Christel Hermann (CH): Thank you Thabo for making yourself available for this interview! Can you please introduce yourself: where do you live? With whom do you live together? In what kind of community do you live? How old are you and what was your dream career when you left school?
Thabo: My name is Thabo Samuel Matlhole. I am 33 years old. I live in Ntsweletsoku village (which is around 20 km from Zeerust, a small town in the Northwest.) I live with my aunt and cousins. In 2009 I finished my Matric but had no chance to further my education. My dream career was to become a businessman.
CH: Since when are you working as a peer educator? Who invited you? What did you do before? How has being a peer educator shaped your life? What have you learned through being a peer educator about yourself and your own abilities?
Thabo: In 2009 a peer educator invited me to join Tshepanang and come for a training workshop. This really changed my life in many ways. During the workshop I had no idea how it would be standing in front of children teaching them. In January 2010 I started teaching at Ntsweletsoku Primary School: It was scary for me in the beginning, I asked myself a lot of questions: Will they accept me? Will they listen to my teaching? Literally shaking, I moved up and down the classroom, so that they would not realize how scared I was. But to my surprise, they accepted me very well. Over time I won their trust. There was no need to be strict with them. After 12 years of experience, I feel comfortable, and I like teaching. Gaining confidence as a peer educator, I also benefitted from being at school. The principal offered us peer educators to use the computers and laptops. We all did not have any IT skills and over time I learned a lot. In between I also worked in an internet café where these skills helped me to increase the income of the household.
CH: What was the reason to apply for doing the project management course? Which expectations do you have regarding becoming a prospective leader in Tsibogang? Do you have any experience overseeing others?
Thabo: Over these years being a peer educator, I also learned leadership skills. Communication is a key area in leadership. That is what I have learned over the years. Since 2016 I am the regional organizer of Tshepanang in the Lehurutshe area and must manage all tasks related to the 28 peer educators in our region. This experience gave me confidence to apply for training in the project management of Tsibogang. If I would be chosen to become the Tshepanang project manager I would like to do my utmost best so that the peer educators get a better stipend. This is very much dependent on funders. Another idea is to broaden the curriculum we are teaching in schools: depending on funding, it would be great to do outings with the learners, to give them the chance to do a First Aid course so that they can gain more skills than what is offered at school.
CH: Let’s assume you would be chosen to become the project manager of Tshepanang: what kind of difficulties would you expect? How would your co-peer educators change towards you? I guess some of them are your friends: how would you feel being their supervisor?
Thabo: The biggest challenge, if I would be given the task to be the Tshepanang project manager, would be to manage the financial affairs: to set up a budget and stick to it and to oversee the constraints. Another challenging task would be to be accountable for what is happening in the action group. There are always people who do not want to follow the rules or who challenge the leadership. I expect that at Tshepanang some peer educators will support me, others will undermine me. If I would be chosen to become the project manager of Tshepanang, I would feel immensely proud.
Christel Hermann: Thank you for the interview, Thabo, I wish you all the best for the coming months in the project management course.