The Good News & the Bad News

There has been so much going on here since our last chat. Firstly let me start with some really special news. Our lovely lady (who is HIV Positive and been off work for the last year and a half) is back at work. Thanks to all the love and support she’s received she is now looking a lot healthier and is very happy to be back with the Heartfelt ladies. Martha was so excited to see her and says she is coping amazingly well. She is even walking with the ladies around the village at lunch time - which would not have been possible a few months ago. It’s a heartfelt miracle and we are jumping for joy to have her back.

The not so special news is that there is a huge water shortage in Makapanstad at the moment and Martha and the ladies have not been able to get water for the last three weeks. It’s a shocking situation. Martha says that there is only one tap that works in the village and the queues of people lined up to get water makes it impossible to get to (even the donkeys that usually come around to the workshop weekly have not been seen for weeks). The question I want to ask is "how – in 2010 – does Makapanstad still not have any water"? Situated relatively close to the capital city of Pretoria, surely a plan can be made? When I was there aged 13 some 20 years ago there was no running water - how has nothing changed? It really gets my goat (or should I say donkey) when I think about it. These are the very people and communities that need the governments help – but the last people the government seem to get to.

Martha says that some government official arrived in his fancy car a week ago and promised help in September? When in September? No one knows – and that’s a long time away for anyone dying of thirst.

We seriously need to address this matter. It’s an absolute crime and a basic human right. Ok, rant over (for now). It’s time to take some serious Heartfelt action. If anyone has any advice in this area - please could you contact me at info@theheartfeltproject.com. It's people like our lovely lady I worry about the most. To keep her healthy water is literally her life source.

Love to Learn

Two of our lovely ladies took part in a Financial Education Workshop this week, held in Johannesburg and facilitated by Old Mutual. We were invited as part of the Old Mutual Legends Programme - an enterprise development initiative of the Old Mutual Foundation we are proudly taking part in. This initiative is developed and implemented on Old Mutual’s behalf by Fetola Mmoho and is currently benefiting Black-owned businesses and community projects in five provinces with the vision to ‘Change lives for the better, forever’.

Our ladies Charlene and Bogadi came back feeling very motivated after their workshop and I believe these are the types of initatives that can really make a sustainable difference - not only to the ladies lives but - to the community as a whole. As I’ve said before the ladies battle to see ‘the future’ and work from hand-to-mouth, so it wasn’t easy for them to put down their needles and attend a workshop - when they could be earning an income instead.

Through Heartfelt we're slowly-slowly teaching the ladies to acquire what is needed to develop their skills and educate themselves and their children. This will hopefully encourage them to make decisions that can take them on a different path and truly change their lives. That’s why I believe that the Government needs to make every effort to provide young people with good education and encourage them to learn. 'If you stop learning, you stop growing. If you stay as you are, you stay where you are'!

On that note and on behalf of Martha, myself and all the Heartfelt ladies - we’d like to wish all the incredible women in South Africa a very special Women’s Day on Monday (9th August). May the year ahead be one filled with learning. Be it new skills, to listern to each other, to have hope for the future or to simlpy learn to love yourself. What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us!