We had the privilege of receiving insights and knowledge about social welfare from Madam Nosintu Gwebindlala, the Bulungula Chief's Wife, who serves as the founding director of the Nosintu Gwebindlala Foundation and as the Deputy Senior Traditional Leader at Jalamba Traditional Council Elliotdale.
The Impact
As a wife of a Traditional Leader I was always visited by community members in our
“Ikomkhulu” (official
residence of the traditional leader) seeking advice on various issues on social welfare injustices and challenges. In December 2021, the journey to register the Non-Profit Organization which was going to be the vehicle to help the rural communities of Elliotdale – deep rural town in the Eastern Cape which according to
Stats SA it is regarded as the poor of the poorest started. We had noticed how voiceless and marginalized were these rural traditional communities in social welfare injustices and challenges and we decided we will be the
“Voice of Rural Communities”.
In Need Of Support
It has not been an easy journey with funding constraints and understanding the Social Welfare Legislations, knocking on social welfare offices to introduce ourselves and of course to acquire more knowledge about the journey we are embarking on. In the past 24 months we have learnt a lot about social welfare injustices and challenges and have come to realize that it is also a Pandemic and a Generational Challenge that needs to be tackled by all stakeholders. We have also learnt that these challenges are caused by a variety of contributing factors for example lack of awareness, and also negligence by the rural traditional community members and henceforth more voices are needed in this space to help ease the situation and continue to unearth more funding opportunities. Unemployment is also a major contributor to the social welfare challenges, people are just sitting at home with no hope of getting work, however, the natural cycle of children being born everyday is still continuing.
Ask yourself a question, how does an unemployed mother of 4-6 children manages to go to the nearest social welfare office and register the birth of these kids when she is struggling to feed them?? A good example is in my hometown where the cheapest single taxi fare to get to town is R55.00, meaning you have to have R 110.00 for a return trip and more because you have to take your children with you for birth registration And so the journey continues to change these social welfare challenges into social welfare
successes!!!!