When we moved into our new facility last December, there was a lot to be done. There was a lot that needed to be fixed and a lot that needed to be cleaned. We tackled it slowly, and we tackled it together. We did everything together – directors, staff, students. We scrubbed floors together. We scraped and bleached mold off walls together. We picked out colors and painted walls together. We weeded and hoed and raked and moved dirt and bricks and sheets of tin. Together. Students gave up their school holiday to work in the hot sun to make the youth center their home for the next school year. Staff worked double and triple time. Nearly a year later, we’re seeing what happens when you do things…together.
During a school holiday a few weeks ago, Ubuntu Youth staff attended a conference together, making it impossible for a staff member to tend to the growing Ubuntu Youth garden. The class president, Dube, agreed to take on the responsibility of watering the garden while staff was gone. Little did we know the plan he had in mind.
Three weeks later when we returned to the Ubuntu Youth Center, we returned to a flourishing garden. We thanked Dube for his hard work, and he refused to take all of the credit. We found out he had personally gone to every student’s house and explained the importance of taking care of the youth center during the school holiday. All of the students created a rotational schedule among themselves to spend time in groups at the center each day watering the vegetables and plants, picking up trash, checking the fence lines, and making sure all doors and windows were secure. Teenagers did this. Kids. And they did it without prodding from an adult or staff member. Many walked multiple kilometers for their visit.
When we found out what happened while we were gone, we were humbled and elated. There’s a difference in building something for a community or building something with a community. Ubuntu Youth was built with a community that is now protective of the project. Our community takes ownership in our project and as a nonprofit, that is one of the hardest things to achieve.
When you build something FOR someone, you are investing in a project. When you build something WITH someone, you are investing in people. People trump projects every time.
UBUNTU YOUTH BLOG 