The golden opportunity grabbed with both hands
“Act as an opportunity presents itself.”
Nokwethemba Mnomiya is a project facilitator within Incema Non- Profit Organisation. She joined the organisation in 2019 as an In-service trainee and then after finishing her 18 months within the organisation she then got a position of being a project facilitator in 2021. She brought in skills with qualifications in Management Assistant. She did her first In-service training at Edendale Hospital. Mnomiya brought in her skills acquired from her educational qualifications, experience acquired from previous employers.
I always make sure that I give it my all when I am given an opportunity. In joining Incema I took an opportunity to further my experience and practice which I had gained during my first in-service training at Edendale hospital as a personal assistant and also as secretary.
“When I joined Incema, Incema didn’t have funds in order to survive we had to sell second hand clothes which we call “Jumble sale”, some of those clothes were collected and donated by the former vice chairperson and some were brought in by us as Incema staff. We also sold Chips at the office. The money that we made from selling we kept it for office operations. Even though that was not easy for us as the staff but we got used to it and we ended up enjoying selling those things. By that I learnt that in order to survive and to carry on with life you have to come up with a strategy that will keep you going.
As the time went by Incema finally received funds from WVL and things got better. The NPO was then able to pay staff and with other funds received, the organisation was able to hire someone to assist with cleaning the office. I also got an opportunity to be hired for the Project facilitator position. WVL and Gender Links introduced online trainings for communications since I am the one who was dealing with Incema Social media platforms I ended up going to Johannesburg to attend 4 days learning and sharing training meeting where I learnt a lot.
Working at Incema NPO taught me a lot of things, there are things that I did not know I could do but by working with them and being trained by my supervisor Busi Shezi made me a stronger person and to be ready to face any storms that I might have to face as I am working for an NPO. WVL-SA and Gender links through Global Affairs Canada and Incema gave me the opportunity that I will always be grateful of. During this period since April 2021, I have facilitated more than 20 successful community and behavioural change projects. I have been part of Incema history, development and implementation of projects that I believe will contribute to change.
Through this opportunity, I have gained interest to study project management should an opportunity presents itself. I learnt things I didn’t know about myself as a person, I gained more skills and became more confident as the young lady that grew up in a disadvantaged rural community. I must say the “Golden opportunity was grabbed with both hands”