Back in South Africa

Its late and I should be trying to get some sleep before a long day of meeting people tomorrow, but I'm strangely awake. I'm back in South Africa and currently in Jo'burg for a couple of days to meet with friends and colleagues to discuss the next stage of the research. Whenever I arrive back in this country there is a strong sense of familiarity about everything, but despite my deep connections here for many years, I'm conscious of the unfamiliarity that lies in the culture, ideas and the whole order of doing things. South Africa is a place that has inspired, educated and challenged me every time I've returned and I sense this trip will be no different. I should try and rest but will write again tomorrow and hopefully post the first video diary! Good night.

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About

Joe is co-founder and director of Street Action
( www.streetaction.org ). Street Action was established in 2007 in the UK to support and work in partnership with pioneering street children organisations in Africa.

Joe has worked alongside street children activists since 1996 when he first traveled to South Africa. Since then he has worked with a number of pioneering street children projects and activists in South Africa as well as traveling to other Southern and Eastern African countries. Studying a degree in Politics and obtaining a Masters in Development Studies and African Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), he has worked in the field of international development and also local community development in the UK. In 2010 he was made a research associate at the The University of London's Centre of African Studies, based at SOAS.

His work has taken him to a number of countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, as well as India and recently the US to San Francisco where he has been involved in setting up Street Action USA.

Joe currently lives in London, United Kingdom.