Tiny Dhlamini by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. As you approach Snake Park, the waste dumps created by the long-closed gold mines, rise up behind a sea of small houses and shacks. The closer you get, the dustier the air becomes and as you walk past the yards that house goats, chickens and geese, your shoes begin to fill with sand. Walk even further and the sand begins to change colour. Clusters of red start to appear, some dark grey and, eventually, you will notice tinges of green. These are the remnants of heavy metals, left over from decades of mining the land for gold. The sand that blows into the community below, and fills the lungs of every inhabitant, is toxic. It contains the same metals that seep into the ground and contaminate the water and soil, including iron, lead, copper, sulphur and uranium. Research conducted in 2017 by Bench Marks Foundation concluded that the toxic dust is responsible for hundreds of cases of asthma, severe coughing and children born with mental and physical defects. In Johannesburg alone, there are around 240 of these dumps. For thousands of people living downwind from them, it is something that they have learned to live with, a fate that they have had to accept. But there is hope… Tiny Dhlamini is on a mission to rehabilitate the abandoned mine dumps. The areas are vast but Tiny has more than a passion for change, she has a plan. “I want to see the people of Snake Park living right, in a clean environment where there are no impacts from the mines.” Through her work with the Benchmark Foundation, she has learned that sunflowers, bamboo and hibiscus cannabinus plants will clean up the soil. They will detoxify the sand through their roots, whilst simultaneously creating a barrier to stop it from blowing across the neighbouring communities. It’s a simple solution but difficult to implement because, to do so, they really need the collaboration of the government and the support of the gold mines. Tiny works tirelessly campaigning to raise awareness about the issues in Snake Park, engaging authorities and keeping the voices of the community in the minds of the people in power. It’s not just a matter of justice, it’s a labour of love for a community where she doesn’t even live. “I’ve got immense respect for Tiny. She doesn’t have to do it and she doesn't get rewarded. It’s just sheer dedication.” - David Van Wyk, Bench Marks Foundation. Tiny has started a Co-Op called Bambanani (hold each other), with members of the Snake Park community. Together they are looking for ways to source bamboo seeds and a tractor so they can get planting. Working alongside geologists to monitor the chemical density in the land, her dream is to blanket the area in bamboo so that not only will it clean the soil and stop the dust from blowing across the townships below, but will also provide a building resource for the residents. In time she hopes that Snake Park could become a bamboo city, a tourist attraction and an example of rehabilitation. It’s a big dream, but If she succeeds, her hard work could provide clean air and water for generations to come. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Nonhle Mbuthuma by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. During the apartheid era, the five villages of Amadiba were united in their opposition to South Africa’s discriminatory political system. Two decades on, they are divided by a deadly conflict over an Australian company’s plan to open a titanium mine. Nonhle Mbuthuma leads the Amadiba Crisis Committee, which opposes the excavation of dunes and plains along the Wild Coast by an Australian mining company. She fears the project would force villagers off their farms and damage the region’s ecology. “We have told the company many times that we don’t want their mine. How many times do we have to say no?” — Nonhle Mbuthuma The Amadiba chieftain, who is from a less-affected village further inland, supports the mining plan, which claims to have a low impact and bring in revenues of £140m each year. The conflict has led to beatings, threats, and suspicious deaths of members of the Amadiba Crisis Committee, including the 2017 murder of the group’s previous leader Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Rhadebe. Mbuthuma has been warned she is next on the hit list. But she is pushing ahead with a legal challenge that aims to assert the right of consent for indigenous groups. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Sibusiso Zulu by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. In his own words, Sibusiso Zulu is “an ambassador for creativity and social change” and it all began with Sneakers 4 Change… In 2013 Sibu had one pair of sneakers. They had a hole in the side, so he used to stand with one foot behind the other to hide it from the other artists, musicians and skaters who he hung out with on the streets of Maboneng. As a plan to get new shoes for himself and his friends, Sibu approached a local club owner and proposed the idea of hosting an event where people could pay for entry by donating a pair of old sneakers. They received 38 pairs and, after taking a few for himself and his friends, he decided to clean them up and donate them to Twilight Children’s Home. “I felt like I had done something really amazing and the kids were really grateful.” After seeing the effect this had on the kids, his focus quickly shifted from hosting events, to collecting and redistributing used sneakers. He started emailing schools and asking them to encourage the parents to bring in any old sneakers that their kids had outgrown. From the first school, he received 1,000 pairs. “I had taken public transport to go and collect the shoes but when I got there and saw how many there were I had to go home, hire a bakkie and come back the next day.” Since 2013, Sibu estimates that he has redistributed around 12,000 pairs of sneakers to various beneficiaries. Over the last few years, Sibu has started various new ventures through his partnership with Makers Valley in Victoria Yards, Johannesburg. These include poetry sessions, youth expos, and his newest venture Swyft Lab - a clothing swap shop and customisation company that focuses on sustainability, environmental impact, and the circular economy. It’s a win-win situation, providing people with a fresh wardrobe whilst also using local art, design, and craft to prolong the life of clothing. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Manti Maifadi by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. In 2010 Manti Maifadi wrote a children’s book in Sesotho called Tshimong ya Meroho le Naledi (In the Vegetable Garden with Naledi). She was on maternity leave from her job in the National Department of Health as a Medical Scientist, while expecting the birth of her youngest child, Naledi. The book is a fictional story that centres around a vegetable garden and was self-published in 2012. In the same year, Manti and her husband Sam, decided that they wanted to create a real-life ‘vegetable garden’; a physical space where children could come and “walk into the book”, to learn how food grows, roam around barefoot, and engage with the plants and the land. In 2015 they found some land on the outskirts of Pretoria and moved from their city home to the three-hectare plot that they named Naledi Farm. “The idea was to create a centre for teaching and healing. To get people away from the buzz of the city, to unwind and relax.” They started with a simple ‘Harvest Table’ where friends would come once a month to enjoy the food from their garden and listen to the musings of an invited speaker. This soon grew into a more diverse operation that hosted sustainability workshops, children’s camps as well as an events venue and an artist residency programme. Naledi Farm is a business, and there is no getting away from that, but it is an enterprise that aims to change people’s lives. They advocate for sustainable practices that promote self-care, independence and environmental responsibility. “We provide the space where people can breathe a little before going back to the ever-demanding modern world. Hopefully, we inspire them to start their own little patch and grow a few rows of edible gardens. If we can do it, then anyone can do it…If we can inspire one person then our job is done.” Manti is aware that many people are going through a lot, living behind high walls, bombarded by traffic, noise and other inescapable features of urban life that negatively affect their emotional and mental health. Trapped in this concrete jungle, with little to no chance of breaking free. It is the experience and values of her childhood growing up in QwaQwa, in the Free State, that she wants to extend to others. “I don’t remember a day we had to buy vegetables. We were not wealthy but there was always plenty for us to eat from my father’s garden. That was my upbringing.” To advocate for others to have peace in their lives is no small mission, and Manti has made it the centre of her business; a business that wants to heal the world, one busy city dweller at a time. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Janet Simpkins by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Janet Simpkins is a passionate paddler who has competed both locally and internationally and today remains in the sport in an administrative role. Growing up on a 5-acre plot of indigenous forest in the north of Johannesburg set her up for an outdoor life, blessed with fresh air, clean water and an abundance of wildlife. Moving to the suburb of Emmarentia for schooling, she discovered her passion for water sports at Emmarentia Dam’s Dabulamanzi Canoe Club. It wasn’t until Janet and her husband left Gauteng for a KZN coastal lifestyle for their family, that she became acutely aware of the state of the rivers and the growing extent of water pollution - and limited action being taken to combat it. Her children were involved in lifesaving and with a son, and husband still paddling, the personal safety of her loved ones was at risk. Instead of ordering them out of the water, Janet embarked on a campaign to save the rivers in Durban. “This is not my profession. I didn't study anything environmental-based. I’m not a scientist. I was first and foremost a mother and wanted something better for my family. I am so concerned about the world we are leaving for our kids. That’s the driving factor.” It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the polluted rivers. Besides the ‘common’ diarrhoea cases there were also cases of hepatitis being reported. What started as a personal mission driven by the need to protect her family and the watersports that she loved, quickly developed into a campaign that included a broader concern for the environment and communities that relied on the water for their livelihoods. What began as a ‘Save Our Rivers’ campaign and pilot project in 2019, focusing mainly on the uMngeni Catchment, quickly evolved into a more sustainable and formalised structure when Janet registered her non-profit Adopt a River in 2020. Janet realised that to have any impact on an ongoing basis would be unsustainable without funding. As with many similar ventures, the need for sponsorship meant that they had to formalise. The idea behind Adopt-A-River is to engage government and corporations to partner and sponsor the cleanup of small stretches of river. By upskilling and empowering local communities they can allow for multiple grassroots cleanup operations using sustainable, community-based solutions to regenerate healthy waterways. “Recognising that there are huge problems that I cannot solve alone and by taking small stretches of a waterway, focusing on small areas, you can make meaningful changes. If you concentrate on community and you start introducing jobs, education and upliftment it can shine through and when you get it right in one area it can spread.” Whilst Janet is clearly tackling the scale of the pollution by focusing on multiple small cleanups, she is aware that the problem will not be solved simply by cleaning up waste on an ongoing basis. The problem, she clearly states, goes back to us as consumers and our waste responsibility, the products that we are putting down our drains for example, what we are sending to landfill, and the impact it has once it has left our homes. By her own admission, she has become a “recycler on steroids” and she understands the need to encourage others to do the same. But in the meantime Janet is doing what she can to provide cleaner and healthier waterways for the environment, her sports-loving friends, as well as the much wider community who rely on the rivers as a vital resource. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Gcina & Thato by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Thato and Gcina met when he was making a documentary about her father; the legend of Alexandra Township, Linda Twala (also featured in The Actionists). As well as meeting his future wife, the encounter shifted his life perspective from the importance of making money to the importance of helping others. “Sometimes it’s not just about trying to be at the top and having expensive cars, It became more important to me to help other people” Together they started an organisation called Ntsika Ye Sizwesethu which runs a reading club and a soup kitchen in Alexandra. Their passion is for people and upliftment, a responsibility that was instilled in Gcina as a young child. From the age of seven, she would accompany her father in his outreach engagements, growing in confidence as she learned, to the point where he would make speak for him at public engagements. As the last-born child of a man who has dedicated himself to helping others, it’s not surprising that Gcina is passionate about creating positive change in her community and why her priority is to carry on her father’s legacy. The soup kitchen operates out of the GNF church (God Never Fails) every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They serve food at 9 am and 2 pm, mostly to children from the surrounding schools, shack squatters and recyclers. They estimate that they feed around 700 people each day with the help of 5 volunteers from the church who generously help with the cooking. The food currently comes as a donation from Ladles of Love but resources are limited. They are always looking for further partnerships to provide them with more food donations as ideally, they want to expand the food kitchen to several other locations and provide a mobile feeding service to the elderly. To help expand their operations they are looking for partnerships and donations to help them with petrol, gas and cooking stoves. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Candice Chirwa by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. The self-styled “Minister of Menstruation” knows what it’s like to feel shame about being on her period. From the age of 10, it was a secret that was never discussed at her school, and that all the girls went to great lengths to conceal. “I really did feel like I was going to die. It was as if my childhood had come to an end and I had to mature quickly and hide this thing from everyone for 11 years. Nobody was talking about it.” When she left school Candice knew that she wanted to do something to help others and address issues of gender inequality. She had a background in dramatic arts, debating and public speaking, and the passion to challenge the tired norms that she experienced on a daily basis. “We have to call a period a period. We have to call a vagina a vagina. If you are offended by that then you are offended by biology!” In 2018 Candice founded QRATE, an NPO that gives workshops at schools and workplaces around the country. Their aim is to create a safe, period-positive society that does not regard menstruation as shameful but openly embraces it as a normal part of life. Their workshops are designed to facilitate workplaces, schools and homes in developing more accepting practices which provide support, information and resources in an empowering and affirming way. Through a process that they call ‘Eduliftment’, Candice aims to enhance the critical thinking skills of young people to help them navigate the more difficult parts of growing up. At QRATE they do this through service, education and advocacy. As well as running her NPO, Candice hosts the podcasts “What The Relationship” and “Patriarchy Popcast”. She has also co-authored two books, the latest of which is titled “Flow - The Book About Menstruation”. In 2020 Candice became the Minister of Menstruation and from her position as a social media thought leader she has created a platform to speak openly about periods, advocate for legislative change and to inspire everyone to be period-positive. Given that at least 50% of the population are people who menstruate, that cannot be a bad thing. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Phetole Raseropo by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. In 2019 Phetole and his friend from university, Andile Gcaza, started Evergrow. Initially, it was intended to be a company that manufactured hydroponic farming equipment, but it soon developed into a successful business selling seedlings to farmers. Whilst getting the business going, Phetole worked in the Department of Agriculture consulting with farmers about their crop choices, advising them on how and when to get the best yields. This helped him understand which crops were the most marketable and the level of food insecurity in South Africa. In the Soweto suburb of Tladi, there are a number of derelict school buildings which have been taken over by subsistence farmers to grow vegetables. Half of the land occupied by Evergrow is dedicated to their seedling operation. But the rest is used for their outreach projects. Giving back to the community is important to Phetole, he grew up in the area and he knows the struggles that many people have to put healthy food on the table. “When I think that food actually comes easy on my table…why can’t I make it simple, and also efficient? Access to food is a human right.” As part of their activism, Evergrow invites people from the local community to farm small plots of land around their seedling operation. They give them seedlings to get them started and advise on how and when to plant. They are clear that once the farmers start to sell their produce, they must pay for the next batch of seedlings. They don’t do this to generate more business, the amount of profit from this would be minuscule, but because they want to encourage people to not rely on handouts. Between the plots and the commercial operation, they have developed a community garden as both an educational space and a cost-effective vegetable market. They want to clearly demonstrate that a sustainable, small garden is achievable in Soweto and what better way to do so than by doing it themselves? As we have seen time and time again, Actionism doesn’t have to be completely altruistic. It can be a small, generous gesture that exists alongside your successful business. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Natania Botha by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Six years ago, Natania Botha was walking along a beach on The Bluff, whilst on a trip to Durban. She noticed the environmental centre that was lying vacant and the beach that was covered in plastic litter. The sight of such neglect impacted her so profoundly that she resigned from her job as a marketing executive and dedicated her time to cleaning the beach. Over the coming months, she managed to pull together funding to get the environmental education centre reopened and mobilised two thousand people over a four-day period to clean up the entire beach. This was the first step in her journey as an environmental Actionist. “If I’m going to leave this for someone else to do, then it’s not going to happen. If you have the ability to do something then you have a responsibility to do it.” At the age of sixteen, Natania's father left suddenly and she was forced to support herself and her mother by leaving school and getting a job at Woolworths in Brits. Her first task was to wash one of the store mannequins. It was from this simple experience, at a formative time in her life, that Natania developed a strong emotional connection to mannequins, their form and power as a symbol of life. It was not until many years later that this fascination developed into an artistic endeavour to express humanity's responsibility towards the planet through a bold series of sculptures titled Reflections of Resilience. For the last six months, Natania has disconnected herself from the outside world to tirelessly work in her home studio to create 40 mannequins adorned with mosaics, created from ceramic items collected from around the world. She has sourced thousands of tiles to diligently compose a series of human portraits that stand as a “body of work” to invite humanity to delve into their own experience and explore the connections that envelop them with the natural world. “This collection is entirely dedicated to the river of life. The pattern is free flow. You become an empty vessel where the art reveals itself going through your hands.” Natania wants the work to stand as a conversation starter, to encourage the public to take the topic of climate change more seriously. The message of the work is that we should, as South Africans, be talking about climate change at home and around the braai. We have evidence of extreme weather but most of us feel like it doesn’t immediately impact us, so we don’t engage with it. “I want to get a strong message out there to world leaders that they need to consider the communities that are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, usually the poorest communities.“ Up close, you can see that each piece has been painstakingly assembled; combining colour, shape and pattern to create a unique, anonymous figure. Experienced together, the 40 pieces are an eye-catching statement, and have a power transcending their individuality. Natania’s dream as an artist is to make art worthy of museums and to use her artistic voice to advocate for a harmonious coexistence with Mother Nature. Through her collection of beautiful figures, she has taken her first steps towards doing just that. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate

Kim Houston by Thom Pierce Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. You don't have to be changing the world every day to be an Actionist. Even just once a year is enough. And the world doesn’t have to be the whole world, it can just be the world around you, and the lives of people in your own community. In 2016 Kim Houston lost her baby when she was 6 months pregnant. She had struggled with depression and anxiety before, but the loss pushed her to a whole new depth. “My actual journey started when I lost my baby. That was the most horrific and dark time of my life. Nobody knew how to comfort me.” On her road to recovery, she experienced the inevitable ups and downs. For years she battled to come to terms with what happened until, in 2020, she had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised for 2 weeks. That was 3 years ago and these days Kim will be completely open about the fact that things are not always easy. She still struggles and still has bouts of terrible depression, but now she has decided to talk about it. The one thing that concerned her the most was that in her community in Durban, people didn’t talk about mental health. It was a subject that was swept under the rug and left for each person to deal with on their own. Kim could see people in her community battling, with no way to find help and nobody to talk to. At 3 am one September morning, Kim woke up with an idea. Not just a fragment of an idea but a fully formed, intricate vision of what she needed to do. In her mind, she saw an event in the community hall with guest speakers, music, fancy tableware and a large crowd of people sitting around talking openly about mental health. It was called “The Tea of Hope”. Within two weeks she had planned and organised the entire event, reaching out to friends and family for help, and asking the community for donations of food and equipment. She had guest speakers and musical acts. She put the tickets up for sale to cover some of her own costs, advertising them on Facebook. They sold out in 5 days. “People's lives and eyes were opened to their mental health journey and wellness. That was the end goal. If I could just change one person's perspective on how they view mental health. I wanted to be that person.” The first two Teas of Hope were major successes by anyone's standards, sold-out events that got a community talking openly about mental health issues. So this year Kim will be hosting her third annual Tea of Hope, this time only for Women, on the 29th of October, with a Men’s event in November. She may not have changed the whole world, but Kim Houston has, for one day a year, reached out and offered a safe space to talk, for a community that desperately needs it. Next Item Previous Item Log In About Projects All Projects UDWOSA #PayTheGrants Join Us Blog Print Store Donate CART CART Log In MENU Home All Projects Join Us Blog Print Store Donate