they certainly aren’t all.
Here’s the synopsis:
Five WAGs leave their pampered lives behind to experience the reality of life behind the gloss of the World Cup by rolling up their sleeves to work in some of the poorest and most deprived neighbourhoods in the host nation, South Africa.

What I liked about it:
  1. The girls really rolled their sleeves up and mucked in
  2. It portrays the terrible poverty that is still rife in South Africa.
  3. Episode 1 showed the girls working in a Children’s home – not at all unlike the projects we support through our charity, Children of Africa. It also gives you insight into how even little donations can make a difference.
     (http://beechwoodblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/donation-for-our-charity-children-of.html)
  4. It clearly portrays how HIV/AIDS has a huge impact on the lives ordinary people. 10% of the population is affected and it has had a devastating effect on families, tearing them apart.
  5. It reminds us about what is important in life, about how privileged our lives are in comparison. Appreciate what you have, and try to make a difference where you can …
What I didn’t like about the programme:
It was factually incorrect in one aspect. As I understand it, Khayelitsha was not created by the apartheid government to force people out of their homes and make them live in tin shacks.
Ironically Khayelitsha means ‘new home’ and was intended by the government to provide housing to residents, in one purpose built township. (Which still supported the apartheid policy, which I certainly don’t!) But the plan was to create 4 towns, each with 30,000 residents in brick houses, a proportion of which were to be privately owned. The plan was for ‘site and service’ plots (this means demarcated plots, each with a tap and toilet), and a further 13,000 rented core houses (a core house is a small cement-brick structure that can be extended into a larger house). However, things didn’t go according to plan as more and more people moved in and over-crowding became out of control. Today about half a million people live in Khayelitsha and only 14% live in the planned core housing. It’s the biggest township in South Africa, and probably one of the most dangerous.