Located 33 kilometres as the crow flies from Nelson Mandela’s birthplace, the Bulungula Incubator (BI) is on the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The area in which the team work is one of the most remote and rural parts of the Mbhashe municipality, which, according to the latest census results, is one of the poorest in South Africa.
Founded by Dave Martin and Réjane Woodroffe, who first arrived in that community in 2004 and worked with the community to open the Bulungula Lodge with the vision of using backpacker/independent tourism as a tool for rural development in a remote African community.
Once the Lodge was established, it was realized that the community would never escape the grinding poverty trap if they focused only on income generation through tourism. Without a school, without clean water, without access to basic health care, their community could not have the minimums needed for living happily and with dignity. This led to the establishment of the BI, a nonprofit, community-based organization.
Please share what inspired the beginning of the incubator and what role has it played in that specific community since it’s establishment. “The rehabilitation of No-Ofisi Primary School was the project that prompted the formal incorporation of the BI in 2007.
At that time the only educational facility available was a collapsed wattle and daub structure, where little teaching of any kind took place. We continued to focus on providing quality education in our community and opened five preschools. But how can you focus on early childhood
education if a third of babies are dying of diarrhoea diseases? How can you keep a population healthy if you live a full-day walk away from the nearest clinic? How can you excel as a student if you struggle to read because of poor-quality schooling?
No single intervention, no ‘silver bullet’, can enable a path out of poverty. We began the organisation as a crisis response to the many challenges our community faced. Now, our projects span from Pre-conception to Career, focusing on transformational impact through incremental change.
Please share what services the Bulungula Incubator offers? “Over time we have steadily built our interventions to span the spectrum of Preconception-to-Career, with four focus areas: Education, Health & Nutrition, Sustainable Livelihoods, and Vibrant Villages.
- Education: We have programmes in Early Childhood Development (ECD) 0-3 at home, and 3-6 at four different ECD Centres; Mathematics and English supplementary through our e-learning iiTablet Tshomiz project at our government schools; and the first ever High School in our area to offer Matric diplomas, and vocational education & training (Job Skills Entrepreneurship Programme).
- Health and nutrition: Our integrated community health programme includes Community Health Workers (Nomakhayas), the Bulungula Health Point, and nutritious school meals.
The programme operates by providing health education and service linkage through community outreach, making use of Nomakhayas who monitor health in accordance with accepted indicators, and advocating for services for the vulnerable.
- Our Bulungula Health Point is an accredited fixed outreach point of Nkayna Clinic. Our two Professionals Nurses provide primary healthcare, including immunizations, ART & chronic medication refills using the Central Chronic Medicines Dispensing and Distribution (CCMDD), acute consultations, and COVID-19 vaccinations.
- At our ECD sites, our Nomakhayas provide six monthly growth monitoring, development milestone assessment, deworming and vitamin A provision, along with annual vision and hearing screening. Each child eats two nutritious hot meals and a snack every day. We provide over 50,000 hot school meals for children 3-6 every year.
- Sustainable livelihoods: Masilime Ngqo, our nursery, sells 6,000 seedlings per month to our community members. Our farmers are trained through an accredited course provided at our Job Skills Entrepreneurship Programme, and sell their produce to local spaza shops and grocery stores.
- Vibrant Villages: Vibrant Villages is particularly aimed at our youth, many of whom have not completed Matric and/or are unemployed. We host sporting tournaments, talent shows, and other fun outreach days. We have a surf-therapy team, which uses an evidence-based curriculum to promote mental and emotional wellness and well-being through surfing.
Our Bulungula Community Radio (BCR) broadcasts from 6am until 12am daily, and employs nine DJs and a Station Manager. Content for the shows is developed with the support of the Bulungula Incubator and includes current news, education and awareness, and (of course!) the hottest jams. Our broadcast reaches over 80 surrounding villages.
Read more, BI project deep-dive
What challenges have you came across in the community you are working at and what measures you had/have to play a role in solving them? “The area was classified as a 'Black Homeland' under Apartheid. As a result, infrastructure development was neglected and communities lacked access to social services. The problems of this neglect continue well into the achievement of democracy. Access to quality education, adequate health care, opportunities for self-development, and employment are of the most challenging in the country”.
Prior to Bulungula Lodge and the BI, there were no other businesses or organisations in the community. Our programmes provide services and support to our community where none existed. Read our organisational impact overview for more information.
How is the organization fighting unemployment in that community. "Our office is located in Nqilieni Village, where our projects operate, and 100% of our employees work locally in the Xhora Mouth Administrative Area. Prior to the opening of the Bulungula Lodge in 2004 and the Bulungula Incubator in 2007, only a handful of local job opportunities existed in the community, and most families relied solely on migrant labour as a source of income. Lack of local opportunity has contributed to the egregious 87% unemployment rate in our municipality.
Today, nearly 90% of our employees are from our community, creating 125 permanent job positions— one-third youth, and 60% female.
Our Job Skills and Entrepreneurship Programme focuses on out-of-school youth and equips them with the necessary knowledge, skill, certification and experience to create productive careers. The hope is that graduates from the programme will create more businesses in the community. These businesses will not only boost the local economy and keep skilled workers in the community but they will also model what kind of businesses can viably exist in our area.
You can read more about how Bulungula Lodge and BI are strengthening economic connectedness in our community here.
What has been your highlight thus far as an organization? “Our goal is to sustainably end poverty in a generation. The incremental and deep impact of our projects is demonstrated by Siyamthanda Mdibanto, read her story.
Our projects prove that change IS possible.
Interview with Sigrid (Siggy) Kite: Content Manager, Bulungula Incubator NPO
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