It’s thanks to you says Ukuthunga

 “It is only small in that you may not have heard of us before,” says Annelle Whyte, Ukuthunga board member. “But it is huge in its impact on the lives of 60 unemployed women in Mpumalanga. In the lives of the broader network of people it supports too.”

Whyte goes on to talk about the lesson of the pandemic’s furore, which is something the women of Ukuthunga learned a long time ago: to live presently. “Where lockdown has eliminated aspects of choice and opportunity (feeling at times like an imposition on civil liberty) it has also created a fast understanding of living, for now, day to day. We are remembering the importance of community; and perhaps, abruptly confronting our very own disconnection from it,” she says.

Juliana Walters, co-founder of Ukuthunga, shares, “We were humbly established five years ago while I was doing outreach work at an orphanage in the community of Msholozi, on the outskirts of White River. Our group of five women, who joined to learn a new skill, and create a sense of worth and belonging, grew to 60 almost overnight.

“Passion, hard work, and dedication we had (and still have) in spades. We needed to turn our attention to finding channels and markets through which we could sell our ever-mounting handmade artisanal crocheted creations. To create income for Ukuthunga.” Ukuthunga found a home in the travel and tourism sector.

Most of the revenue came from visitors to the country, wanting to take authentic, handmade, “easy-to-fit in their luggage” gifts home. “Although it has been immensely sad, unjust even, to watch our bountiful and buoyant travel and tourism industry haemorrhage during this time, Ukuthunga has been incredibly moved by the efforts of our customers within it to try and help keep us alive, too. Its promise to take this enterprise with them on its journey to resurrection in (the hopefully near) future,” Walters continues.

Ukuthunga has had to largely call off existing stock to fulfil orders, which flatlined at the start of lockdown. “As the dream of finding employment seemed further distant, we realised we had to innovate. Innovate to keep breathing. Our breaths remain gasps for now, but we have hope, we always have.

The Ukuthunga team knows what can come from that. We had marginal savings for a rainy day, disbursed over the past four months. During this time we have pivoted our business to accommodate sales online, have partnered with another socially minded and conscious business in the United States called Handicraft Soul and negotiated courier agreements to ensure door to door delivery,” says board member, group matriarch (and formally trained teacher),

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Leah Mavimbela. Ukuthunga has also made connections with designers and other small businesses to brainstorm new products and designs that lend better to the home interior space, while still focusing on building a sales pipeline for its toy range. It has been creative in approaching local businesses and even medical practices that it had not considered before.

The corporates have come to the party too. First National Bank has been entirely supportive of the venture. Not only in giving it access to a business banking account, but also by including Ukuthunga as keynote speakers at its regional Mpumalanga business breakfasts, through which it garnered new leads and business.

“Our community at home, in Mpumalanga, an agricultural mecca and leading producer of macadamia nuts, and home of safari and the Kruger National Park, has been nothing short of incredible. We have been gifted a three-year lease on a retail space in White River by the Christie Group, which will serve as a much-needed storeroom, workshop area, office, and shop. Watch this space!” says Whyte. A local not-for-profit organisation,

Giving Back 2 our Community, has made true the dream of bringing the workspace space to life (the women had been working out of shanties, in fields and under trees till now). “Using the donated money, we were able to put it to use by kitting the store out with desks, shelves, computers, and a long list of other necessities to take our business to the next level” concludes Whyte.