Submitted by: Bongiwe Ndakisa
The Kwenzekile Community Development Centre (known fondly as KCDC) in Tsolo (Eastern Cape), brings hope, skills training, employability, and opportunity to rural youth.
Tsolo is the birthplace and home of a South African role model for youth and community development: Mandela-Washington Fellow, Global Ecovillage Network – Africa member, mentor, Community Policing Forum Committee member, African young leaders networker, and wonderfully humorous and warmly engaging Bongiwe Ndakisa, founder and MD of KCDC. Bongi’s personal story is remarkable, and illustrates (in the richest of Xhosa colours emergent from life-giving African soil) that hope lies in some of the most remote of places, and that opportunity, vision, and collaboration result in sustainable growth.
Four sets of eyes and four young hearts were learning early lessons about generosity, love, and the ties that bind all of humanity …
The youngest of five children, Bongi and her brother and sisters were raised by her mother, Sheila Ndakisa, following her husband’s death when Bongi was just two months old. Sheila was a strict disciplinarian; a mother who believed in tough love and a no-nonsense approach to raising children.
Life in the village was materially difficult, especially for a single mother. But with the little she had, Sheila always taught her children that it is important to share; when neighbours were hungry or in need, Sheila would help them wherever possible, despite her own hardships. Four sets of eyes and four young hearts were learning early lessons about generosity, love, and the ties that bind all of humanity … while obeying the rules, of course!
When Bongi was a teenager, her mother became a translator for a missionary couple – Ian and Maryanne Wyllie – who were based in the area. The Wyllies arranged for Bongi to attend computer training, and thus a lifelong passion was born. When the Wyllies left the Eastern Cape, they gifted Bongi a computer. But there was no electricity in the village. Sheila noted her daughter’s passion for technology and computers, and expressed a wish for her child to one day open a computer school to serve other rural youth.
This idea remained with Bongi throughout the following years, as she was navigating her way through her career and the pathways that opened for her. She started volunteering for an organisation where she could work with computers, and then an opportunity opened up (through the Wyllies) to move to Johannesburg and volunteer for a large literacy and school development NGO.
The seed for her mother’s dream was planted, but not yet ready to germinate.
Within a few months, Bongi’s skill, hard work, and obvious capability led to a permanent offer of work at the NGO. She developed a love for sharing her knowledge with other people and took the initiative to train the warehouse staff members, who had limited technology skills, in basic computer skills. The MD of the organisation was supportive, and soon Bongi found herself training newly employed trainers (who were based across the country) in computer skills, as well as providing support to them outside of training. She enjoyed this work. The seed for her mother’s dream was planted, but not yet ready to germinate. During the next eight years, Bongi continued to develop her skills, and spent a year project managing and administering a project for the same NGO in Queenstown – her home province.
Sheila passed away in 2005. Bongi’s elder sister moved to the UK and requested her sister to join her. It seemed like a viable opportunity for spreading her wings. But within nine months of living in the UK, Bongi came to the realisation, “I am an African. I need to go home.” She returned to Johannesburg and was once again offered a job at the NGO, doing Desktop Publishing for the Materials Development department. Bongi proved to be skilled in this work, but something did not feel right. “I loved computers, but I hated DTP. I discovered that I did not enjoy being behind a screen all day. I wanted to work with people; to share my knowledge.” And so the seed of Sheila’s dream began to germinate in Bongi’s heart.
The world was moving fast towards integrating technology into learning and work, and Bongi wanted to water the seed and fulfil her mother’s dream.
She had met a researcher in the UK who was conducting research into the high levels of unemployment among rural youth; research that clearly illustrated that rural youth, even if they had achieved in high school and obtained a Senior Certificate, lacked skills to make them employable. Conversations arose about what to do. Bongi stepped forward: “I’ve got something to offer.” The world was moving fast towards integrating technology into learning and work, and Bongi wanted to water the seed and fulfil her mother’s dream.
In October 2010 she left her job in Johannesburg and returned home to Tsolo. The organisation insisted on viewing her departure as a term of leave; they wanted her back. Using her own savings, Bongi purchased a few computers, and a few more were donated. A modest foundation for a school. But it was a start. A while before, Bongi and her siblings had decided to build a house in the village. The one-roomed building that houses KCDC was built on the same site, and the school was established in her mother’s honour in November 2010.
‘Kwenzekile’ means ‘It has happened.’ Sheila’s dream was realised through Bongi’s will and determination.
The village had no basic public facilities for accessing the internet, or photocopying or printing documents. For a villager in Tsolo or Sidwadweni who wanted to photocopy an ID, the exorbitant cost of R20 taxi fare one way to Umtata (the nearest town), to make one photocopy, was unviable. Bongi observed this need, and for a few months, while preparing to offer classes, KCDC operated as an internet café and printing centre. Friends volunteered to help get the school set up. The first computer class was launched in February 2011, with ten students.
News of the project started gaining momentum in the Eastern Cape, and soon Bongi found that other organisations wanted to partner with KCDC, and wanted the centre to get involved in sports development for youth as well. A prominent NGO in the area, Ikhala Trust, helped with funding and have been working with Bongi and KCDC to some extent ever since. One of the things that impressed partner organisations the most was that Bongi had invested her own savings into starting up the school; she had demonstrated absolute commitment to the project in her personal capacity.
Sheila’s dream, through the seed she planted in her daughter, had surpassed what she could have imagined was possible.
The Global Ecovillage Network – Africa, based in Haga Haga, Eastern Cape, heard about KCDC and invited Bongi to get involved in promoting sustainable eco building, food production, and other aspects of sustainable living. Bongi attended training for a month in Cape Town, where she was invited to volunteer as an IT administrator for the organisation, while promoting some of the eco concepts in the community.
A highlight of Bongi’s experience has been the journey she has walked as a Mandela-Washington Fellow, through the Mandela-Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. The prestigious and competitive international programme invites young leaders from all over African to apply for a six-week leadership training programme at an American university. Five hundred applicants are selected from more than 50 000 applications. Bongi was selected as one of the 500 (“after submitting my application in the final minutes before the deadline!”). She found herself on a long-haul flight to the USA, to spend six weeks at Arizona State University.
Bongi’s pathway in the project was in civic leadership. Of the 500, only 100 were then selected to participate in an eight-week internship following the training. Once again, Bongi found herself in the chosen group. She cites the leadership learning she gained from other young African leaders as absolutely incredible, and as a result she has forged a strong network with other young leaders across Kenya, Senegal, and other countries on the continent, making lifelong friends in the process, while sharing insights on how to contribute most meaningfully in their respective communities.
She visited the Grand Canyon and was addressed by Barack and Michelle Obama during the training. She also visited the Africa American Institute in New York, and met Yvonne Chaka Chaka. Sheila’s dream, through the seed she planted in her daughter, had surpassed what she could have imagined was possible. Bongi returned to Tsolo with even greater enthusiasm and drive to grow KCDC and start to serve even more rural youth.
During this time, the numbers of young people, as well as other community groups, seeking help from KCDC grew. Bongi tries not to turn anyone away. She and her team of volunteers have travelled to some of the most remote parts of the Eastern Cape – Elliotdale and Coffee Bay, where young people have never seen a computer, and are afraid to touch them at first. These remote areas can only be reached in 4X4 vehicles, and laptops and equipment easily get damaged being transported across the terrain to reach the participants who so desperately want to learn.
In Elliotdale there was no electricity until four months prior to KCDC visiting to train learners, and supply was intermittent. They have no paper or data for internet access. KCDC has not given up on them, though. Bongi has noted that technology and access to the internet has opened up the world and enable young people to start seeing the word. She wants to extend this work.
Bongi’s vision has inspired a tradition of volunteers who eagerly serve KCDC. One of the longest-serving volunteers, Esihle Mbusi, who did her own computer training at KCDC in 2011, before serving as an administrator and facilitator for the organisation, says:
“I was privileged to be one of the group that KCDC sent to college. I did my Marketing Management course at East Cape Midlands College in Uitenhage. Through my involvement in KCDC, I have learnt so much about community development and project management, among others. I am so grateful to KCDC for all I have learnt from being a part of this amazing organisation that helps to improve the lives of young people in rural areas. I love what I do at KCDC, but funding is a challenge. KCDC will always be my home.”
Nontyatyambo Pearl Yekela volunteered at KCDC after completing her studies at Walter Sisulu University in 2012. She got involved in helping local youth to solve their daily problems, such as creating youth events and fundraising to buy school uniforms, while helping with administration and course facilitation. Nontyatyambo credits her volunteer work at KCDC for helping her to find a job in Cape Town, where her employers have been very impressed with her initiative and skills she learnt through her involvement with KCDC.
More than 3000 rural students have received training at KCDC to date; many of them have successfully become employed because of the skills they have learnt, which set them apart from others.
Some of the learners who attend computer training at KCDC have dropped out of school. Bongi and her volunteers work tirelessly to get them back into school; they MUST get their matric. More than 3000 rural students have received training at KCDC to date; many of them have successfully become employed because of the skills they have learnt, which set them apart from others. The courses are all SETA-accredited. The project has led to many other positive impacts on the local community – for example, reduction in drug abuse, because the training offers purpose.
Bongi also serves on the local Chief’s Advisory Committee, advising on youth matters. At the annual graduation ceremonies, KCDC does not have to ask … community members come out in full force to donate food for the festivities; there is true ownership of the project.
KCDC has become the ‘go-to’ organisation for all sorts of groups and people seeking help; like her mother, Bongi never turns anyone away; she believes in helping wherever she can. At the time of this interview, a group in Matatiele have requested her help in English skills training for their area; she is trying to find teachers to help them …
The plan for the next five to ten years is to open up centres in other rural areas, to provide skills training to youth. Bongi is already hatching plans to set up a profit-driven arm of the business to generate funding to continue the work; she wants the organisation to become self-sustaining as far as possible, to reach as many young rural people as possible. And she is going to be involved in the next homecoming welcome for Zozibini, the other young woman who put Tsolo on the map. (Bongi organised the first celebration, following the Miss South Africa title; the next one is in conjunction with the government, to celebrate the Miss Universe title.)
How does Bongi feel about the journey she is walking to serve rural youth?
“It’s been a privilege.” She smiles.
