Stepping into the unknown...
When I chose Umthathi Training Project to be my case study for my elective I was not sure what to expect. I knew that I was interested in the organization because they helped communities with starting their own gardens but I was not completely sure what else they did as an organization. From reading up on them, I saw that they were involved in a lot of other courses which they offered which included money management and house hold hygiene which seemed good so I was definitely positive about the type of work they produced. So I walked in there blind, not sure what I wanted to find out, how I was going to go about it, which stories I wanted to tell and if there actually were any stories to tell. I threw myself in the deep end and said let me get to know the organization as is and I will figure my way around it while I’m there.
The reason I wanted to work with Umthathi was because I wanted to work with an organization which was hands on with community development. I felt as though in my four years in Grahamstown as a student I never got to know my town completely, I spent so much time on campus with my Rhodes life that I didn’t know what else was out there. Yes I would occasionally go out into other parts of Grahamstown to find stories but I never immersed myself within the community and got to know the people and to know their stories not just a five minute interview for my school assignment.
My first few days at Umthathi were interesting. I became acquainted with the staff really well, they are really nice people who I soon took as my aunts and uncles. Lumka had just joined Umthathi 3 weeks ago and her job is to monitor the progress of the groups Umthathi had previously trained and to find champions. She was the first person I automatically clicked with, maybe because she is only 5 years older than me but also because we would be spending a lot of time together. I spent the first day on the road to King Williams Town. We were there to talk to a group of women who had previously been trained by Umthathi. This trip was to find out if there was any progress with the projects they had started because of the Umthathi training and if they needed any help or support. Having only met with one of the women who managed to make it to the meeting, she explained that they had started a vegetable garden for the church and they sold some of the veggies they harvested to raise funds for the church. Already from that first meeting I could see the impact that Umththi had on the communities they worked with. From that first day I was positive that there would be incredible stories to tell about this one organization and that is what these blogs are going to be. I am going to tell Umthathi’s stories but also how I felt being part of their family for a few weeks. Follow me on my journey…
