top7

Shopping for School Supplies

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

(Posted by Sheri) Today started out as a simple shopping day, but ended up being a mental journey as well, pondering the meaning of “value” – as a noun, and as verb.

After spending the last couple of weeks with Miranda, creating a rather complex spreadsheet in order to compare vendors and prices for all the items on the Nzinga schools’ wish lists, we were ready to go shopping.  For many of the items, it’s more cost-effective to purchase from South African companies and pick them up once we’re over there.  But for other items, we discovered that it made more sense to buy them here and put them in our suitcases.

Our goal?  To buy as many things on the list as possible, for the smallest amount of money possible.  Result?  Success!  When we deliver supplies to the schools in Nzinga in a couple of weeks, the children will be delighted to receive:

I had been looking at this list all week.  I knew it would be really wonderful to give them all these things.  But when we got home and I took everything we bought out of the bags, I became completely overwhelmed, imagining all these books, toys and educational materials being used by children who have never had access to these sorts of things before.  It’s one thing to see a list on paper.  But when I saw it all spread out before me, I realized what a colossal difference these items will make to the children in Nzinga, and the true value they will have in helping each of these children reach their potential.

One item in particular caught my attention today as I was sorting through the shelves at Value Village Thrift Store.  Spoons.  For most of us, once silverware has lost its luster and ability to impress dinner guests, it loses both emotional and monetary value and ends up being sold at Value Village for 15 cents apiece.    But for someone who can’t afford to buy a spoon, the value of that item is enormous.   Today I saw in each 15 cent spoon the value of being able to feed a child.  In each book the value of teaching a child to read.  In each bandage the value of being able to cover a child’s cut, especially when that child lives in a village where nearly half the residents are HIV positive.   Yes, we found some bargains and stretched our allotted funds as far as we possibly could.  But the true value will never be able to be reflected on the sales receipts.

To all of you who made a donation to Isipho this year, thank you.  The value of your donation is much larger than you’ll probably ever know.

Nzinga Trip – Things accomplished and learned

Monday, July 6th, 2009

KwaZulu-Natal is a fascinating place.It  can be overwhelming. And inspiring. And exhausting. There is always so much to do, but so much to learn, so many customs and perspectives to understand and respect. Every company in America has a corporate culture. I’ve learned over the years to observe the culture and try to work within it. There are seemingly dozens of different cultures and certainly life experiences that are so diverse in KZN, and few of them have anything in common with my own. I love the effort needed to wait, listen, ask questions, and never assume you’re doing the right thing in the right way.
So, I got a lot done, and as usual, learned a lot. A brief list:

Bheki from Cedara, Tom, Shaun from Afgri

Bheki from Cedara, Tom, Shaun from Afgri

- Agreed with Inkosi (the chief) to form a local committee to work as the Nzinga leadership of Isipho. This will be a group of leaders from schools, municipal government, tribal leadership (the Inkosi’s Induna) , and village leaders. This is a really critical step in getting them to own this and be responsible for success.

- Met in person with Bheki from Cedara College of Agriculture and Shaun from AfGri. Both of them area amazing. Bheki

is going to lead the planning of our gardens and gardening training. Shaun is working to get us extremely deep discounts on all gardening materials including fencing, tools, seeds and seedlings. Both are great guys, easy to work with, very enthusiastic. Our food garden program could not possibly succeed without this sort of partnership between government (Cedara), business (Afgri), and NGO (Isipho). We are very lucky to have such great partners.

- We mapped and planned over 450 square meters of new food gardens we will install in August. In the crèches the

This 50mX30m area of mostly weeds will be a thriving vegetable garden for the orphans Drop-In Center in August.

This 50mX30m area of mostly weeds will be a thriving vegetable garden for the orphans Drop-In Center in August.

gardens will give young children much needed nutrients daily. In the Drop-In Center the garden will give the orphans an extra nutritious meal and provide some extra income for other needed materials via sales of excess veggies. And in the primary and secondary schools the gardens will be a teaching tool for the science teachers and a source of nutrition for students at lunch time. The impact is going to be massive.

- Agreed with local Department of Education officials on some key items – we always match donated materials with the training to use them properly; training and materials must go hand in hand. We believe we can partner with them in instances where they have a budget for materials but not training or vice-versa. We can partner with them to provide the item they don’t have budgeted in order to ensure they are adding some money into the Nzinga area schools. We will invite them to Nzinga for some the time we are there working and facilitate meetings. Nzinga is so remote many official government people have never been there. We also agreed we will work with their officially approved list of materials providers and teacher trainers. We’ve been looking for that list for six months and now have access to it, which is very helpful.

- Finalized the list of materials needed for classrooms, and the matching training needed, and are working on prioritizing them versus budget. We won’t be able to afford to do it all at once, but the list is so long it would be overwhelming to them if we could.

- Deepened relationships with local municipal, Dept of Agriculture, and other nonprofits in the area, which will help us in everything we do.

We are now ready to have a very effective visit in August. Literally, if all goes as planned, the village of Nzinga will not be quite the same by the end of August. That is a totally overwhelming thought for me right now.

Ubuntu

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Sanibona from Howick, South Africa. I’ve spent the last week in mud huts full of family and love if not enough nutritious food, schools with windows and adequate materials missing, government offices with bureaucrats driven to make a difference but limited by any number of obstacles, NPO’s full of hope and vision but lacking the organizational or business skills to make the impact they desire, people working hard to build something better for themselves and their kids, others who’ve given up and just want a hand-out. In short, I’ve seen every variation on Ubuntu I’d see anywhere else in the world.

Ubuntu is the Zulu word for human nature,and while their word for it sounds different than ours, their nature is no different from ours. Ubuntu is universal. it is what Miranda noticed when she met three year old Amahle and Nomnekelo, who is six days younger than Miranda; they are really the same. they just don’t have the same opportunities, the same resources, the same support, the same paths open to them. Every new person I meet here; every new situation; every new obstacle and every new point of light, I am more aware than ever that we are, as U2 once sang, One – the same, but different. And because we are really all the same, it is important for us to share what we have with them, especially when we have so much. They deserve to have the same opportunities to become the best of their human nature. And the world is better off every time one more person has the chance to reach their potential and give their gifts to the world.