I was commissioned by an NGO in South Africa to cover some of their projects and initiatives in rural Lesotho. The NGO facilitates employment for the mining industry in South Africa, but also gets involved in rural and urban development projects, funded by the various mining houses.
The NGO assists mines in fulfilling their corporate and social responsibility roles in the communities in which they operate as well as their labour sending communities.
Communities are serviced at a number of levels including, amongst others, the following;
• Provision of Home Based Care for medically repatriated workers.
• Providing HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness programmes.
• Renovating and/or building new homes for spinal cord injured patients, injured on mines, on behalf of mines.
• Establishment of food security projects including food gardens.
• Rehabilitation of latrines and bore holes.
• Erection of water pumps in rural communities.
• School and community infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation.
• Acts as an implementing agent for Community Work Programmes, and assisting with the initial scoping and implementation of such projects wherever necessary.
A sister company of the NGO (and a Section 21 Non Profit organisation), also assists mines with the drafting and completion of their social and labour plans.
The NGO is also a lead agent in the Community Works Programme and assists Government with the implementation of a number of Community Works Programme projects. They have successfully implemented projects in a variety of communities.
1 - The family of a migrant miner outside their home in the Ha Makhoathi Village, Lesotho.
2 - The NGO’s field agents visit villages in the area for a few reasons: 1/ to identify the number of miners and ex-miners in the village, and who they work/ed for. 2/ identify possible projects in the village and surrounding area that can be activated 3/ use this information to approach the respective mining companies to fund said projects. These visits are firstly held with the community leaders, and then at a village gathering, such as this one at Khotla (office of the chief) - Ha Setho Village, Lesotho
3 - Tseliso is a Spinal Cord Injury patient, as well as a multiple amputee. Through funding from his previous employer and the NGO, Tseliso and his wife Malineo’s house in Ha Makhoathi Village, Lesotho, has been refurbished to accommodate his injuries. Concrete walkways, ramps, and disabled access bathroom and outside toilet modifications have been fitted to enable Tseliso easier access and better quality of life.
4 - Tseliso is a Spinal Cord Injury patient, as well as a multiple amputee. Through funding from his previous employer and the NGO, Tseliso and his wife Malineo’s house in Ha Makhoathi Village, Lesotho, has been refurbished to accommodate his injuries. Concrete walkways, ramps, and disabled access bathroom and outside toilet modifications have been fitted to enable Tseliso easier access and better quality of life.
5 - Hloa Ramerbali an ex-miner, is visited by care supporter Nkotseng Maphatsoe at his home in Ha Leqele Village, Lesotho. Home care supporters from the NGO visit patients suffering from (amongst others) Tuberculosis, Hyper Tension, Spinal Cord Injuries, etc. The first visits are about treatment and educating the patient on warning signs around their condition. They also help with teaching the patient about good nutrition, and establishing keyhole gardens to grow their own food. Once the care supporter is confident that the patient can cope better on their own, the visits are gradually reduced to every three months. During these visits, the patients’ and families’ information is updated via basic cell phones on the ComCare system and, once updated, the information is instantly synchronised to the centralised server.
6 - Mabokang Makleha, whose miner husband recently passed away, is assisted in the paperwork for her claim by Mokhele Sidwell Moletsane, a field representative from the NGO, in Khubetsoana, Lesotho. Surviving spouses and relatives of deceased miners are traced by the NGO. Field Agents then visit the surviving spouse and assist them in completing death claim forms, as well as assisting in gathering the correct documentation to accompany the claim form.
7 - Mankhahle Chaka uses water from a borehole at Kolo Ha Mphaololi Village in Lesotho. The NGO, with funding from the mines, sink boreholes at rural villages where migrant labour is sourced for mines in South Africa.
8 - Potso Sebeta waits to receive his monthly disability payout at the NGO’s bank & cash office in Maseru, Lesotho.
9 - Mathuso Nkunyane, a care supporter for the NGO, gives a health talk every morning to those waiting to withdraw monies from the NGO’s Cash Office in Maseru, Lesotho, alerting the beneficiaries to symptoms of TB thereby initiating TB screening and testing. This forms part of the NGO’s TB awareness programme.
10 - A miner home on leave collects his pay from the NGO’s Cash Office in Maseru, Lesotho. When at the mine, one third of his pay is sent to his home Cash Office for his dependants to access.
