SA military’s Project Owethu about being a catalyst for change

When I first heard of Project Owethu, which has just begun in the uMhlathuze district of Richards Bay and Empangeni as part of the preparation for this year’s edition of Armed Forces Day (AFD), I was extremely excited.

The initiative, which means ‘ours’ in isiZulu, is an opportunity for the South African National Defence Force to go into the most marginalised communities in this country and bring them back into the mainstream.

We do not do this alone, but in partnership with the relevant arms of government; such as the departments of home affairs, health, agriculture and social development.

Some people might ask why we are doing it and not the departments themselves. The answer is simple: the state’s resources are overstretched and in almost every case centred in the bigger urban areas. It is difficult for them in terms of time, personnel and cost to get into the deep rural areas.

On the flip side, it is just as difficult for the people who live in those areas to get to the towns and cities because of the same reasons; distance, cost and the difficulty of the terrain. Often it is dangerous too, with vulnerable people being preyed on and ambushed by criminals.

What Project Owethu allows us to do is to harness all of these different disciplines in one project; we can bring the departments to the people, but the South African Medical Health Service can also do much of the work ourselves; we can do medical procedures in the field that civilian doctors cannot; like dentistry or cataract operations.

We can get to places that non-military people in vehicles made for the urban environment cannot. And, we can do so safely because we can do so under the armed protection of the other arms of the SANDF, in this case the army.

Project Owethu is about bringing hope, it’s about being a catalyst for change. AFD is about celebrating the diversity, dedication and distinction of our nation’s defence force but, all too often – after the soldiers pack up and leave – the people have difficulty remembering that the parade even took place or why.

AFD has taken place in each of South Africa’s nine provinces since its inception in 2012, rotating to a different one every year. Not once has it reached into the deep rural areas in those provinces. This year it will be different. We are focusing on child-headed households. You will see a lot of them in the deep rural areas.

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We will make sure that the most vulnerable get a chance at life; literally the opportunity to see for those blinded by cataracts, the chance to smile for those with crooked, broken and rotting teeth. We will attend to the needs of their livestock, vaccinating animals against transmissible diseases.

We will help them access their birthright by getting the vital documentation they might never have had, like birth certificates and ID cards so they can get the grants that they are entitled to.

For those who are of a recruiting age, we will encourage them to apply to be part of the two-year military skills development system programme which, in turn, will create breadwinners and transfer skills, so that when they are finished they can either apply to join the regular force or return better equipped to find employment in civilian life.

Project Owethu will not be limited to KZN, nor is it a once-off intervention. We intend for it to become an integral part of AFD.

Project Owethu is not solely a South African Military Health Service initiative or an SANDF project, but one that involves different government departments at differing levels of government from national all the way to provincial, municipal and district as well as the relevant community organisations.

It is particularly important to engage the municipalities because they help us identify particularly vulnerable communities. They know the families who are in dire need, which allows us to target our intervention for the greatest possible impact.

It has been very heartening to see the response of the various provincial government departments in KZN when we briefed them on the launch of Project Owethu.

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Their officials have already reached out with quick interventions of their own, supplying seeds and the implements with which to sow them in some cases and with wheelchairs in others.

The World Health Organisation defines health as a person’s total well-being in terms of their physical, emotional and social needs and it is precisely this which Project Owethu, with its multidisciplinary and multidepartmental approach led by the SAMHS wants to achieve.

This project is very important to me for the simple reason that I am from a deep rural community just like them. I did not have the advantages that my peers growing up in the urban areas had.

Where I grew up, poverty was rife. I know the difficulties of accessing education and healthcare, having to walk long distances to get to either.

I became surgeon-general at a time of great fiscal challenges for the entire SANDF and SAMHS is no different, but I am determined that we do projects like Owethu, because it allows us to sharpen our skills as military medical practitioners and provide even better support for our serving members, their families and our veterans.

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We are looking forward to giving back to our people. We want to let them share in the pride of what we do – and we want to empower and enrich their lives, not just for a week, but forever. After all, this is our defence force.

That’s what Project Owethu literally means and this is our opportunity to give back to you in your time of greatest need.

-Lieutenant-General Maphaha is surgeon-general of the South African National Defence Force.