African group seeks economic self-reliance in tour of South

ALBANY - Harold Netangaheni&#39;s South African home is a hot, semiarid, rural land where farmers struggle to scratch out a living. <br> <br> He hopes to help them out of poverty by studying the practices of farmers in an area with similar conditions the American South. <br> <br> Netangaheni, an agricultural extension officer from Thohoyandou, South Africa, is one of 18 professionals from southern African countries visiting the Southeast this spring in a cultural and training exchange. <br> <br> ``Our main mission is to take poverty away from those people,&#39;&#39; by teaching better farming and marketing practices, he said. <br> <br> The group has been hosted since late April by a church in Albany and will spend the rest of the week there before heading off to Alabama and Mississippi for the rest of the month. <br> <br> ``We&#39;re trying to get away from relief efforts to developmental efforts so people can take care of themselves,&#39;&#39; said Lynn Nelson, executive director of the Southern African Mission Program. ``Many of the same struggles in the Southeast ... the same things are going on in southern Africa.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Since 1994, when the racist apartheid system was dismantled in South Africa, groups from Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi and other southern African nations have visited the United States, looking for ways to solve social ills such as AIDS, drugs, crime, poverty and illiteracy. <br> <br> ``We&#39;re trying to help the church and the community address those issues and bring about positive results so people can take care of themselves,&#39;&#39; Nelson said. <br> <br> Teuns Phahlamohlaka teaches social studies and English at a high school in Pretoria, South Africa a place with 40 percent unemployment, high rates of crime, drug use and illiteracy. <br> <br> Phahlamohlaka said fostering change and an ``African Renaissance&#39;&#39; starts with values taught in the mission program. <br> <br> ``We still have some tensions as a result (of apartheid) that make us not want to care as much as people do here,&#39;&#39; said Phahlamohlaka, who also participated in last year&#39;s exchange. <br> <br> ``Let&#39;s bring back what was working before the morals, values and norms ... by teaching people life skills so they can be on their own,&#39;&#39; he said. ``I foresee greater things. It is my prayer.&#39;&#39;

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