“A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.”
Amanda Ntombela
Amanda, a caring and intelligent young women, was a shy and lonely kid. Her father passed away before she was born, and she was raised by her grandmother and mother. As a lone child in her early teens, she went through a very difficult and painful period of suffering and grieving after her grandmother, to whom she was very close, died in front of her eyes. When her mother also fell sick Amanda was left to fend for herself.
She found relief from the pain walking in the green hills above her town. Whilst at high school she came out of her shell when she initiated an after-school programme to help young children in the township who had reading and writing difficulties. From that she grew up to become a volunteer at the Mpophomeni Conservation Kids Club where she organises for the kids educational activities and nature walks. She recently started marketing and business studies.
“Lose yourself to find yourself, for the wilderness is your first home. The journey with the Sisters of the Wilderness was like a sign from the universe. I have had an idea that nature was the key but I really didn’t know that it was a tool, a map to self-discovery, for I didn’t think I was lost. This experience have changed my sense of view of everything, of myself and of my surroundings.”
Wendy Mkhwanaza
Wendy Mkhwanaza is from Mooi River in KwaZulu-Natal. She went to school at King's School and finished at Nottingham Road Combined School in KwaZulu-Natal. She is passionate about nature and became a leader in the Environmental Club at school.
Wendy faced very difficult time, losing her mother to whom she was much attached, and having an unexpected pregnancy at a young age. She has a four years old daughter and she lives with her grandmother in Mpophomeni.
“I have always wanted to camp around wild areas where there are wild animals. I have been wanting to see how people lived in wild area with no toilet, electricity or beds. I also want to learn about being a proper leader so that one day I can be one too. I am a nature-born girl, and I can’t wait to go and learn more things and come back and lead my community and show them how we can protect and improve our land.”
Thembani Mdunge
Thembani is from Sweetwaters, a semi-rural area in Hilton, in the Natal Midlands. She and her sister grew up in deep poverty when their mum was ill and couldn’t support them and their father wasn’t around. She started working as a domestic worker at an early age and recently, with the support of her boss, started an administrative course and hopes to be promoted in her workplace and become an office manager.
She lives with her sister in a small dwelling in Sweetwaters. She is a faithful Shembe church-goer and her dream is to start a small bead-making business and school. Beadwork was a skill she learnt from her late mother.
Andile Nxumalo
Andile is from Umlazi, Durban. She grew up with her mother and later a step-father. She comes from a poor homestead and she is bright and ambitious. She experienced great difficulties in her life due to her mother falling ill. She had an unplanned pregnancy and she has a young daughter who is looked after by her mum.
She is now studying and working at the Natal Midlands Community College and plans to go to university next year.
“‘I AM FREE’
The weapons formed against
Did not prosper, here I am
Standing and I am much stronger
I will never fall again, I’ve learnt
To walk proper, because I am
Free, myself has freed me.”
Nokuphila Cele
Nokuphila grew up in Mpophomeni in a single-parent household, with her mother, sister and brother. Nokuphila had two unexpected pregnancies at a young age. One of her daughters passed away only few weeks after birth, the other child is being raised with support from an aunt.
Nokuphila’s dream is to become a professional chef. She is very independent and decided to leave home to see if she can make her own living. She was trained in a hotel in Durban and she is now looking to start her own small food business.
Lihle Mbokazi
Lihle is an experienced wilderness guide, originally from KwaMashu near Durban. She was the first black woman to graduate from the Wilderness Leadership School in 2005, but her journey was not without difficulties and she is still facing tremendous challenges on the path she chose. Daughter of a single mother who earned a living as a domestic worker, and one of seven siblings, Lihle’s early years were poverty stricken and often scary.
Growing up during Apartheid she witnessed violence and oppression. Nature found her as a young child visiting family in rural KwaZulu-Natal. It was on these journeys where her soul found peace away from the difficulties of everyday life. Her training as a wilderness guide was a life-changing experience and instilled in her resilience and leadership skills.
Her work is now focused on sharing her knowledge of the wilderness with those who can benefit from its healing powers most, young people from underprivileged background.
Janet Frangs
Co-leading the trail with Lihle is Janet Frangs, a qualified nature guide of many years. Janet has a lifelong love affair with Nature and feels more comfortable under the stars in the wilderness than within four walls. She is guided by the ancient wisdom held in the rocks, the rivers and the trees and uses her intuition to deliver a deep experience for the people she takes on wilderness journeys. Animal encounters are gentle and respectful, mindful of the fact that we are no more or less but all part of the same circle of life.
Janet is also a Body Talk practitioner, meditation teacher and Reiki Master, committed to reawakening the realisation of our oneness with all of life.
Bongimpilo Zondi
Zondi is a wilderness guide with the Wilderness Leadership School in Durban. He grew up in the KwaZulu’s midlands and worked as a driver / helper to Dr Ian Player. Dr Player realised the potential in young Zondi and sent him on a wilderness training course, and Zondi has since became a lead guide at the wilderness school.
He dedicates his life to giving people, young and old, an opportunity to experience wilderness and share with them deep nature wisdom drawn from his Zulu culture and from the teachings of Dr Player.