I last came to Heartfelt and South Africa two years ago and since then I've been looking forward to the chance to come back to see if I could help make a few changes for the better for Heartfelt.
Over the past week I've managed to spend a lot of time with Martha finding out more about the problems within the workshop and other more serious problems faced in the community like the complete lack of reasonable access to running water. There are lots of things that I want to help improve and problems that ought to have been resolved since I was here in 2009, but the water problem is probably my primary gripe.
The wide spread village of Makapanstad has never had running water. A lot of the bore holes in the yards are also dry. This wasn’t such an unusual problem in South Africa ten years ago, but since then the government has been implementing a program of Free Basic Water, allowing for every family to have reasonable access to clean running water. So two years ago I stood in Martha’s yard and checked out the tap that had been put in more than 6 months previous which had not released a single drop of water. Last week I stood in the same place and wondered the same thing, what’s holding this water back? On the other side of the main road, in the same village of Makapanstad, water flows from taps and villagers don’t have to pay exorbitant prices to shrewd men who shop water around with their donkey carts and probably refill their tanks at the next village with running water.
We’ve had a petition going for a few months now which we’ll send to the local authorities to let them know that this problem needs to be resolved and that people around the world are aware of this situation. But last Wednesday, I think we had the biggest break through so far. I went into the Moretele Municipality building, found my way to the office of the Technical Services Manager, and had a quick chat with him. I can’t tell you how excited we were when he said he would come with us to Martha’s place where the workshop is to see what I was talking about. I’ll be honest and tell you that I think this little miracle happened because his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he learned that I’m an Australian!
Along with one of his colleagues, we went round to Martha’s place. Martha gave them a piece of her mind and certainly managed to convey her frustration. But we got some answers and we hope that soon we’ll also see some results. The water implementation programme is nearing its completion and our section of Makapanstad is the final stage. The problem there is the difficulty in plumbing the area since it, as opposed to the opposite side of the main road, is above the level of the water source. These are decent reasons for a delay in completing the services but what about just getting some water to these people in the meantime? Martha pointed out that on the opposite side of the village, when they were without water, a tank was supplied by the municipality. So we asked for the same provision for the interim. They didn’t promise it, but I have their email addresses so they won’t be able to forget our conversation too soon!
One of the Technical Services guys, after visiting the workshop and seeing what Heartfelt is doing there, said something very touching; he said, “its like that saying; ‘teach a child sport, keep him out of court’, that’s what you are doing here and it makes me very emotional”. So, fingers crossed that we see some action here soon. If you haven’t already signed our petition, please do so as I will be sending it to the guys that we met (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/waterintomakapanstad/). Also, I’ll just take this opportunity to mention that we are hoping to raise some money to get a large water collection tank and an ecotoilet for the workshop. If you’d like to make a donation to our ‘Sanitation Fund’, please contact me and I’ll give you the bank account details right away: francie@theheartfeltproject.com
We had two other special events happen during the week. The first was a very special visit on Tuesday from a 3rd year Graphic Design class from Potchefstroom University. The students have been given Heartfelt as the client for their assessment project for the next 6 weeks. They’re to design packaging and a corporate identity pack. They were led by their lecturer Cashandra Willemse who is passionate about small developing businesses like Heartfelt that have an ethical purpose. Martha and Jules spoke to the students about how Heartfelt got started and what kind of design assistance it needs. I spoke to them about the health and sanitation issues the ladies face in their circumstances and Cashandra rounded it all off perfectly by reminding the students that in their work they should remember that the bottom line for Heartfelt and probably for each of us personally is the desire to live with dignity.
The students, 18 girls and one lucky guy, met and chatted with all of the ladies and had the chance to get a feel for village life. It was a very positive day and we can’t wait to see what type of innovative ideas they produce.
On Wednesday made lunch for us all and gave the ladies a workshop. I spoke to them about business and tried to explain a little about the side of the business that they don't see and how it works. I think many of us take for granted the knowledge of business operations and the necessary admin, but when you’ve never had a job or have only ever worked as a domestic employee, your understanding of what makes a business tick, is limited. So I spoke about what kind of company Heartfelt is and what makes being a ‘social enterprise’ different from a charity project or a standard profit making company.
I also gave them each a questionnaire a couple of days earlier which asked them what ideas they might have to improve Heartfelt and also what they personally would like to learn, from Heartfelt and in general. The overwhelming majority of the women commented on the need for ruthless quality management. They all expressed their desire to have the products leaving the workshop be of the highest standard they can make.
As for personal goals, several ladies mentioned that they’d like to start small businesses like catering or sewing household products. Others are keen for training. Things like learning to drive and completing courses that they have had to drop out of because of finances etc. I talked to them about the opportunities they are sometimes offered through Heartfelt. On paper, they’ll tell me that they’re interested in learning new skills, but when it comes to the crunch, many times Julie has not been able to convince them to give up a day’s work to learn something new that has been offered for free. We can all understand how crucial a day’s pay can be when you have a family to feed so it’s not easy to try to encourage someone to look beyond small immediate things to the future, but that’s what I tried to do! I explained that those opportunities to be educated for free are the best chances they have to change their circumstances and increase their earning power. I can’t say for certain that every woman was convinced, but we will certainly see next time an opportunity arises.
We talked about a lot of big and small things and I think that I have helped to make some things clearer. It was a fantastic opportunity for me to give these great women another perspective on what they're doing and where they can take it.
I wished that I could stay another week just to wake up each day in Makapanstad to hear the sounds of rural life and meet a neighbour's turkey wandering past the back door. But it was only to be a quick visit from the outset and I'm so pleased with what we achieved in such a small time. Next step is to check up on those municipal water guys!
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