Above: The Tshiombo female soccer team training for change
On Wednesday morning I set off by car with three ActionAid colleagues (two from South African and one from Sweden) from Johannesburg to Thulamela, in the Limpopo region so as to visit development and livelihood projects run by ActionAid South Africa. Our destination is some
I initially think that the trip will take us the best part of a day but having had a look at the speedometer we are doing a pretty steady
Our driver is very skilled but other travellers are not so lucky and we witness three serious accident sites in our first two hours on the road. Did I recently read somewhere that road fatalities in Africa were starting to surpass malaria deaths?..
The scenery is a continuous vast expanse of savannah and thorny acacia trees, interrupted from time to time by shanty towns on one side of the road and gated house communities on the other side.
Having passed Pretoria and Pokolwane, we head directly North towards the Zimbabwean border. Apparently it is the most crossed border in Africa, not just by Zimbabweans but also by people coming from further up North such as Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, the DRC and even Ethiopia and Somalia.
The reason for travelling so far to see projects is because ActionAid always connects with the poorest and most excluded communities, and these are often located far away from big city hubs.
The province we go to is called Thulamela and it is one of the former homelands that were set up during apartheid. As such, it is an area that is more disadvantaged than others.
In Thohoyando, we meet ActionAid South Africa’s local partner for the area – Xihlobo. ActionAid always works through local partners as they are knowledgable about the area and have connections with the communities they work with.
In this particular case, funding for the projects comes from child sponsorship income generated by ActionAid Italy.
Above: ActionAid South Africa's partner organisation Xihlobo
The three Xihlobo employees Marvin, Amos and Marcus are extremely eager to show us their work and amazing achievements.
Their purpose is to identify areas that require support and they do so by approaching local chiefs and with their permission train two local villagers to become facilitators of Reflect Circles, ActionAid’s great grass-roots empowering approach to development.
Ten Reflect Circles, each comprising of 35 people, meet weekly for two hours. The facilitators ensure that everybody has the opportunity to express their views on problems and challenges (hence the circle) and together the group formulates solutions and makes decisions on what they would like to change.
They form an executive committee and create a constitution and are completely in charge of the decision-making process. ActionAid is merely there to support them with whatever project the villagers decide to embark upon.
ActionAid doesn’t decide on projects as we recognise that the local knowledge and expertise lies with the people of that community.
Once the locals have decided on a project, whether it be goat rearing, chicken keeping or an awareness campaign on teenage pregnancy or substance abuse aimed at the youth, ActionAid’s role is to provide the necessary funding for these activities to begin.
Above: the women of a Reflect Circle in the Vhuri Vhuri village decided to raise goats as an income generating idea. ActionAid South Africa provided the goats and finances to get them started.
We talk to a number of women who share their initiatives with us.
One activity in particular sticks in my mind: the formation of women-only soccer teams! Women wanted a space where to meet amongst themselves to socialize and share their problems.
As the men wouldn’t have allowed it, women decided to create soccer teams which provided them with the excuse to come together three times a week for training, and presumably for a fair amount of post-training talk (I’m suddenly getting an inkling of why my husband plays team sports).
There are teams for all ages, including 60-year-olds. ActionAid South Africa supports this initiative by providing funding for balls and training kits.
Another benefit is confidence and physical strength building, which is certainly an asset in a context where domestic violence is widespread.
They say that in South Africa everything is possible. I’ve certainly witnessed this spirit of initiative and great intelligence. It is the hardest thing to change oneself and one’s view of their position and status in society, and it is certainly deserving of support to achieve their goals!
