community reflections

I am Nomfundo Makubalo. I was born and raised here in Hamburg. I have three children: Nobantu, Bonisile and Noluthando.

I remember my grandmother hand sewing me a dress when I was a child. It was so beautiful and pink with a flower. I loved it so much. I knew I wanted to sew like my grandmother one day.

Before Keiskamma Art Project arrived, we were struggling a lot here and life was difficult. I used to just sew at home. What made me join was that I was unemployed. I heard about the Project through women at the Hospice in 2008. They were carrying a cloth with beautiful embroidery on it and I was intrigued. They told me that they got it from a sewing project in the community, and anyone was welcome to work there. So, I went down to the studio by the river and asked for a cloth and I got a small one.

When I started working there, I had a rough idea of how to hold the needle but Nonyama showed me how to hold the needle properly. I started with a small cloth. It was not easy, but eventually I got the hang of it. When I had to turn, I would say to Nonyama, ‘Hold on, we are turning.’ I felt very happy because, when I showed my work, they said it was beautiful and I did a good job and I should continue doing embroidery. I was given a bigger cloth with a cow, and I was happy that they were impressed with my work. I was taught by Zukiswa how to make the bigger one. I had a good time learning because, if you made a mistake, they would help you out.  And they taught me patience for sewing.

After two years working in the Project, I started seeing that I can really sew and do embroidery and I am very happy about that.

The project changed my life a lot. I was such a quiet person, but I saw that it was a fun place. We are always having conversations and laughing the whole day. It helped to get a nice place to work at and to ease the stress levels. I was able to be around a lot of people and learn how different people think.

At last, I could afford to buy food and other things that I need. I could also take my children to school.

Through my work in the Project, I started gaining knowledge about birds and their names and learnt more about nature and flowers. My mindset also changed about health. Before, it was difficult; I was not taking pills. But now I have accepted them.

Something else that is different now is that before women could not work together with men. Men would not cook and wash their laundry. Now it is nice because as a woman you can wake up to a cup of tea.