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Mission of hope
Myrtle Ryan. Sunday Tribune, 01 September 2002. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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On a night in 1991, Jonas Njilo was on his way to the plantation where he worked. A group of people pounced upon him and tied him to a railway track where he lay in terror, waiting for the train that would smash his life ?– he lost both legs and an arm.
The culprits were never found, and that horror incident would probably have relegated Njilo to the human scrap heap. Instead he sits quietly in the sun in front of his hut making rugs for sale, thanks to the Ubuhle Craft Project operating out of Centocow Mission near Creighton.
Centocow which sprawls across a hillside in a pretty valley near Creighton in Southern KwaZulu-Natal is, like many mission stations, involved in a multitude of ways with the local community. Programmes like Friends of St Apollinaris, Zamani Children?’s Centre, Izandla Zothando (hands that love), Ubuhle Craft Project, all operate under the mission?’s umbrella.
They offer a variety of HIV/AIDS programmes, agricultural and crafts training, home visits to the disabled, care for HIV/AIDS orphans, assistance with applying for birth and death certificates (vital in order to receive government aid).
The Zamani Children?’s centre is the focal point for all these outreaches. Here local women make colourful bead bangles, necklaces, corporate badges, quilts and wall hangings depicting life in the area.
Phumlile Dlamini?’s work shows women cutting trees with an axe, collecting firewood, boys chasing rabbits, wild porcupines, the Cape Parrot.
Asked whether she knew this bird was endangered, Dlamini said, ?“There are still lots where I live near Banzini. In the forest, early in the morning and late in the afternoon, we see them flying around?”.
Protas Xaba makes wooden crocodiles and lizards. He hews them roughly with an axe and then has to borrow a knife for finer detail. ?“I do not have my own knife,?” he said simply.
To keep kids occupied and stimulated during the school holidays, they?’re offered an opportunity to learn gumboot dancing. It has proved very popular and the troop is often called on to entertain at hospital functions. Such stories just skim the surface of the caring and support available.
But Zamani Children?’s Centre has another more high-profile distinction. Much of its funding came from the Elton John Foundation. How did such a small centre access these funds?
The charismatic Dr Liz Thomson, the previous medical superintendent, saw the need for a place to care for children affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The dream became a reality last year when the AIDS foundation supplied money to fence a site and build toilets. The volunteers (including a plumber, electrician and painter) from the British organisation Hands Around The World arrived to renovate a dilapidated building. The same organisation approached the Elton John Foundation for funding for building materials.
Centocow?’s history is also fascinating. In 1888 Abbot Francis Pfanner bought a small farm on the banks of the Umzimkulu River and named it after the famous Polish shrine of our Lady of Czestochowa. It soon became known simply as Centocow. |
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