The Power of Networking and Story Telling…..
PADCA mentors rural old age home and helps fly their flag in London!
PADCA, takes great delight in sharing resources with and encouraging and helping grow smaller, less well resourced organisations. Margie van Zyl, PADCA’s CEO, during her 4 year tenure (2004-2008) as National President of SAAHA (the South African Association of Homes for the Aged) developed a special mentoring relationship with ELC Emseni Old Age Home at Rorkes Drift. Emseni’s link with others in the field of ageing through SAAHA has helped them greatly. It is easy to be isolated and feel alone and think you are the only one experiencing certain difficulties and challenges, when you run a facility in the deep rural area – their closest town is Dundee, 50 kms away. The SAAHA network and the mentoring relationship with PADCA through Margie has strengthened over many years of association and cooperation. PADCA firmly believes that sharing of resources, material goods/equipment and expertise, is a blessing that returns tenfold.
Margie’s networks have extended to the global network on ageing through her involvement with IAHSA (the International Association of Homes and Services for Ageing) with which she has been involved for the past 5 years. Her leadership in the field of ageing has led to her recently being invited as the first representative from Africa, to join their International Board of Directors to input into their new strategic direction, of encouraging the involvement of more developing countries into their network. Valuable networking just makes good business sense and is a skill Margie encourages all NGO’s to grow.
Working with Emseni has involved sharing of resources like equipment such as cot beds, walking frames, wheelchairs etc, sharing of expertise through the running of workshops for their board and staff, assisting with funding applications, sharing literature and other relevant information, and generally encouraging and supporting. Margie believes that the power of story telling must never be under estimated. It seemed worthwhile to tell the Emseni story – one of an oasis of care in a deep rural area. The Hasidic proverb says “Give people a fact or an idea and you enlighten their minds; tell them a story and you touch their souls.” Stories create intimacy and relationships and good leaders encourage the spirit. So Margie wanted to try and touch the souls of the IAHSA community and working with the leadership of Emseni - Marygold Mncube the manager and Jabu Ncabindi the administrator of the home, an abstract was written and submitted for consideration for the IAHSA 2009 conference in London. Emseni was invited to attend and share their story. A poster was put together with assistance from a local Maritzburg firm Goodfellows Advertising, funding was sourced and Marygold was able to accompany Margie to the IAHSA conference held in London mid July. A gathering of 700 people from 34 countries, all so passionate about aged care and making a difference in the lives of older people, it was a huge opportunity for international exposure of a small rural home from South Africa.
But there is an amazing twist to this tale (Margie believes it was God’s hand) – just a week before the conference, an Australian family whilst out on holiday in SA, were visiting the battlefields in the Rorkes Drift area, came across a woman walking along a dusty road to work – stopped to chat – heard that this was Jabu going to work at the old age home. The Australian visitor Judy works in aged care in Australia and was also going to the IAHSA conference! Jabu explained that Marygold would be doing a poster presentation there with Margie. What excitement! The outcome has been the twinning of Emseni with the Australian SAGE group, the conference delegates collecting a donation of almost R12 000 for Emseni, Marygold having a wonderful opportunity to grow personally and professionally, and the IAHSA board to strategise about how best to connect more organisations around the world so that more relationships and helping partnerships can be nurtured. PADCA will continue to be proactive in assisting under resourced organisations.
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Margie van Zyl and Marygold Mncube prepare for poster presentation at IAHSA |
The SAAHA delegation at IAHSA, London
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