You and I, connected

Sunday, 24 February 2013

(Recommended song choice for this blog entry: "Bold As Love" - John Mayer)

I couldn't stop myself from thinking back to Friday night's memory of lying down on my back as I played with the soft sand in the palm of my right hand, watching the orange sparks of our feral bonfire slip into the night sky, transforming themselves into silver stars. 

But it wasn't the aesthetics of that memory which I was still toying with, but rather the thought that came with it. I just remember thinking in that moment how incredibly connected we all are. How we all have very similar goals and struggles in life - yes, some experience them to a deeper extent than others - but these demons manifest in and through each of us. 

And yet, through all these struggles that we contend with - the ones we grapple, wrestle and sometimes try to brush aside - we find others, who in turn help us find ourselves.

As Johann drove me back to the Coffee Shack to continue my journey further, in his rattling bakkie which has seen the better days of the Wild Coast dirt roads, he pointed out proudly to a clinic on a hill not too far off, that Mdumbi Backpackers helped the community build.

He started telling me a story of how before this building was even a seed of thought in anybody's mind, it was an 8km walk to the closest clinic for the members of the Mankosi Community. 
This was a big problem, because patients were often too sick by the time they were willing to turn to Western medicine, and the walk is harsh over the rough and lengthy terrain. 

In an area where malnourishment, cholera and HIV reap havoc through the land, victims of these illness (especially from the rural communities) often face death if they are not treated in time.

ARV's have been administered to these clinics by the government, but standard government policy maintains that patients are to personally collect their medications from the clinics themselves - and in a community where close to 100% of it's members have no alternative mode of transport (besides their own two feet) - how are HIV patients who are too sick to move going to accomplish such a task?

That is why Mdumbi Backpackers and Transcape (their active NPO) have health, education, and economical growth high-up on their priority list.

Transcape have been running productive HIV/Aids awareness programmes, as well as conducting educational projects through Mdumbi Backpackers.
They have a collection of books which they made into a functioning library; they run extra English and Life Skills classes; they help prepare matriculants for their final exams; and once students have graduated, they help them in computer literacy, business, secretarial, entrepreneurial, and vocational training so that they can better explore the labour market. 

There is also a significant focus on economical growth in the immediate area. Transcape has come up with interest free micro-financing projects which support and encourage multiple small businesses in the area, such as shops, brick-making, gardening, chicken farming etc...

Mdumbi is one of South Africa's most community active backpackers, refusing to give up on the sustainable growth of this rural corner of the country. Together with Transcape, it continues to stimulate the community's access to support, knowledge and the resources which are vital to initiate the process of improving their livelihoods.

I suppose in the end it boils down to this:

Everybody has a choice in this world, either be a part of the problem or a part of the solution.

If you feel like you can help Mdumbi or Transcape in any way, or want to have a scroll through the different ways in which people can help out - get involved, and click HERE.