by Gqibelo Dandala, Executive Director, One to One Africa
There exist many versions of idioms and sayings about walking in someone else’s shoes. But none hit home recently as this “Always put yourself in the other’s shoes, if it hurts you, it probably hurts the other too.”
I myself come from rural Eastern Cape. My childhood is peppered with endless memories from annual December holiday visits. From spilling half the bucket of water carried on my head on the way back from the local river to getting in the way of my cousins while ploughing my grandparents’ fields to playing countless rounds of Crazy-8 card game huddled around a single candle.
This past December of 2021, I decided to spend almost a month in rural Eastern Cape, unlike the usual 7-day visits. I knew what I was getting myself into, I knew the place and its challenges, I knew the people and how things were. Or so I thought. Visiting for a very limited period tends to somewhat cloud the true reality of the place, adding an almost quaint halo to the experience. To truly know and understand another’s shoes, one must not only walk in someone else’s shoes, but be present, aware and awake to the journey, able to focus without hurry or distraction. That is what I did for the first time in my life, and with it, the tint of my glasses lost their hue.
During visits to the One To One Africa project site in rural areas, there are many discomforts made bearable by the short period. These discomforts became my reality during the December holiday; from pit toilets, lack of water, lack of internet connectivity, very limited electricity provision to gravel roads with pot holes and queues around bank buildings to access ATMs. Oh reader, please indulge my musings for a second… while a single flush of the toilet uses 6 litres of water, I ‘bathed’ or more accurately cleansed myself, in 3 litres every day. I delayed my first visit to the outside pit toilet by 5 days, but was forced to succumb when it became clear I was unnecessarily risking my digestive health.
I witnessed neighbours discussing how they would improve the “road” (I secretly called it a mud trap) which ran between their houses, so that their vehicles would no longer be stuck in mud on the way to their homes. I encountered cows, sheep and horses outside my doorstep, happily grazing on the grass (hence no needs for mowers). I witnessed blistering hot summer days when staying indoors was the coolest option. I experienced wet, chilly (summer?) days where children walked peacefully in rain and mud. I saw children as young as 5 being sent to stores to buy bread and milk, and upon seeing the horror on my face, locals told me to relax because theirs was a safe community. I saw neighbours coming to ask for water when the local community taps ran dry, as they intermittently did for 24-48 hours at a time. I didn’t watch a second of television nor Netflix, Amazon or any other local or paid television subscription. Instead, I watched and heard the local people.
Thankfully I had no need to access medical facilities, but I watched those who did leave their homes at 6am to ensure that they receive medical attention at local clinics. I witnessed a woman, whose only source of income was a shop selling sweets and chips. I saw local children, borrowing and paying R3500 (£175) to transport her badly wounded son from a local hospital to a facility 100km away where he would receive better medical attention. She then had to (again, first borrow and) pay an additional R180 (£9) to return home. A single return trip R360 (£18) costs over 18% of her monthly income. Yet I also witnessed neighbours pitching in to lend her money because there are no banks, ATMs or such services within the village.
And it led me to realise that there exists a community ebb and flow that one doesn’t see and understand until one lives in that community; being present and without underlying objective to the visit. I got to realise that while many challenges exist for these communities, there also exists great joy, peace and harmony. I realised that often when one comes to such village, rural communities we are so focused on our ‘service’ or ‘mission’ that we often forget to take a moment to truly walk and experience life in their shoes, thus ensuring that the services / good we bring does indeed speak to the needs and priorities of the people we seek to serve. And this realisation made me proud, yet again, to be a member of the One to One Africa team and journey to serving last mile rural communities, because our “localisation” approach by which we recruit, upskill and train local ordinary people to staff our teams ensures that our (team) people ARE in fact the very people our work aims to serve! Join us on the journey to bringing critical primary health care and assistance to the least served rural communities in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
Justice Froneman obtained a B.A. degree from the University of Stellenbosch in 1974 and a LL.B degree from the University of South Africa in 1977.
After completing his pupillage at the Pretoria Bar he commenced practice as an advocate at the Eastern Cape Bar in Grahamstown in 1980. He obtained Senior Counsel status in 1990 and was appointed as a judge to the Eastern Cape High Court in 1994. In 1996 he was appointed as Deputy Judge President of the newly established Labour and Labour Appeal Courts, a post he held until 1999. In 2002 he acted for two terms in the Supreme Court of Appeal. In October 2009 Justice Froneman was appointed to the Constitutional Court.
Froneman was an extraordinary professor in public law at the University of Stellenbosch from 2003 to 2008 during which he participated in the specialised LL.M course in Human Rights by way of annual seminars. During periods of judicial leave he attended Harvard University (1999) and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University (2008) in a visiting capacity. He has been involved in judicial training for new judges over a number of years and has also participated in practical training courses for magistrates, attorneys and advocates.
Rishda oversees the finance function of One to One Africa. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and completed her articles at Ernst & Young Cape Town. She has a range of skills and experience in audit, financial management and corporate finance and across a range of industries, including Financial Services, Energy and Retail. She also has experience working with multi-national clients both in the UK and in South Africa.
Rishda has served on various professional, school and religious boards and committees over the years. After taking a break from her career to raise her children, she decided to utilise her skill set in the NGO sector. She joined the team of One to One Africa as a consultant in July 2019. She also currently serves as a director for the largest animal welfare organisation in the Western Cape.
Madeleine has a Masters in International Development from the University of Birmingham, alongside nine years’ experience working in the International Development sector. She began her career working for a $20 million health organisation to become Senior Business Development Manager and has since utilised this experience to consult for a range of organisations, specialising in strategy development, process and system design, and proposal development. This experience has culminated in her role as Business Development Manager at One to One Africa Children’s Fund.
Rochelle Carelse is an experienced Operational Manager with over 20 years of experience working in the NGO field. She joined One to One Children’s fund Africa, in May 2021 bringing a wealth of experience along in the fields of Finance, Procurement, HR, marketing and HIV operations/research. Before that, Rochelle worked at The Trauma Centre, Workers World, NACOSA , Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation and MES (Mould Empower and Serve).
Rochelle is a member of the South African Institute of Health Care Managers. Her qualifications include Management Certificate through the institute Damellin a further Higher Management Certificate through FPD where she boast cum laude pass mark and various studies of Grant and Cooperative Agreement course. She also has obtained certificates in Grants Policy and Management Training, Budgeting and costing for NPO’s, Fundraising Proposals and Financial aspects. She served on the Board/council of the Church of the Province of South Africa.
Rene Diane is the Impact Manager at One to One Africa. Rene is responsible for all monitoring and evaluation (M&E)-related activities currently focusing on the Enable programme’s transition to digitization.
Rene has over 16 years’ experience in social development and clinical health, working for organisations such Kheth’Impilo, NACOSA, Health & Development Africa and Hope Worldwide South Africa. She has led programme and M&E teams, and provided technical support and research oversight. Capacity development, Health System Strengthening and innovation is at the core of what Rene is passionate about.
Rene has a clinical health background and has worked as a nurse mainly in Botswana and South Africa before starting her career in M&E, capacity building and Health System strengthening. She is a qualified M&E Specialist, Assessor and experienced in digital health for monitoring and research purposes. Rene enjoys getting involved in projects which make a difference in communities and contributes towards social upliftment and social capital.
Dr Lillian Cingo is a South-African British professional nurse, counselling psychologist and honorary doctor.
For the last 8 years, she has been mentoring and fundraising for various HIV charities and NGO’s in South Africa. Prior to this, Dr Lillian was the Manager of the Transet Phelophepha Health-Care Train – a train that takes primary health-care and counselling services to rural South African communities – for over a decade.
Dr Lillian holds Honorary Doctorates from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (South Africa), the Tavistock Centre (United Kingdom), the University of East London (United Kingdom), the University of Willemett (USA) and Rhodes University (South Africa). Dr Lilian also holds a Public Service Award from Liberal Caucus Queens Park (Canada) and a Doctorate of Social Science from the University of Cape Town (South Africa).
Over her career, Dr Lillian Cingo has won over 30 professional awards, including The Golden Key from the International Honour Society and being presented to the Queen as Best Neurological Nurse Specialist in 1975. Most recently, Dr Lillian was chosen as one of South Africa’s 21 icons alongside Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
Patience is a qualified Chartered Accountant with a passion of changing people’s livelihoods through implementation of various projects across the globe.
Over the past 15 years, Patience has been working in local and international organisations implementing education, agriculture, health and business linkages projects where she was responsible for building, leading and developing finance teams, implementing financial systems to optimize the financial performance of companies, risk management, grants management, compliance, pricing proposals and developing budgetary control models.
Patience worked in Zimbabwe for various profit and non-profit organisations. After moving to South Africa, she continued working in senior finance positions in local and global development organisations including DAI where she was responsible for financial management of projects across Africa.
A former Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) South Africa, Network Panel member, Patience holds a BSc Honours from Oxford Brookes University and Masters in Business Leadership (MBL) from University of South Africa. She is a Chartered Accountant of England and Wales (ACA) and a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA).
Emma joined One to One Africa in August 2018 as our Head of Programmes. Emma has been working in the HIV/AIDS field for over 10 years; she has worked at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and at the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape where she also completed her doctoral studies in Public Health in 2017. Previously, Emma was Head of Operations at the Right2Know Campaign overseeing the Finance, Human Resources and fundraising departments as well as the day to day operations of the Campaign.
A former investment banker whose current work is a reflection of her personal passions, Gqibelo lives by the ethos that a life of service is a life well-lived, which is reflected in her work.
A graduate of the University of Cape Town and the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), she founded and ran a non-profit organisation for 15 years prior to joining One To One Africa in August 2021. As such, she is a seasoned leader and executive in the social development space, her previous organisation, Future of the African Daughter (FOTAD) having been publicly acknowledged by Mrs Michelle Obama.
Her work is characterized by her passionate but practical approach to her life and her work, informed by the unusual balance of her professional training in finance and economics, her passion and heart for the development and an almost quixotic enthusiasm and conviction in a better tomorrow for all. She is also a former member of the UN Women Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG) Committee (RSA Multi-country office).
Jonathan Penkin is CEO of Goldman Sachs South Africa as well as the Head of Growth Markets ECM at Goldman Sachs International. Prior to this role, Jonathan was the Co-Head of the Financing Group in Asia Pacific (ex Japan) at Goldman Sachs Asia LLC.
Jonathan gained a BA in Political Science at the University of Cape Town before completing his MA in Political Science (Cum Laude) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also holds a BA in Jurisprudence from University College, Oxford.
Jonathan is a member of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University and a member of the International Council of the New Israel Fund.
Jenny Altschuler is a consultant clinical psychologist and family psychotherapist who has spent much of her professional life working in the public sector, most recently at the Tavistock Clinic, London.
Her work focused on families affected by life limiting illness, trauma and the training of health care professionals.
Jenny now works as an independent psychotherapist as well as supervisor and consultant to medical and mental health professionals working in a wide range of health care settings. She has also written extensively on ways of addressing the challenges that illness and trauma present.
Jenny has been instrumental in setting up our counselling centres in Kosovo, and the training and supervision of the counsellors who work in these centres is a matter of great importance to her.
Jenny also oversaw the clinical aspects of our Israeli-Palestinian trauma healing and Child Resilience projects. Her expertise is particularly relevant in advising on our HIV/AIDS initiatives, including our Expert Patient Programme and the work of PATA (Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa).
Executive Chairman
David is the co-founder of One to One Children’s Fund and the Chair of the Board of Trustees.
David qualified as a Chartered Account in South Africa, before transferring to the UK in 1977 to become Treasurer of Marks & Spencer plc.
Alongside his venture finance interests, David embarked on a career as a social entrepreneur some 25 years ago. He was Chairman of the Refusenik organisation and then co-founded the One to One Project with Rita Eker MBE, which led to the formation of One to One Children’s Fund in 2001, with a mission to relieve the suffering of vulnerable children, wherever there is no government or other support.
This led to the development of our HIV/AIDS support and treatment programmes in South Africa, trauma counselling programmes and day care centres in Kosovo and Israeli/Palestinian resilience building initiatives in the Middle East.
David is also the co-founder and Chairman of Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa (PATA), a network organisation of more than 400 HIV clinics across Africa, sharing best practice and treating more than 100,000 children born with HIV.
David received the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award in 2017 in recognition for his outstanding volunteer work benefitting thousands of vulnerable woman and children. He has also received the WIZO Commitment Award for Entrepreneurship in 2013 for his endeavours in the non-profit sector.