“My name is Charles Mehluko Dlamini, I am 62 years old. I was born and raised in a family of 10. I am married and I have 6 children. Life was very hard when growing up. My mother was not stable, she only had money to send my older sisters to school. So l sold vegetables to raise money to be able to go to school. I stopped schooling when I was in Form 3. Even after selling vegetables, there was not enough money. So all the money my mother and I were raising had to go to my sister's school fees.

I then suggested that I try to go and look for a job at the local mining company, Havelock Mine. I was lucky that the supervisors at the mine knew me from selling vegetables to them at their houses. I got the job and l was working as a Store-man for the whole Mine. When I was working at the Mine I met a man named Mr Smith. He encouraged me to go do a course for store-keeping and store-control. He used to give me money during the weekends to go to Mbabane to attend classes for the course. Some of the things that they were teaching us at school, I was already doing at work, so it made it easier to learn. I finished the course the same year and I got my diploma. It was a little difficult returning to the Mine after getting the diploma.

When you come to work with a certificate, expectations are different. Some of the workers were not happy with me returning because they knew I would get a better position than them. Although some of the workers were hating, I continued going about my work and I chose to focus on the job. Then one day the manager started increasing my tasks and my pay. I did not take that opportunity for granted, I worked very hard so that the managers were very pleased. I continued working at the Mine until it was shut down. 

I was jobless for 6 months after the Mine was shut down. Fortunately another man came and took me to work in Matsapha. Life there was very hard, so hard that I only worked there for one year and I decided it’s better to stop. My sister was working as a nurse, we came together and discussed what I could do next. She helped me to buy a van and used it as a for-hire van. I used to park next to the hardware shops so that people could hire me to transport their materials. I did that for about 10 years then I had to come back to Bulembu.

When I returned I was elected to be the chairman of the chief's council. I accepted the position. My role in the community sometimes can be very challenging. It’s so painful to be a leader of people that are in need of many things. Most of them don’t have strong houses, some don’t have money to buy food and some are not even working. That makes my current role difficult at times.

Now my family is attending church at the Christian Life International Bible Church (CLIBC) lead by Pastor Enock. Going to church helps a lot. It's life changing, you start to look at life in a different way. 

I started knowing about Abide Well when Nathan came here with Pastor Enock to tell us his dream and vision he has for our community. We took him to Emkhawulweni to introduce him to the chiefdom and they gave him a warm welcome. That’s when I started knowing of Abide Well and I liked the vision he had for this community. Although I have nothing to give to show my appreciation for what he is doing for us as a community.

I decided to volunteer and join the Abide Well workers when they are building a house or any of the projects they do.

We had a water problem in the community and since it was already Abide Well's vision to improve water systems, he offered help. Another time we were having problems finishing the community bathrooms. Abide Well helped to finish the project.

Abide Well is also helping the Edudusi Primary School by providing food for the children. The school children are going to school happily because they know they will get food at school. At home they might not get food so attendance has improved. 

I would like to thank the supporters of Abide Well for everything they have done for the entire community of Malanda”