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HIVAN's Phumzile Ndlovu honoured with Katherine Fleming International Development Award
Phumzile Ndlovu. HIVAN September 2006.
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HIVAN's Phumzile Ndlovu was recently honoured with the Katherine Fleming International Development Award.
This award was established in 2000 to preserve the memory of St Francis Xavier Alumna Katie Fleming who died in May 1999. Katie dedicated her life's work to overcoming child poverty in Africa. She made her career at the United Nations Children's Fund, where she was an energetic and well-loved colleague. Her intelligence, clarity of vision, commitment to human rights and defense of those rights on behalf of children everywhere brought her steadily to jobs of increasing responsibility. In Tanzania, her fourth posting, she was Unicef's deputy representative. The Award was established by her St Francis Xavier classmates (1984 - 1986) who knew and loved Katie and valued the work to which she dedicated her life. The award grants a bursary each year to a deserving student from Africa to attend a programme at the Coady International Institute. The Coady programmes enhance the managerial, organizational, and leadership skills of development workers from around the world. Special consideration is given to women who, like Katie, are leaders in their communities.
Phumzile spoke at her recent Award ceremony and a copy of her speech can be read below:
Sanibonani/Hello All. Mr. & Mrs. Fleming and all of the Fleming family here today, I thank you for being a good example in the world by respecting the vision of your daughter Katie. Often we forget about our people when they are gone. What you have done is what the Africans do because we believe that when our family member dies it is only the body that goes to the earth, but the spirit is within us. On behalf of all the women here at Coady and back home in our countries, I thank you for putting your trust in all the women of Africa, and the hope that you have for Africa. If I was at home in South Africa I would say ?“Wathint?’ abafazi wathint?’ imbokodwe.?” This is a South African proverb praising women, meaning ?“when you touch women you touch a grinding stone.?”
Special greeting to Katie?’s friends, Dave and Kevin, thank you for taking a stand by holding on to Katie?’s vision and connect it with your own vision for the better future of Africa. I say this because when you give power to a woman, you give power and liberty to the whole world.
Friends of Coady ?– thank you for making this happen with all of your contributions ?– they are not in vain they mean a lot to us. We are here because of the commitment you have to the Coady Institute.
University President Dr. Sean Riley and Mary Coyle, Director of the Coady International Institute. I have copied both of your styles of leadership. Young people need leaders who are approachable, very wise and down to earth.
Coady Staff. You have formed the mentality and the attitude in me to believe in diversity of leadership.
My colleagues of the Coady Diploma program. I am receiving this award on behalf of all of us. Being among you has enhanced my leadership skills.
Martha, My best friend ?– I am also here because of you and your family foundation.
I am here because South Africa has the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the world. By the end of 2005, in a country of 46 million, there were five and a half million people living with HIV, and almost 1,000 AIDS deaths occurring every day, according to UNAIDS estimates. I work in the rural, remote community of Kwazulu Natal called Okhahlamba Drakensberg ?– whose population is 150 thousand. The unemployment rate is 60 percent; many household incomes survive on the old age grant for the elderly.
I came here because I wanted to learn how to extend hope in my country and in my community as we are attacked by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has caused massive daily deaths, hunger and children who do not have parents.
I am here to learn how to revive our culture and tradition in our society and value the beauty of humanity ubuntu, by ubuntu I refer to women the mothers who are carrying the responsibility of the earth in their hands. I am here because I want to increase the volume of the voices for the women and children in my community. I want to protect my land, our mountains and the rivers in a time of moaning/grieving in our villages.
Coady has risen above my expectations by giving my community, through me, and all other community leaders studying here at Coady, very applicable education and skills to apply in any form of developmental approach.
My work just like Katie Fleming?’s, whose life this award celebrates, is my passion. It is to give hope, to love, to connect, to listen and reflect and to be the voice for my community and my country. As a Home Based Care Program coordinator for the Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking, my role is to train 70 women volunteers who go into people homes, teaching them how to care for their terminally ill family members. I am also documenting the stories of the people who are living with HIV/AIDS and trying to understand how my community perceives HIV/AIDS. My organization?’s goal is to create a relationship with the traditional healers and the Primary Health Care system of South Africa.
My community has taken ownership of the health of its people.
What motivates me? It is the cry of my people who live in poverty, lacking education; my brothers and sisters living with HIV/AIDS and children who are abused and the grandmothers who are left to care for their own grandchildren, rather than being cared for themselves; their cry and hidden voices that seek justice and freedom for the benefit of all society. However we cannot do this work alone. My creator and the earth give me the wisdom and nourishment to move forward when I'm in agony, longing for social justice and social change for my people.
My brother, a Pastor, lost his wife to AIDS last year. He has helped many people by sharing his story as a Pastor. He has helped break down many barriers, as Pastors and Priests are not usually associated with HIV/AIDS.
What gives me joy is to see a person who was dying of AIDS, coming back to life - to see our mountains, the majestic beauty of the mountains. That is I how I sustain myself.
Dear friends - the world outside is waiting for your hands, your feet, your ears and your voice to work in partnership with the voices of those who cannot speak for themselves, to make change in our society. The reason we are here is to acknowledge Katie's work. So what are we doing about what Katie did? This is all what the Fleming's, the Coady, and other Coady supporters are about, empowering the leaders from all over the world to do justice and affect social change in our communities.
In South Africa, the Zulu culture, at the closing of a ceremony, pay honour to the elders by thanking the Clan members. So to honour the Fleming family, I say:Ngiyabonga nina bakwa Fleming. |
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