Sewing the seeds of love
Blessing Nyoni lives up to her name, leading the way in one of Durban’s most impoverished communities. She is an under-sung hero fighting to improve the lives of her neighbours in Bhambayi, a shackland bordering the Phoenix settlement established by Mahatma Gandhi when he lived in South Africa.
The poverty there is violent, and Blessing is like a superhero marshalling the forces of good, advancing social cohesion initiatives, feeding disabled people, and organising clean-ups, gardening, and recycling projects.
“Instead of complaining, I said we should do something.”
Waiting for the government was not going to help, so in 2010, Blessing and her neighbours started an initiative to try and make their neighbourhood less vulnerable to drugs, unemployment and teenage pregnancies.
“There are so many social ills in the informal settlements, but if you organise by taking children off the streets and helping them do their homework, you start getting things right. You will start getting to know your neighbour. We change the community by encouraging one another, sitting together, and talking.”
Blessing targeted illegal dumping sites and turned them into vegetable gardens. There are four gardens, and unemployed people tend to the crops.
There are always challenges, but beans and spinach are sprouting where junk was piling up.
“The community built a hall. We did it by ourselves. We do things, however small, because they make people feel less helpless and make a difference.”
The work often takes place in distressing circumstances.
“The community work is made more difficult because we have to deal with other things, mainly lawlessness and crime. There is theft from our vegetable gardens and break-ins at the creche kitchen at night. We spent time and money putting up burglar bars, and my husband and his friends guarded the project at night. It all adds to the stress.
“In December, armed gangsters broke into our home, assaulted us and stole so much. They put a gun to my husband’s head and poured five litres of oil over his head. They they took everything.”
You ask yourself what kind of people would do this: break into a creche, steal food, and destroy what volunteers are doing for the community? Some people are hungry and desperate, but others are brutal and greedy.
“I always have to watch my back,” says Blessing.
“People have been killed by these gangs. But I am resilient. I push for what I believe in.”
In 2021, Blessing was among a multiracial group of community leaders who jointly responded to conflict arising from the riots unleashed when Jacob Zuma was jailed. They established a peace committee and when people posted incendiary racist messages on social media about revenge, the committee preached calm and tolerance. Their joint community response helped fill a leadership void and address service delivery failures in a place where people are embittered by fear and poverty. The fact that Blessing’s volunteer work takes place near the Gandhi settlement has symbolic resonance. His life was about profound transformation; he transcended anger and racism to improve the world. Blessing’s work has changed her life, and “that change started with me.”
