Please note that Mamelani will be moving offices on April 1^st 2009. Our new offices can be found at Wesley College, 20 Durham Avenue, Salt River. We are in room 7 and 8.

Our new telephone number is 021 448 2725.

We had AGM at our new offices on April 21st at 12pm. 

This book, which is Volume III in the Swiss Human Rights Book series, focuses on the right to health.  The book contains 40 chapters by 60 leading health care practitioners, human rights advocates, health officials, and other authorities in the international right to health movement.  Mamelani has written a chapter titled: Health and Wellness for ALL – Mamelani Projects’ Wellness Programme.

Mamelani facilitators attended a week-long training at the Grail Centre. The training was developed from Paulo Freire's radically different approach to adult education which helped people "to read their reality and write their own history", and motivates them to action that transforms their life situation. The training focussed on techniques from “Training for Transformation” which aims to develop critical consciousness and creativity for community development facilitators.

It was a real learning experience for the facilitators and we are thankful to Derrick and Ntombi for their insight and commitment to building communities from the inside out.

Shamiema Pedro is one of the parents from the Nonoza Education Fund Programme from last year. She has recently graduated from a catering course offered by Job Start (www.jobstart.org.za). She has now decided to start her own small business, selling pies and samoosas in her area. Her and her son participated in the programme last year. They received financial support in the form of transport money and food support. Shamiema has said that doing a cooking course, has been a dream of hers for a long time. Thanks to the skills training course, Shamiema now has the tools to be able to better support her family’s needs.

This is what she had to say at the end of the year: “I am so grateful to Mamelani for this opportunity. It was my dream to be able to cook all these different dishes and I have learnt so much from the course. I can now find work and be able to support my family. I have already started a small business from home. I am so proud of myself. Thank you to Mamelani for giving me this opportunity. You will always be in my heart and my prayers.”

We welcome Susanne Thompson onto the Mamelani team. Susanne is running the Nonoza Education Fund from Zerilda Park Primary School in Lavender Hill. She is a Social Worker and brings with her extensive skills for working with children and family, including play therapy. She has already managed to see over 50 cases since the start of the year and is offering much needed support to learners, parents and even teachers. We welcome her onto our team. It is clear that her energy and compassion will be an asset to the programme.

On December 5^th Mamelani called together its beneficiaries, partners and donors to celebrate its achievements over the last 5 years. This milestone was celebrated through song, dance and moving speeches. Beneficiaries from different programmes were given the opportunity to share with others how Mamelani has supported them in their growth. Partners also spoke about the role Mamelani has played in their organisations. Most importantly, the Mamelani team were given a chance to thank and celebrate all the people who have helped us get to where we are today. We are now entering a new era, and are looking forward to the road that lies ahead. We will be carrying lessons learnt and the strengths of the relationships built into the work that lies ahead.

We are grateful to Urban Harvest for the donations of over 25 beautiful plants (www.urbanharvest.co.za) and Extreem Kwizee (www.extreem.co.za) for assisting us with catering equipment. We are also thankful to the girls from Sakumlandela Primary and Nokuphiwo Jada who sang and danced so beautifully.