Swaziland Community Action Project

In the late summer of 2005 we set out on an adventure of a lifetime to Swaziland. Our mission was a community action project to benefit the rural community of Nkambeni and the Swaziland Scout Association alike. The experiences to be had, and the friendships to be made on the trip would be the sort to truly alter the lives of all who went.

The Thirst For Life project was conceived over two years ago when Dan Wood, an English Scout and Chairman of the British Youth Council, met with Bhekie Metfula, a Scout from Swaziland, at a Jamboree in Uganda. The pair came up with the idea of organising a youth exchange project between their two countries with the objective of helping communities in both. When they both returned home they stayed true to their word and set about making arrangements. From that time the project grew and before long both Dan and Bhekie had each recruited a team of twenty-one young people, all aged between 19 and 25. The British team mostly comprised Scouts from the Avon County area whilst the Swazi team drew upon Scouts from all corners of the country. At this point it was decided that the project in Swaziland would be to build a Scout Site to commemorate the association's centenary year in 2007. As well as the Swaziland Scouts association, the site would be used by the local community in which it was built.

With the teams in place and a clear objective for the project there was still much work to do before we would get to Swaziland. Each member of the British team was expected to make a significant contribution to cover their own costs. In addition we had to collectively fundraise enough money to finance the community action project, not to mention arrange insurance, ensure the health and safety of the group and plan group activities.

All of this was achieved over a period of 18 months. During this time the team met frequently for planning weekends and fundraising activities. The project preparation was carried out using an ethos of shared responsibility that saw every member taking charge of some area of the project. This was a tremendous exercise in the personal development of team members with most people taking on duties that were completely outside of their previous experience. Some of the planning events included training in first aid, basic manual skills and teamwork. This was in addition to Swazi language and culture lessons given to us by Ndoda Dlamini, a Swazi Scout currently living in England.

The other side of the preparation was the fundraising. For this we explored many avenues of grant funding from organisations such as the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council (CYEC). We offered our services for car parking, bag packing in supermarkets, a couple of all night stints inflating hot air balloons as well as corporate and personal sponsorships. We organised many events including a project launch party, a race night and two black tie balls which attracted over 700 people. These were held at to two of the finest venues in Bristol and were attended by people wishing to show support for the project. As time moved along the team became very resourceful at finding ways of generating both the publicity and money that were needed to make the project not only possible, but successful.

In the summer of 2004 two members of the team went on an advanced planning visit to Swaziland. In ten days they managed to secure the donation of a plot of land from the Chief of the Nkambeni region, in the north of the country. They also met with members of the Swazi team, residents of Nkambeni, national Scout officials, Government Ministers and even Prime Minister Themba Dlamini. The visit did much to stimulate the involvement of the Swazi team members as well as provide a vital opportunity to work out the logistics of the trip.

Upon their return the members of the advanced planning visit gave accounts of their trip thus helping to boost enthusiasm amongst the British team. This was a major factor in all pf our fundraising targets being exceeded. By early spring of 2005 the trip was rapidly becoming a reality and all of our thoughts were consumed with preoccupations of Swaziland. This was also a nervous time because all of the team had some responsibility for the project preparations. July, it seemed, would never arrive.

Of course arrive it did, and as we all met at Heathrow the excitement of the team was audible. After making the long and arduous journey to Matsapha via Johannesburg, we finally touched down in Swaziland. We were met by the Swazi team and a few of the British team that had gone on a week ahead to help with the site preparations. It was then that we found out that many of the Swazis didn't believe that we were truly going to turn up in Swaziland. However, their doubts were dispelled when they saw our plane touch down in at Matsapha.

We made it to the site in time to pitch up our tents and eat some dinner before the winter sun set on the southern hemisphere. We spent the last few hours of the day making friends with the twenty-one Swazis and getting to know what would become our second home for the next month. That first night will be forever etched in my memory not just for the shear excitement of finally being in Swaziland with all the people that I had heard so much about, but also for the breathtaking beauty of the night sky. The moon wasn't present for the first few days of our visit so we were fortunate enough to see the most perfect display of stars imaginable.

We awoke the next day and immediately started to explore the site. As we found it the site was a plot of about 10 acres on the side of a hill, with a dirt track running past the bottom. There were no structures and no supply of gas or electricity, but there were two large water tanks that could be filled with river water. The Swazis had spent the month prior to our arrival clearing the land of bushes and long grass. They had made an access road and graded three large steps into the land to provide flat surfaces for a campsite.

Working together over the coming days we set about making home and establishing how we might best develop the piece of land to be of lasting use to both scouts and the local communities. What Swaziland Scouting lacks in financial resources it makes up in spirit and willing recruits. The educational programme that the scouts are capable of delivering is remarkable and could flourish given the right tools. With this in mind it was decided that the site would best be used as a national centre for education of the young people of Swaziland, in particular on matters of HIV/AIDS. To make the site sustainable income would be generated through farming and attracting foreign visitors to use the facilities. In order to achieve this it was clear that the site would need basic sanitation, and facilities for providing food and water for those that will one day use it. A plan was drawn up to provide these things and we started work.

We soon settled into daily life on site and the kind of routine that living in Africa entails. Each day began when the sun rose to the sound of the Swazi gospel singing. Once the designated cooks had provided breakfast for the 40 people based on site we would set to work on various tasks. These inevitably involved clearing, planting, digging, building or fencing. Work would continue on site until just before the sun went down. Despite the Swazi winter being hotter than our British summer, the winter-like daylight hours brought an abrupt stop to work at 5 o'clock each day. At this point the team would wash and gather for an evening meal, hoping that the daily food run had returned successfully from the long trip to Manzini. With stomachs (hopefully) full we would spent the cold evenings huddled around a campfire sharing stories of different cultures and learning about the joys and the woes of life in Africa. Evening meetings had to be held by the dim light of paraffin lamps to discuss the plans for the next day. Almost everyone had some role of responsibility to fulfil so the time for relaxing had to be cherished.

As the days went past the site grew and the hard work began to have a visible effect. People would come from all over the area to see what was new at the now named Bhule Buyezi (Beauty is Coming). Many of us would look forward to the daily visit from some of the local children as they walked to school. Other visitors included the builder's merchants, labourers and local politicians. In working with these people we learnt much about the way Swazi's conduct business - a very different concept for most of us. The constant companionship of the Swazi scouts was invaluable in helping us get by in a foreign culture and helped ease our acceptance into the local community. They also taught us a thing or two about hard labour and coping with the vagaries of 'Swazi time'!

As the month came to a close we took stock of our efforts. We had built permanent accommodation and secure storage facilities with working showers and pit latrines; cultivated land for camping and growing fruit, and fenced it to keep out the marauding Swazi goats. We had installed a functioning borehole to provide clean water and wired the site ready for electricity to be connected. Our activities stimulated many other positives for both the scouts and local community. We forged a partnership with the Swazi water corporation; we had encouraged the prospect of a local shop, thereby reducing the distance local people would need to travel to buy groceries; we had worked with the Swazi Electricity board to speed up the arrival of mains electricity to our site and the surrounding area of Nkambeni.

However, not all of our time was spent grafting. We managed to arrange a couple of trips to schools in the area, affording us an insight into the stark differences of Swazi schooling to that which we received back home. While at one of these schools we took part in the Sports Day competition against the teachers, much to the delight of the pupils. We also had the benefit of spending a weekend in the hospitality of our Swazi hosts when we each went on a home-stay with one of the Swazis. For many this was the experience that made the trip. The chance to see how people live in a country that is so different to ours, but with people so similar, was both humbling and inspiring.

For the last few days of our trip we left the site behind and headed on a journey that would enable us to experience some of the other wonders of Swaziland. We spent time on safari, visited Mbabane, rafted on the Great Usutu River and shopped at the many craft markets. After much hard work on site this was a well-earned reward for the team and was a new experience for many of the Swazi as well as UK Scouts.

The final night reception at the George Tumms hotel, attended by many Swazi politicians and government officials, marked the end of the first chapter of our story and the beginning of the second - the reciprocal leg of the youth exchange. We have pledged to fundraise enough money to bring our new found Swazi friends to Britain in the summer of 2006. The objective will be to work on a similarly worthwhile project in Bristol - something that we already are working towards. Since returning home laden with stories the profile of the project has increased, we already have three new members to the team, all helping us to work towards the return visit. However, having already exhausted many of our fundraising avenues and with the formidable challenge of raising £25,000 - in less than a year - ahead of us, we still have a lot of work to do.