Within Kayamandi, one of the many townships in the Cape Winelands, Nomajama Jikela devotes herself to uplifting her local community in their daily struggles. Since 2006, she has formed an integral part in the local community programme, Love to Give.
“I love to give,” proclaims Nomajama Jikela.
Jikela and Annabel Rosholt, the founder of the Kayamandi-based community programme, Love to Give, met in 2006 when Jikela was interviewed for a junior position at the community programme. Fifteen years later, Jikela serves as an assistant manager and senior community care worker.
Nomajama Jikela, assistant manager and senior community care worker at Love to Give in Kayamandi. PHOTO: Jana Scheepers
Jikela was born in the small town of Cofimvaba in central Eastern Cape. “It was me and my five brothers who were raised by our grandmother […] because my parents moved to Cape Town, in Khayelitsha, to find jobs,” explains Jikela.
“My father was a construction worker, and my mother had her own business […] she sold almost everything […] she was a vendor,” continues Jikela. “In 1998, I moved down to join my parents when I finished matric.”
After relocating, Jikela worked odd jobs, until eventually being employed at Love to Give in 2006, where she works to this day.
Giving a ‘better future’ to struggling parents
Rosholt, with the assistance of her father-in-law, as well as Jikela and Gloria Feleza, community care worker at Love to Give, started the community programme in 2006, according to Jikela.
The community programme began as the Stellenbosch Community Development Programme, says Jikela. It was eventually renamed to ‘Love to Give’, as the community programme’s sole focus is to “give” and also to “show love” to everyone in the Kayamandi community, asserts Jikela.
“Love to Give started out with only two programmes,” said Jikela. These programmes included a community garden, and a project to provide food parcels to pre- and primary school children and their parents, she elaborates.
Love to Give guides community members to “grow”, and to have a “better future”, says Jikela. This is done by assisting parents as well as pre- and primary school children. But Jikela insists that those assisted must be willing to learn.
“[Love to Give] signs six month contracts with especially parents struggling to provide,” explains Jikela. After assessing what they need, a contract is drawn up. This contract stipulates the type of assistance the family will receive; whether it is monthly food parcels, or short courses in small business- or agricultural training, to spur on an attitude of hard work, Jikela says.
“The contract also stipulates that the beneficiary needs to attend two morning sessions per week at our centre in order to get food parcels,” explains Karen Ross, sustainable livelihoods manager at Love to Give, per email to MatieMedia.
These morning sessions include working in the garden, and gaining gardening knowledge, attending support groups, or attending available short courses, to build better lives once the six-month contract ends, Ross elaborates.
After six months, the beneficiary exits the programme, but still has access to most of the services Love to Give has to offer.
“All of these offerings are also available to extended family members,” says Ross.
“We [Love to Give] support approximately 240 families per year with food parcels and assistance to become financially self-sufficient. Whilst only one member of the family attends sessions at the centre, all extended family members have access to the courses on offer, CV [curriculum vitaes] writing, small business assistance, access to computers and wifi to do job searches and apply for further studies,” Ross explains.
“The support we [Love to Give] get from the community is big,” says Jikela. “They support us too much, and we can’t always help everyone. But we try.”
Caring for children in Kayamandi
Support for pre- and primary school children, especially those of Ikaya- and Kayamandi Primary School, is also an integral part of the work Love to Give does, explains Jikela.
“Before Covid-19, we did twice yearly anthropometric screenings at both of the primary schools, which could identify the malnourished children,” says Ross. “Any hungry child would come to us during their break for a snack and we would ensure that those [primary school children] who were malnourished also got some porridge in the morning. We would also get referrals from the teachers as we have strong relationships with both primary schools.”
However, since March 2020, when Covid-19 broke out in South Africa, Love to Give had to adjust their operations, says Ross.
To limit physical contact, Love to Give doesn’t visit primary schools in Kayamandi at the moment, explains Jikela. The schools will now notify the organisation of children who are struggling.
Assistance is then provided in the form of “food parcels the children can take to school, as well as academic support at our [Love to Give] after care programme”, explains Jikela.
The Love to Give website states that the organisation provides a nourishing meal to an average of 2 000 children daily.
Jikela says additional nutritional surveys are conducted upon all pre- and primary school children coming to Love to Give to “identify children who are malnourished”. Such children will then be provided with extra food.
Book-sharing is another service provisioned to children, says Jikela. “Our facilitators run workshops with mothers and other caregivers as well as teachers from the local crèches on how to effectively share books with small children,” according to the Love to Give website.
Love to Give has also opened up a library providing both isiXhosa and English books which encourages children to read at home, and this “improves their vocabulary and thinking skills”, adds Jikela.
An illustration stipulating the successes of Love to Give during the last year. INFOGRAPHIC: Jana Scheepers
Serving the township community
Over the years she fell in love with her job, says Jikela. “Getting to know different people, cultures […] and to be able to share knowledge with beneficiaries and colleagues is wonderful. I have learnt a lot from working here [at Love to Give].”
Jikela finds her job “very rewarding,” as they help many different people, with different needs on a daily basis. But, it can also be demanding.
“The worst days are those when I can’t help all people coming here [to Love to Give] due to too little money or not enough food parcels,” says Jikela. Another challenging aspect of Jikela’s vocation is seeing children who suffer from malnutrition, or who are not attending school. Some children also lack birth certificates, or resort to crime as a livelihood for themselves and their family. “Nothing can be done about it if the children, and their parents, do not want help,” Jikela says.
Nomajama Jikela and Gloria Feleza, a senior community care worker at Love to Give, in the community vegetable garden maintained and utilized by the program’s beneficiaries. PHOTO: Jana Scheepers
A family life
Jikela lives in Khayelitsha with her three children, and travels to work every day.
“My eldest is studying business management at the College of Cape Town, and the other two are still in school,” continues Jikela.
Jikela believes herself to be a patient, open-minded person who works well in group settings, and can adeptly handle conflict. These personal attributes, according to Jikela, enable her to manage most challenges at work.
“I deal with a new thing everyday, which enables me to learn something new every day […] and excites me to learn new things,” Jikela says.