by Abo Waganda

Volunteers are regarded as people who willingly work without remuneration. Like everyone else they get up early in the morning to go to work. The difference is that they will not be reimbursed for their labour. Can you imagine yourself getting up in the morning, kicking your warm blankets to travel in what is now a very unfriendly Cape weather to a place where you will not be paid? We have decided to visit these extraordinary people to find out why they put themselves through this.

Volunteer work is looked down upon as being work for the religiously inclined, stupid or backward, grumpy people. I met with Mziwovuyo Mqhingana and Nicolas Commeignes to ask them about their experiences of volunteering at Ikamva youth. I asked them what they thought are about these stereotypes.

Mziwovuyo Qhingana or Mzi as he is known at Ikamva graduated from Chris Hani High School across the road from the Ikamva main office at the end of last year. He experienced personal difficulties that inhibited him from registering at a tertiary institution. "I applied at CPUT and at UWC to study IT, but personal circumstances prevented me from registration, as I came back from the Eastern Cape much later than I wanted to. Now I have to wait for next year." he tells me.

Mzi is at the lab everyday assisting people with faxing, photo-copying, typing and printing of their documents. Those documents are mostly CV's because there is a high rate of unemployment here in Khayelitsha, and people do a lot of CV's to look for work "Most of the people in Khayelitsha can't use a computer. I assist them type and print their CV's free of charge so that they can go look for work. I ask for a small fee of R20 if someone needs me to type the CV for them. From that I get R10 and the other R10 goes to the organisation so that I could help other people with free computer access. That is how I survive".

Mzi says that there is nothing negative about volunteer work. "Some of my friends think that it is a waste of time to come to Ikamva everyday to volunteer. I disagree because I should be studying further anyway and now I have all this time to do nothing. My family is happy that I volunteer instead of sitting at a street corner. Because street corners will ultimately lead to drugs and a life of crime." This is a very important point that he has made because there is a strong perception that the staff at the Ikamva office and the Tuxlab is paid. Most community members do not believe that. "I do not see how someone can wake up in the morning everyday, sometimes in the cold rain to come to Ikamva to volunteer his time and energy free of charge. They must be getting paid!" MamThembu, a frequent Tuxlab user tells me. "I live nearby come here two to three times a week and I always see the young people

Volunteer work has its bad days just like any other work. You sometimes meet colleagues who do not respect you. And there are sometimes moments of craziness where there are disagreements between volunteers. How do you deal with this, I asked? "Ahh yes there are those moments. That is normal because it happens everywhere. But I just ignore them really, because I have learnt that the more I get worked up about it, the worse the disrespect will get. The best thing is to just let it slide.

Before I left Mzi to do his work, I thought I would ask him what he does on his spare time. "I'm a hip hop artist. I rap to try to get the community to hear the message that we are poor but that should not make us lose our dignity and love for fellow men. You can catch him on his website www.reverbnation.com/snarks, MySpace page www.myspace.com/snarkx and his Twitter page www.twitter.com/snarkx. Join his fan club and listen to the art of "Kasi Hop" at its very best. Listen and be blown away by his track "Ntombazana" as well as the remix "Now or Never" featuring his homies Solid Rock and MOP. Mzi uses the surrounding environment, his job as a volunteer and other issues that affect us in the township as an inspiration for his lyrics. "My songs are about what happens here in Makhaza and I hope that my fans can learn something positive from them".

In closing I asked him about something I have seen myself. Sometimes volunteers face very unreasonable demands from the community members they serve, even outside the scope of their work. I am aware of that because I am often there to witness it myself. One lady asked me to babysit her baby for a half an hour whilst she went to fetch her ID book. "Volunteers are human too. We are here to assist the community and asking for no returns. We need to be treated with respect just like everyone else. We are all different human beings, we think differently and speak differently, but we are all the same" he concluded.

So there you have it. Contrary to all the stereotypes out there, volunteers are intelligent, pleasant and helpful people,. Therefore the next time you see one, smile and greet them because they are here to help the community you are a part of.

Nicolas Commeignes' piece will be available as from next week. Watch this space."