Last Mile communities are literally villages that are furthest from the main tar roads (tarmacked roads). Tar roads are a linkage to urbanisation, and by default resources, development and all that that represents. Conversely, distance from tar roads correlates with impoverishment; the greater the distance between a community and a tar road, the more severe the impoverishment.

With Last Mile communities, there are no services, no development, no employment, just about nothing. We serve such Last Mile communities.

The natural, untouched beauty of the villages belie the abject poverty therein. The abject poverty belies the strength and resilience of the women in these communities, ordinary women we have trained to become Mentor Mothers, who are effectively community health workers.

The smiles on their faces don’t reflect the harsh realities of their daily work, walking many kilometres in harsh conditions to go door-to-door to each and every household in the village, bringing health education and advice to those households, their bright green shirts have become bright beacons of hope within the communities. The challenges they face in their work demand that innovation become par for the course.

On her most recent visit, Gqibelo Dandala, Executive Director of One to One Africa, witnessed this first hand…