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November 16, 2004, The Documentation Project, by Tammie

As the most recent addition to the volunteer team here in South Africa, I have had the pleasure in the last 2 weeks to work on the documentation project in Ndawana. I will tell you that as a member of the fundraising committee back in Edmonton, I often heard about the "documentation project" anytime we were discussing the major projects that Edzimkulu was currently heading up. It all sounded so official and at the same time bureaucratic. I knew at some level that it must be very important but it has taken being here and participating in the process to make me realize the absolute importance of this project to the people of Ndawana.

In some ways Ndawana is not much different than the places we live in Canada. Imagine trying to secure a student loan, mortgage, old age pension or disability pension if no one in your family had identification. No birth certificate, no social insurance card or no health card. Imagine if a child in Canada was suddenly orphaned and no one except his next door neighbor even knew that he existed - maybe the only person that even knew his name. This is what the people of Ndawana face each day. Add to that the extensive poverty, lack of electricity, phones and transportation and all of a sudden the "documentation project" no longer seems of a bureaucratic or official nature but more of a "human" nature.

The documentation project involves Edzimkulu team members going home to home recording who may need identification and identifying who may be eligible for the desperately needed grants that are available through the SA government. More often than not there will be as many as ten people living in a home with six or seven of them without proper identification. These are the same families that are living on 500 Rand per month, the equivalent of $100 CDN. They also tend to be paying school fees. Often these families are entitled to one or two of the grants plus school fee exemptions if they simply had ID.

The success of this one project will be instrumental in fundamentally changing the economics of this village. Assisting the Ndawana people to acquire their necessary documentation is empowering them to change the direction of their lives.

As myself and one of the Edzimkulu home team ventured out to do another day of documentation the experiences were many and varied. As we walked towards one home the ladies rushed into the rondavel and brought out two tattered chairs and set them on the only small patch of shade in the yard so that Sibusiso and I would have a place to sit partially protected from the stifling heat. We were at this particular house for over an hour and they would not hear of taking our coveted shady spot. The people of Ndawana are warm and welcoming and I believe hold great expectations of this process. The information at times is not easily given as it is personal and at times hard to share. When a woman has never known the exact date of her own birth or a grandmother tells you that both the parents of her three grandchildren have died or simply disappeared, these are difficult realities. Yet there is much laughter and pride as the mothers share their children's and grandchildren's special interests and skills. There are apologies for laundry left out and always we are offered the most comfortable seat in the meagre houses. In reality there is little difference between the mothers of Edmonton and the mothers of Ndawana; the families of Edmonton and the families of Ndawana. People, no matter what part of the planet they are from, want the best for their families and are prepared to engage in a process that will make it a reality.

More than anything, this is what makes the documentation project of such a "human" nature and some how less of a bureaucratic nature.

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