PERSONAL STORY 4
We interviewed employees from an NGO in South Africa in times of Corona. The date of the interview is the 26th of May, 2020. The whole world is in the middle of a pandemic right now and everything is different from how it used to be. We are curious to how this virus is impacting the NGO's in South Africa.
We are currently working from home. Possibly we can go back to the office soon. We have to make sure that the workplace is suitable for the employees and it suits the measures. Therefore, a staggered work schedule for our NGO is made to make sure that there is enough distance between people and we have to wear masks too.
At the moment the authorities are more focusing on them doing fieldwork which they can analyse after at home. The problem is that the sector of the NGO is put under tourism. Tourism has only been allowed to operate under level 1. They are busy clarifying the difference between tourism and research to the authorities, because you cannot see those things as one merged thing. The cause/problem is that a lot of students and volunteers come to the country to do research. It is probably put under tourism because it holds the same risk factors as tourism. They work in groups and most of the time focus on one specific, allocated area. They have not been able to collect data for two months, but the projects are already running for three years. Due to the data already available not that much research will be lost in these two months.
The NGO has programs for the school children. It is a program that is not binded to a curriculum and therefore does not come with an obligation to make sure the children get that knowledge, so they can pick it up whenever they want. All the education for the rest of the year has been cancelled. They are focussing on the next year to have everything in place. Develop a new program that is more effective. The NGO makes sure they put their energy in helping teachers or offering resources.
The employees do not think it will affect NVT that much. Their biggest worry is the income. The internship program is a big source of income which they now no longer have, because of the virus. They think they will not get interns for the rest of the year, so they need to find other ways of income. This currently is the biggest problem.
They see big changes coming in the organization, renovation wise. They get a new director but it has nothing to do with the crisis. Also they are currently restructuring trying to see what needs to go and what needs to stay.
All of this information is coming from an interview, interviewed on 26 May 2020, retrieved on 1 June 2020.