A rainy week in South Africa provided a much needed break from the heat of summer and a comfortable atmosphere for Think Impact’s Global Development Ambassadors to visit the Uta community and learn more about ongoing Fellowship projects. Members of the Project Steering Committee, who are working tirelessly on the planning and development of the Uta Community Center, were excited to meet with the visiting Americans and tell them all about what has been going on for the past five months. Angie Mabuza, the PSC Chairperson, showed the group the building blueprints, gave them a tour of the location, and answered questions about the future of the community center in Uta. The GDAs were fortunate to hear Angie’s story and her vision for the project.

Angie is a vital part of her community—a natural born leader and a strong believer in the potential for growth in Uta. With two daughters herself, she is an advocate for youth in the community, and in an area where women aren’t always given a voice, she is heard.

Angie sees opportunity for students to form performance groups and use their time and talent to entertain their peers and share their ideas.  She envisions women with small businesses selling their goods at these events, generating profit that will both uplift their families and to feed back into the center. Angie is committed to this project because she knows it will help her community.  For the first time, Uta is going to have a physical resource for community meetings, government services, a place to host social and cultural events and a facility for health education and business programs.  She sees that this will change everything, that a new building can help spark ideas for new groups and community entrepreneurship.

Currently the community center project is in the final stages of planning.  Contracts have been drawn up, the community is ready to get the building moving.  While these things have been going on, we have been working to identify assets in the community so that once the building is up, there are already programs running to use the center.  With all of the great ideas that Angie and the other committee members have for the potential of the center, there is a lot to look forward to!

Sometimes it is hard for people to fully understand what it is that SMRC does for development. We can always share pictures, tell stories and offer the numbers like young leaders in the organization have built 3 schools, 4 libraries, 2 soccer fields, etc. But there is no replacement for that in-person, in-the-field exposure to our efforts. Sign up here!

That’s why we are inviting you to join us on an exclusive 9-day adventure to South Africa beginning Labor Day weekend. From September 4-13, SMRC will be staying in the community, enjoying local fare, visiting a world-class safari and seeing Africa’s “Big 5″ and the whole animal kingdom. See what the GDA trip was all about in March.

Interact with the community and learn more about SMRC’s work in the field. Spots are filling up faster than we anticipated. Go to the site now and let us know if you want more information!

Great new video about our Global Development Ambassadors trip in March. Take a look and click here to find out how you can join us on our next Ambassadors Trip from September 5-14. Thank you to Alissa Shapiro for her amazing efforts at making this and other films a reality for SMRC!

Having been fortunate enough to receive the opportunity to travel to South Africa with Student Movement for Real Change (SMRC), a DC-based NGO, I was able to witness first-hand the incredible work that they are doing in collaboration with local communities in the province of Manyeleti. SMRC promotes cooperative projects between US undergraduate students interested in development and various villages in rural South Africa.

By employing a thoroughly participative approach and establishing a consistent, long-term presence within the local communities, SMRC has been able to target their most urgent needs to provide those services that are in greatest demand.

We stayed in the community for three days in the homes of the gracious residents of Utah and were able to tour various on-going projects in which SMRC has been involved. We visited several local schools to see if the libraries that had been funded were in fact being used. We went to a health clinic several villages away to observe the facility on which the local clinic, currently under construction, was being modeled. And we were able to meet with several local philanthropists and entrepreneurs who were working in conjunction with SMRC to fund projects, expand infrastructure, and improve the quality of facilities in many of the poorer villages. All of these experiences preceded our two-day visit to a nearby game reserve, where we were able to see and extensively photograph all of the “big five” of Africa (rhino, lion, buffalo, leopard, and elephant), while all the while being reminded of the glaring income inequality from our stint in the village not ten minutes away. In the final summation, it was a sobering but ultimately encouraging glimpse of the complex collage of race relations, inequality, generosity, disease, and joy that is modern South Africa.

The GDA to South Africa was an amazing way to spend my last spring break in college. SMRC provided the GDA participants with the ability to fully immerse in the culture and life style of rural South Africa. While on the GDA we experienced more in a week then most do in a trip for three weeks. During the GDA there is never a moment when you feel like you are wasting your time or you could be doing something else. This had a lot to with the home stay experience. Andrea, Katie, and I stayed in Richard Siwela’s brother’s home, which is across the street from Richard. The house was beautiful and you could tell the family had put a lot of hard work into it. They had four or five bed rooms with nicely tiled floor, a newly renovated kitchen with large counter-tops and a nice sitting area with a TV and couches. They also had a really nice bathroom with a toilet, sink, and bathtub. Unfortunately because of the lack of running water the toilet and sink did not work. The family was so welcoming and was really interesting to talk to about their jobs and daily life. We found out our host was the first women in the community to go to college!

One of the best parts about staying in Uta was that over the few days we were there we really got to know different members of the community. I just remember the first day we arrived we decided to walk as a group over to Shiviti Primary School. When we started walking we had about ten kids from the community walking with us, but the farther we walked the more kids and members of the community joined us. It was also amazing to watch Saul and Megan run into old friends from past trips to South Africa. It was just so exciting to observe the relationships that years of being a part of this community had established. By the time we got to the school we had 25 or so kids walking with us, and they were so excited to show us their school!

The pride they had about their school and their community was remarkable. The school was closed because it was a Sunday, but later in the week we were given the opportunity to go back and visit. When we went back to Shiviti it was late in the afternoon and students had already left for the day. So we decided to go see the library Megan and the interns had worked on. When we walked in the brightly painted room we saw a class of students each with a book quietly reading to themselves. It was almost unbelievable. The library was no longer an SMRC run project but a resource 100% utilized by the school and the students. While talking to the children of Uta, they tell you about their dreams and hopes for the future. Even the answers given by children as young as 8, clearly showed the success of SMRC projects. These children are empowered and believe in their futures, they want to be lawyers, doctors, and teachers. Which is amazing in anof itself, but the truly inspiring thing is that they all want to receive their degrees and then come back and work in their community.

Being an intern for SMRC in DC, I had read a lot about our work. But that never prepared me for what I saw in terms of our impact in the community. But the commitment to change and a future without poverty is two sided, the people in Dixie and Uta have taken it upon themselves to see results and development. This two sided commitment is what makes all the difference.

I got out to South Africa on Saturday with our team of Global Development Ambassadors. It’s been a whirlwind of exciting development and progress. The group arrive to the Uta community on Sunday where we saw a remarkable new structure, complete with a beautiful red roof at the site of the new health clinic that will serve 50,000 people! The clinic, built by our partner The Buffelshoek Trust, who is working closely with the Mpumalanga, Department of Health, have devised a plan that will ensure at least 160 people every day (likely much more!) will receive high quality medical care for their HIV/AIDS, bone fractures, diabetes and other need. Accompanied by the clinic will be an outstanding outreach program to educate the community on this new resource that they have been dreaming of for decades.On Monday we met with DreamFields director John Perlman and area Sports Coordintor, Ralph to visit sites for future soccer fields (picture to all of this are forthcoming) in Hluvukani and Welverdiend. We are delighted that are partners are answering the pressing need to build community spaces that provide pride and support to local youth.

We enjoyed visits that afternoon to Mahlathi Primary school, where we visited a well worn library and met with the acting principal there named Winnie. More action followed, when we went to Samson Sibuyi Primary School in Makrepeni and the Community Center in the village. We saw dozens of children in the courtyard, a tank full of water from the rainwater catchment system built by Michael Oyler during last year’s GDI, and an agriculture project on the grounds.

We visited Shiviti Primary School where children were, by the dozens, reading from books in the Jackie Craven Library SMRC helped build with the local community. We met with folks at the Bakery project and explored possible product diversification as well as discussed future market opportunities. Currently, hundreds of loafs of bread are made and sold in that bakery, but they are just getting started. The work here is remarkably exciting, and that is only a small taste of what is going on. We will share more when we are back in the states. Get ready to see pictures, videos, and more!