Published 3 March 2015
The FPD award for excellence in community engagement is awarded annually to the employee who has made the most significant contribution towards FPD’s community engagement. The 2014 prize was awarded to Sharon Ngomane, Mgozi shares her story.
Sharon is a community health nurse from a rural village in Bushbuckridge. She has a speciality in Primary health care nursing science and worked in the primary healthcare setting since she qualified as a nurse. Her love for community development motivated her to further her studies to Masters Degree level majoring in community health nursing science. She is currently the community technical lead at FPD and she works with a team of 31 people in 4 different districts. The team is made-up of 4 primary healthcare nurses, 9 social workers who also serve as community champions, 2 community coordinators as well as 16 health promotion assistants who are the re-enforcement for community mobilisation in the districts.
“When I joined FPD, the community project was still new so the stream contributed immensely to its success. My job comes with a lot of responsibilities including meeting deadlines supervising and managing a big team. I see this as a positive challenge in my career as it contributes to the development of my Human Resource Management skills” said Sharon Ngomane.
“Receiving the award was a great reward to my contributions in the communities. Before I could learn that I had won, congratulations where coming in from my colleagues and I couldn’t understand what they were talking about until Dr Margot Uys handed me the award at a meeting. I was overwhelmed to learn that there are people observing what I am doing in the work place and it also made me realise that my labour is not in vain. My sincere gratitude goes to my supervisor, Dr Uys and my committed team for all their contributions towards the success of the programme.”
Her motto in life is based on Ecclesiastes 9:10; whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.