ANSA International Program Blog

We started our first team trip in South Africa by getting acquainted with Cape Town, enjoying lunch hillside above the acacia trees at Rhodes Memorial, ambling the splayed expanse of table mountain, and sipping evening sundowners from the shores of Camps Bay.  Monday morning began the marathon two weeks of meetings, township tours and robust community discussions to get our South Africa partnership off to a highly productive, warm and spirited start.  The staff were fabulous, allowing us to sit in on program updates and talking frankly about their challenges related to food and nutrition.  We toured creches, senior centers, clinics and garden programs, always welcomed with song and smiles (photo courtesy of Patrick Schultz).  We also met with several non-profit organizations with whom Ikamva Labantu works.  We were fortunate to have an  opportunity to thoroughly understand the challenges and opportunities at hand as we begin our work with Ikamva Labantu. 

Outcomes: Our South African partners are at a time of significant evolutionary change.  There is a terrific sense of directional shift, with a broader focus on opportunities within Black Economic Empowerment programs and an extensive review of infrastructural needs in the context of their new multi-purpose center business model.  (Seventeen MPCs are planned, five are already built.)  New CEO Ishrene Davids is gracious and amazing in her compassionate approach to staff and community development.  She gave an eloquent talk to the staff in closing a weeklong series of program meetings, saying, "You have given us your best this week, and most of you have done so in a language that is not your own.  You have been amazing and we thank you.  We may have many languages, but we have only one voice - the voice of love and purpose." 

It's an exciting time, and everyone recognizes there is much to do.  Therefore, our initial partnership plans will focus significantly on core capacity building to ensure sustainability of all programs within the new business model.  The partners agreed to address resource and leadership development and monitoring and evaluation along with health and nutrition programming.  These will be the key building blocks upon which a successful - and truly purpose-focused - partnership is built.  (The monitoring and evaluation framework will be the model we use for Namibia and for the ANSA program overall, so big thanks to AIDS Project Los Angeles for their contributions to this portion of the partnership work!)

And next - see you in Namibia!

Peace to all...Mary