Update from Nqiningana

I am writing to you from a tiny village in South Africa called Nqiningana. I am here working on the Nqiningana School Food Security Project which is led by the registered humanitarian-aid that I founded in 2008 called The Themba Development Project. This is a very exciting project because the idea has been led by the community and together we formulated a plan to complete the necessary work. What was once a field of grass is being transformed into a working vegetable garden which is the size of a football field! This school had zero trees when we arrived also so together we planted 420 trees, mostly fruit and nut bearing, and a few to help with wind erosion. Soon this school and the surrounding community will have access to an abundance of fresh fruit which will help improve their health, that is important because this country has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and the fastest growing rate of Diabetes in the world!

Some people have asked me how we plan on managing a project of this size, because of course, we can not always be in two places at once! I am very excited to tell you that we have formed the Nqiningana School Food Security Management Committee, a group of students, teachers and community members who have stood up to claim ownership of this project. We have also employed a local project manager who will ensure the sustainability of the project. It is nice to know that we can create jobs in a community where there is more than 80% unemployment. 

The most exciting part of this project has been to see the transformation of the community itself. We have been teaching the community about the power of volunteerism and slowly slowly we have seen the transformation with our own eyes. Now it is becoming common place for the community to come to us and ask to help, or to organize themselves to complete projects which help this project. Our local members cannot believe their eyes. 

Over the past 2 months we have been working very hard to complete this project that took us one year to finance. I would like to thank all of you for helping us to raise funds for this project, we could not have done it without you. That said the project continues so all of your tax-deductible donations are kindly accepted. Feel free to email me any time at thembaproject@gmail.com  or donate directly at www.canadahelps.org, paypal, cash, check or email money transfer

We are also launching a new campaign which will be a lot of fun for our students. Learning about the world through books alone is one thing, but imagine learning about a country from someone who actually lives there? We are inviting schools from around the Maritimes to help us with the 2011 Christmas Card Campaign. Students can make Christmas cards for us and the proceeds from the sales will go directly to projects which help the Nqiningana School. Students are also invited to write letters to the youth in South Africa, forming new friendships with kids just like them, half way around the world. Join us in this exciting campaign by emailing me atthembaproject@gmail.com

Thank you again everyone, I look forward to seeing you upon my return to Canada.